Research Paper

Writing annotated bibliographies and developing a strong research paper is one of the most important parts of UNIV 111, and 112. When I was in 111 and 112 myself, I was not particularly fond of writing annotated bibliographies. I perceived them at unnecessary extra work that I could write a good paper without.
It was not until I moved on to English 200 that I realized the importance of the work Professor Lucas made us do. For my research paper, I had to write a minimum of 12 Annotated bibliographies in order to learn more about my topic to develop a coherent argument. Many of the students in my class had a very hard time during that period of the semester. They either had not taken UNIV 111 or 112 yet, or had not put much effort into it when they did. I found it fairly simple to perform these assignments because I was pushed to do so many in the former semester.
I had to talk about my experience with research paper to the my student in 112 this semester. I think I was able to tell them what I wish someone had told us when I was in their place.
I told them that it may seem difficult, or too much to do at this point, but that they would eventually see the benefits when they had to do it in coming semesters.
I hope they take their assignments in 111 and 112 as stepping stones to their future classes.
I wish them all the best in everything they do in the future.

Impressive Touches :)

It is my favorite part of class when I see students take something that either professor Lucas, or Hayden and I have said to heart. They listen to it, think about it, and show us that they have been paying attention in classes that follow. The 12:00 class has been a living example of such great qualities for the past couple of semesters. I have recently been taking some photos of our activities in class however, to show just how elegant and careful our students are. They are the future of VCU!

One of the assignments that Professor Lucas required the students to do was to present on the Vietnam memorial, a controversial issue that has a few main points that were inevitably coming up in every group's presentation. Having to deal with such topic with certain information that most of the students would probably be presenting on as well requires the students to go the extra mile to make their presentation memorable. All of the groups in the 12:00 class did a fantastic job, but one group stood out to Professor Lucas, Hayden, and I because of one small touch; they dressed up.

A Clean Slate

Today I am writing as I look out the window at the new batch of snow that came to visit us to remind us that the cold is yet to be gone. I have never wanted warmer weather so much in my life.

The first three weeks of school have passed and the Focused Inquiry class I help teach gets better everyday. Flight was great, discussing it was greater, and I must say I have grown a bit jealous from my students who got to read two novels that I found to be much more interesting than the two I had to read when I was a freshman. I hope they know how lucky they are.
over the past few weeks we have gone over many discussions of Flight, its content, its author, what it means and does not mean and how it relates to us on a personal level. All of this has gone exceptionally well, the students in my class are full of insight, interesting opinions, thoughts, and ambitions. In my blog today though, I would like to focus on the two opportunities Hayden (my fellow TA) and I have gotten to do.

On a Wednesday last week, Professor Lucas had to go out of town and Hayden and I were left to be in charge of the classroom for the first time this semester. It went great, we discussed more of Flight and showed them some videos on YouTube. It was a more laid back atmosphere and they seemed to enjoy it.

The second time we got a chance to do this was today, Friday, Feb. 5th. This time however we were in charge of the whole class period from beginning to end. We were planning to show them a video of an interview Sherman Alexie had gone through on the Colbert Report. Unfortunately though. the video would not play. so we ended up just talking about the interview without actually showing it to them. which again, went amazingly well. after that we just talked about different blogs out there and how some were turned into books because they were so interesting. we found this particularly interesting because we were talking about how books were fading out and that new technology was taking its place. yet we turned a blog into a book because we found it interesting enough...

something to think about :)

Approaching Semester.

So there is about one week left before the Spring Semester of 2010 begins, and I figured i should get a head start on writing in the blog again to get in the habit and make this a successful project.
I have been reading Flight by Sherman Alexie, and let's be honest, SO MANY CURSE WORDS!!!!!
so that's all I could think until I reached the part when he talks about how he thought it was funny that some people are intimidated and offended by curse words. and how you could technically make up a word, use it when your angry, and have it become a curse word. so it really makes no sense to view them the way we do... from that point on, I had no problem reading :D Although I still don't think I would use them personally...

On a different note, I am looking forward to this spring semester, I am looking forward to being the best TA I can be and to help everyone do their best.
I miss seeing everyone and I can't wait to be back in front of the class and to discuss this new awesome book. :)

End of the Semester

The Fall semester is over and I will be TAing on my own in the Spring semester of 2010. I am looking forward to it but I am also aware that it is probably going to require me to be more engaged in class affairs now that I am the only one available for the students to talk to other than Professor Lucas.
The last week of class was interesting because Professor Lucas had to be out of town due to some circumstances, and the other TAs and I were able to pretty much run the final class periods while the students gave their final presentations.
This was a very good experience for us because we felt that we were the main supporters for them and that we really played a prominent role in their freshman year.

adding up what happened

in my last post, I forgot to mention the two things that are definitely required from us as TAs ( for this semester at least)...
1) attend a weekly meeting with our Professor to discuss what happened in the past three classes, go over lesson plans, and give suggestions.
2) a monthly meeting with the people responsible for this program and for others who are doing the same thing I am, where we discuss how the program as a whole is doing, what we think about it, and what can be improved.

we have also been working to set some guidelines for how we think the program should run next semester, and what future TAs should know. in other words, e need to tell student why they would want to be TAs, and what to expect if they accept the offer.

I have recently found out that the two TAs that had been with me for this entire semester will not be with me next semester because of their schedule conflicts. I actually registered for 17 credits, so I am not sure how that will play out considering this is the largest number of credits I have registered for since I got to VCU. I intend to keep everything as it is because I really do not want to pull away from the TAing experience just yet. next semester I am hoping to have a larger role in the class room more often as well as having more input into our weekly lesson plans.
I love the class I TA for they are so respectful and smart. and I would really hate to switch sections so I made sure I did not have to. :)

I am looking forward to TAing again next semester :)

more updates in upcoming posts

Focused Inquiry TAing... first thoughts

when Professor Lucas asked me to be her TA at the end of Spring semester 2008 I was really excited and honored that she had chosen me to do it.
I really had no idea what to expect because I had never been a TA before, but the idea excited me, so I accepted.
I accepted the offer for many reasons;
first of all, It is a really great feeling to know that you are a role model for an entire class of freshmen in their first encounters with college. It puts some pressure on you to be the best you can for them as well as giving you a sense of accomplishment for always helping others and playing the role of a friend as well as a mentor.
also, no one can deny how good a teacher assistant internship would look on your transcript.

the tasks the other two TAs and I had to perform in the first semester were not complicated nor did they require a lot of time. it is hard to say what exactly would be required from a UNIV TA because each professor tailors it differently than the other.

to explain it in the simplest form possible, a FI TA is a person who serves as a model for the rest of the class through out the semester, answering questions they may have about the class and the assignments, offering encouragement and support, and giving that final boost of confidence that will ease the new Freshmen into the college experience.

in the upcoming posts; I will talk about the experiences I have gone through being a TA.