This is probably the first in a short series on my perception on being a Teaching assistant. Hopefully this will be a good place to give my thoughts for a few different thoughts I have from being on both sides of taking a class.
I am a teaching assistant for an intro level programming course at RIT. I have been one for almost a year now and I have become accustomed to the way the teacher I help teaches, the kinds of questions the people come up with, and certain pitfalls from of early level programming. That said, the most difficult thing is remembering what a person should be expected to know and what they probably don't know yet. For example, I had a student ask me a question, which I had to stop and think of the answer for a minute or two, because my normal go to method hadn't been covered by the course. I feel like that is probably the biggest issue in teaching in general, and one of the biggest to overcome in becoming a good teacher.
Another interesting thing is seeing the difference in proficiency that you run into across multiple people doing the same thing. I have a few students that I never need to say anything to because they already either know everything or just catch on quickly enough that they don't need help. On the other hand, there are students who don't quite seem to understand anything that the professor just went over and ask questions about everything. Of course there are also plenty that fall in between.
I think the biggest thing I have noticed is the different ways that students attend class. What I am meaning is, how are they handling class time. I can see in every student is different ways that I have been a part of class at one point or another. It really is eye-opening seeing yourself in the people you are working with and realizing that you were there at one point. Overall, I am enjoying my time and I have several students that are fun to interact with from day to day. I hope this continues for a while more.
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