Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Is anybody really listening?

I like teaching and I like being a teaching assistant in general. Students at Northwestern are pretty smart, so it's not so much a challenge of getting them to understand the material, but to get them as excited about it as you are. And yes, the evolution of homomer protein assembly can get me pretty excited, especially when you throw some mass spec data in there. Oh man. (Levy ED et al. 2008, Assembly reflects evolution of protein complexes, if you're interested) I did two different discussion sessions today on this paper and it's so interesting to see the different responses that two different classes will give you. One class can follow your questioning and reasoning so well, and the other, well, let's say there were a few blank stares. Did I really present the material that differently? Are they just acclimated to the other TA's teaching style? I'll probably never figure it out. And I'll take hundreds of blank stares as long as there are those few moments where suddenly the light comes on and there's the "ah ha" moment. Those are great moments.
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3 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 21, 2009 at 6:20 PM

    "...And I'll take hundreds of blank stares as long as there are those few moments where suddenly the light comes on and there's the "ah ha" moment. Those are great moments. "

    And you will be a great teacher!

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  2. MichelleFebruary 12, 2010 at 1:36 PM

    Oprah has popularized the phrase "ah ha moment," and I am tired of it. Just like I'm tired of people "shoring" up every god damn thing. I think Palin coined that one.

    Did the discussion section you had first understand it better? I always thought that I explained things better the first time and then once the first class got it, I didnt explain things as well in the second class because my brain had already clicked into "they get it." But I was a crappy TA, so, whatever.

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  3. AmyFebruary 10, 2011 at 11:59 AM

    Hmm, that's an interesting question. I'm not sure about my discussion sections. In my lab sections, I was definitely better at running the labs the second time through. Much more efficient and all that.

    Shore up is probably one of my least favorite expressions of ALL TIME. I'm ok with "ah-ha" moment though. Definitely not as played out.

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