It’s Weekly Roundup time! I’m not cooking this week, so I have to find something else to write about. I wanna talk a little bit about what it’s like to be a Teaching Assistant for a college professor.

Being a Teaching Assistant is both exhausting and rewarding. I work with students on a daily basis, but I also sit in class and take notes. I interact with the professor and the students. One of my main responsibilities is to help lead the study sessions. When we get to a test time, rather than having class that day, the other TA and I are responsible for answering any questions the students may have based on the study guide or things we covered in class. We are not technically supposed to discuss the stuff in the book, but we’ve been asked about it a few times. This leads to a pretty quick Google search to be able to give them a satisfactory answer.

Another thing we do this semester is grade the extra credit assignments. (I actually have a stack of papers staring me in the face right now). I need to talk about these assignments. The prompt was pretty easy, as were the guidelines. The main guideline I want to highlight is that this EXTRA CREDIT essay had to be 1-2 pages typed in length. I have two that are just leaving me at a loss for words. One of them was handwritten on card stock. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it was mainly written in hot pink pen, with purple at the end. Another one was about 1 1/2 pages typed, but this person put an entire title page in APA format with an author’s note and a COPYRIGHT. Again, this is an extra credit assignment, and she put a copyright on it. I’m at a loss with these two.

Being a TA is never boring. It is preparing me for being a real teacher, and I am grateful for the opportunity. But it is another responsibility on my list. I love it though, and am so grateful for the opportunity to work with professors in the History Department. I learn a lot from them, and I am truly fortunate.

So that’s what being a TA is like. I take notes, help students, prepare students, and grade some assignments! Hope this gives you a better insight!