Last week I spent three and a half days in the Syracuse University all-university teaching assistant orientation. I didn’t have very high expectations, but it wasn’t half bad, and served as a good refresher for the education courses I took long ago at Alma. It also placed teaching into a university context, focusing on undergraduates as opposed to the middle schoolers I worked with in undergrad. The orientation sessions provided some food for thought about what lies ahead when I start teaching, which will not be this semester.
The TA orientation also reminded me why I took those undergrad education courses in the first place; I really enjoy teaching. Really. In the microteaching exercise, we were videotaped giving a 5-minute presentation and then underwent peer review from the rest of our group members. Over half of the little slips of paper with compliments and constructive criticisms for my mini lesson on persona design used the words “engaged” or “engaging.” I’m enthusiastic about my studies and about teaching, and it’s completely apparent - and apparently appealing. We cannot always be passionate about the material we teach or even about teaching, but it makes a valuable contribution to the classroom climate when we can.
Rather ironically, some of the constructive criticism targeted the usability of my slides. The irony is that I usually agonize for far too long over the aesthetics of the slide presentation; just this once, I decided not to obsess over design. This just goes to show the importance of good design! I also didn’t move around enough, staying behind the podium most of the time. This will be easily remedied once I get a remote “clicker” to advance slides. After watching our collective microteaching presentations, it was clear that such a device would have made an improvement in teaching style for most of us.
During the last day of the TA orientation, I had a strange and infuriating experience at the SU Bookstore. I went in to look around and kill a little time before the final event, and happened to find a textbook that I’ll need this semester. The bookstore refused to sell it to me because I don’t yet have a student ID - the school won’t issue it until next week. I’m just astonished that I wasn’t allowed to buy a book, and certainly won’t be returning to buy any textbooks there in the future.