dear gods, it's two days in a row

[katekat]

i won't tell if you don't.

i had the most scrumptious breakfast with two friends - out of course, because LA does nothing great if not it's breakfast type things - of salmon-benedict,(poached eggs, house cured salmon & wilted frisee on a shredded potato pancake with hollandaise) at this place called Square One.  The memory of the food is making me hungry again.

And as far as I can determine I'm set up to get to school tomorrow and do my official TA orientation (yay) and I will probably even be paid on time and everything (another yay), so that's two things starting to get themselves sorted out.  Not that I have a syllabus from the actual prof, but I probably wont' get that until classes start (this according to both him and other friends who have TAed for him).

Sadly, I was commenting to samanthahirr, that I'm one of those "kind of strict but eventually kind of ok" TAs. I used to think I was going to be sorta mother-ly, but I save that for my friends. I'm more the 'expects a lot and wants you to think because I assume you've got a brain' kind of teacher. That's a little frightening, given when I've had those kinds of professors in the past I've had both good and bad experiences with them.

What kind of TAs did you like when you had them? The ones that let you leave early, or the ones who make you talk even when you hated it?

I will admit, I like being able to control mediate a discussion. Really I do ;)

Oh, and apparently I left my cabin light on in my car and drained my battery, so I got to buy a new one of those today too. Awesome. Oh well, at least my car isn't going to die on me tomorrow when I have to get up at the crack of dawn to go to school.

It's so weird that i'm back on my LA schedule where 8 am seems so early, when in Japan I was waking up at 6:30 am without a problem. But the dawn comes around earlier there too, and I think that's part of it. Sun? If you're listening to this? Could you just come up earlier tomorrow for LA just for me? yeah, didn't really think that was going to work, but it can't hurt can it?

Comments

[futuransky]

I live around the corner from Square One, it's the best! I knew that was where you were eating from the description of the food... :)

[katekat]

so do i!

and it's memorable right? even though they aren't reinventing the wheel, they do scrumptious breakfast.

[moirariordan]

I did one semester as a TA, but since my school was small and my professor was a huge ditz, I was more of a substitute - as in, I led class when she didn't show up. But omg, leading class discussion was so tough. It was an entry-level lit class, and so of course nobody talked. One day, I just let them go off on all these random topics because at least they were talking.

But I tend to like TAs/teachers that expect a lot from me. I perform better, and I respect them more than the ones who are all like, whatever, let's just watch a movie today, lol! I had one prof that used to make us write these huge long papers and then not read them (like we knew this for a fact) and just grade us based on her opinion of our work so far. Lots of students loved this because it meant they could bullshit the paper, but I loathed her so much.

[katekat]

oh that last one? NOT COOL. to ask you guys to do work and then to completely ignore it? frustrating. I had that happen to me last semester, sortof, because the prof's only response to my paper was a one word, "fantastic". great word, but one word? for 17 pages?

and thanks for the thoughts on the rest - i agree, the cricket-chittering silence of a class that doesn't have anything to say is painful painful painful indeed. i was lucky because the prof i worked with for the first couple of semesters was amazing at trying to ensure people started off with something to say (mostly by giving homework, but hey, it worked).

[moirariordan]

I would usually pass out discussion questions and make them get into small groups and go through them. Then I could walk around and join random groups, and then when I brought them back together in a large group I could be all, "So, Joe, I heard that super interesting thing you said about that one character, care to share?" I was sneaky like that. And if all else failed I could just call on people, so.

But one semester was enough for me to figure out that teaching is not for me, lol. Maybe when I'm older? ha.