Given that this is my fifth semester as a TA, one would think that I shouldn’t experience too many surprises anymore. Well, the biggest surprise was that the teaching style I was using in my coronary lab obviously didn’t work as well in the biomechanics lab. Compared to coronary, where the students participated in one particular activity per lab, biomechanics required them to be engaged in four to five activities per lab. My learning-by-doing approach to teaching often left part of the students confused and caused coordination problems on top of it. Alas, this topic has not been addressed in the seminar. My plan for next semester is to assign each group of students to an activity instead of letting them choose the order in which they want to do them. In addition, I will use the acquired knowledge about the different learning-styles to choose the appropriate assistance for those students who need extra guidance.
Other valuable things I have learned in this seminar are using the available resources (e.g. workshops) more effectively, time management (which still needs improvement) and the enhancement of student writing and reading. Learning about the latter was also very valuable for my own progress in these areas. However, I can’t say that any of the learned things is standing out in my mind. In fact, I’m still struggling with grading. I don’t seem to get a grip on it – it takes way too long, which frustrates me to no end. I can honestly say that grading papers is slowly but surely taking the joy out of teaching.
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