Tales of TAing

So I had my first TA meeting of the semester. I’m TAing a second-year, introductory Molecular Biology lab. My particular lab section will be in a bigger laboratory where a second section, TA’d by another TA, will also be taught. So me and this other TA have to coordinate our pre-lab talks and quizzes etc.

They’re pairing inexperienced TA’s (me, as I’ve never TA’d this course) and experienced TAs in these joint sections. So during the meeting, I introduced myself to the other TA that I’m paired with.

He is the very epitome of a dude-bro. I can’t even describe to you the look on his face when he realized he was paired with me. Kind of a combination of “I’ve stepped in dog shit” and “disappointing christmas present”. He got out of there as quick as he could. Which did wonders for my feeling of self-worth.

This is going to be a fuuuuuuun semester.

No, student. The assignment is due at the start of class. I can’t “go through it” with you 10min before class to make sure it’s “OK”. And that response doesn’t mean you can stand there, reciting your answers asking me if its “acceptable”.

Gonna be yanking the ovaries out of dead fruit flies all day.

I lead a glamorous life.

I can already tell a large portion of my work TAing this studio is just going to be calming the other TA down and reassuring him that he is capable. Ohhhhh maaannnn.

Getting a room full of white kids to talk about Ntozake Shange productively feels much like pulling teeth out of a particularly uncooperative hippopotamus. 

Nothing like explaining how we white people still benefit from slavery first thing on a Friday morning. 

qotd.

the professor I’m TAing for, during a presentation on climate change: “Here’s a DVD I made… I watched An Inconvenient Truth but it had too much Al Gore.  So I edited him out.  The movie’s now only 60 minutes long.”

i was reading porn in my ta period and sorta forgot where i was and i started blushing a bit at it and my teacher walked by while im on her ta compy and i changed tabs really quickly and couldnt stop giggling at how much of a dork i am until she left. im perfect guys.

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