Fun Facts (aka Tips?) about Being a Teaching Assistant (TA)

1. You think about clothes you were wearing on Monday, what you will be wearing today, and start looking at what you can wear on Friday.

2. You suddenly have to get along with all sorts of technology: touch screen, scantron sheets, PC, VHS and DVD players, Blackboard, projector, large screens, and microphones!

3. When you don't get along with technology, you do your best and laugh at yourself.

True story:
A TA is struggling with a microphone that does not work. 200 students are looking at her anxiously. She could just wing it and move on, but she decides to try the mic again and again. Finally, to her astonishment, the mic works! So confidently (outside, but sweating inside), she says: When I was little, I wanted to be a singer. So this is my opportunity of using the microphone. I won't miss that of course!
Students laughed.

4. You get to talk about the class professor when s/he is not around. You'd better talk about nice things, hahaha...

True story:
TA (to 200 students): Don't you just love Professor Cooper's sense of humor?
Students: (some laughing, some smiling, a lot nodding their heads, a lot saying enthusiastically, "uh-huh!")
TA: I want to be like him when I grow up.
Students: (a lot of them are smiling, a lot are laughing, too.)

And, you get to tell your professor that you did this (and that you appreciate him/her). The world will look even more beautiful.

5. You get to do things that matter! Discussing how this world works, how there are inequalities all over the world, how it could be a better place, and how your students and yourself can contribute to the project.