My Experience as a Teaching Assistant

  05/22/2023 - 4:00 Today marks the start of the third week of Senior Project, meaning things are starting to wind down. I shadowed Ben during F and G blocks today, and both blocks were used for students to present their podcasts. I feel like helping Ben grade these podcasts really helped me learn about the specifics of grading, as I got to see him go through the process first hand. G block went pretty well, with most groups being prepared to present and presenting detailed overviews of their podcast. F block was more confusing, as students didn’t really understand the assignment as they had been looking for it in the wrong place on myProctor. We figured out the issue relatively quickly, and students were given 10 minutes to remedy their presentations. Unfortunately, presentations were still pretty rough, especially compared to G block. I also spent an hour this afternoon preparing for Express Fest, which entailed making my tri-color board, selecting pieces of work to display, and writ

  Weekly Reflection 2 (05/21/2023): This week I mainly focused on creating a lesson plan and then delivering that lesson plan to two blocks of US History. My lesson plan was on the topic of the Space Race, and the lesson was a short lecture followed by the students reading two sources and writing a short analytical writing response. I definitely could have done a better job during the first block (G), and after students began working Ben gave me some feedback, which was to be more assertive and to almost embellish the importance of my topic. I feel like a did a decent job implementing that feedback with F block, as my lecture was longer, more focused on the competition between the Soviets and Americans, and concluded with a detailed description of the assignment.  The prompt I cultivated for students to respond to was “What are some of the political implications (conclusions that can be drawn) of Apollo 11, and the space race as a whole?”. The only requirements were two pieces of e

  05/20/2023 Today I led a US history class in both F block and G block. Each class started with me lecturing briefly, then students were dismissed to read two sources and write a short analytical writing response. While students cultivated these I worked on this blog post, as well as some mock Official Notes I have due at the end of this weekend. G block was first, and so that was my first test on how well I could lecture. Both Ben and I feel as though I could have delivered my lecture more strongly, as I kind of downplayed it since I’m a student. My feedback was mainly around formalizing what I am doing because as a teacher you need to both command the attention of your students and almost embellish how important the topic is. I also spent two hours this afternoon working on the mock Official Notes and my 2nd weekly reflection. Hours Today: 4 Hours Total: 51

  05/19/2023 - 3:00 I shadowed Ben during G and F blocks today. Class started with students presenting the first 2 or 3 minutes of their podcasts, then got feedback from Ben and me. I think this was a good exercise for me in terms of delivering feedback in a way that helps students learn, meaning in a constructive way. I also took note of where students were in regards to completing their podcasts, as I have to write mock Official Notes this weekend on 6 students. I’m also going to be doing so mock grading this weekend, as my lesson plan for tomorrow involves a short writing assignment. I also worked for two hours this afternoon finalizing my lesson plan and brushing up on the Space Race and the moon landing, so I’ll be able to lecture effectively tomorrow. Hours Today: 4 Hours Total: 47

  05/18/2023 - 4:00 I woke up early today and read Chapter 6 of Evolving Education , which was on competency-based learning. The main idea of competency-based learning is for students to learn at their own pace, instead of being rushed through or not challenged when working as a class. This helps students want to learn, as when they take things at their speed they are more comfortable. After reading Chapter 6 I headed over to F block, which was another in-class work day. While students continued work on their podcasts I continued working on my lesson plan, which is now complete. I’m going to start class with a short lecture on the Space Race and the Apollo 11 moon landing, then continue to introduce the assignment for class. The assignment is a short writing response answering this question: What are some of the political implications (conclusions that can be drawn) of Apollo 11, and the space race as a whole? Students will be given two sources to quote from while writing this response

05/17/2023 - 8:00 My Wednesday started with G block, which was another in class work day. While students worked on their podcasts I continued to develop my lesson plan, which started with developing the short lecture I plan to begin class with. After class, I continued working on my lesson plan independently for another 3 and a half hours or so, and I now have a rough draft of what my lecture to start class will look like. I also used today to read the next chapter of Evolving Education, which continues to explain what you can do as an educator to help students succeed. I worked for a total of about 4 and a half hours today. Hours Today: 4:30 Hours Total: 38:30