Tuesday hosted two minor accomplishments: the weekly TA meeting was by far the fastest one ever with little tangents, and class discussion went really well. I felt confident, especially since I was really helping some of the students. Then Thursday, I completely shut down. Everything just hit me. I couldn't focus and couldn't give the students proper attention during discussion. That's pretty much the only thing I really have to do, and I failed at that. Woops. The transition from vacation mode to school mode was oddly difficult. I shall do what I am supposed to do at a regular job and leave all the personal stuff outside the door and put my game face on. Time to get my meditation on and start making things happen.
This week, we actually taught! Just kidding. We always teach, sometimes. In Tuesday's lesson, the students had an in-class assignment in which they had to bring dead constructions to life. I thought it was the easiest assignment ever, but some students found it difficult. Many thought they had it, but when I asked the, to show me what they had, they were changing good constructions to worse ones! The fact that I succeeded in helping them learn something made me really happy. It's good for my ego. A student made me realize that when it is time for me to go around and check on students, I tend to go to the students I know best first. She told me, jokingly I hope, to go away and interact with students I don't know. Funny thing is I don't know that particular student that well, but I know the others in her group. Either way, I guess I should stop going there first. My interesting week included establishing what kind of relationship I, as the TA, should have with the students. In between classes last week, I decided to interact with a student I wasn't that fond of so I can develop some sort of relations with him and understand him a little better. He may or may not have taken it the wrong way, so I had to find the proper wording so I wouldn't offend him. It wasn't easy, since it took him a while to get the point. I sincerely wish that situation is now in the clear, and I have learned that I must work on how my interactions with others should be as clear as I intend for them to be.
Yes, I said it. Being "mean" can be fun, cool and sometimes the best thing to do. Honesty can sound harsh, but does that really mean being "mean?" So far, that's one thing being a TA has taught me.
It's not what you say, but how you say it.
One way I learned this was when I noticed a student "double-dipping," which is frowned upon in the journalism department. Pretty much, it means you can't use one assignment for two separate grades, especially in separate classes. So, I emailed this student to explain why this was wrong. I asked the individual to take it down and write another blog post, and I said that I would talk to the teacher about it. Although the teacher didn't care much, it took a lot for me to send that email. I didn't want to get the student in trouble, but if I hadn't said anything to the professor, I would've felt like I was lying. Also, I wanted the student to trust me as someone that is there to help, but I wanted the professor to trust that I could take initiative and show responsibility. All in all, I think that I did the right thing without being mean about it or compromising anyone's trust. I felt really good about myself after that, especially when the student showed appreciation for my efforts. Another test of this was when the professor put me in charge of the discussion when students read their stories aloud. [Side note: The professor lied when he said he would leave his commentary at a minimum.] Not only did I have to put certain students on the spot, but I had to get the students to participate in feedback as well. I wanted it to be random, but I also did not want all of the people whose stories I knew were going to be good go first so that those whose stories weren't that great would not feel that bad about it. Everyone had some sort of excuse before reading their stories, like "Oh, I wrote this last minute," or "It's not that good." It annoyed me after it became a routine, especially because I knew that we wouldn't be able to get through everyone's, and they were wasting time. So, I cut them off to say, "Yeah, yeah. Just read." Everyone laughed. But it was true! Maybe kind of rude, but they really shouldn't be ashamed of their work. So, the teacher already knows I can get quite sassy. However, I think it can be advantageous, especially in the classroom. I just have to balance between being honest without being rude and being honest but still encouraging. That day, I honestly wondered what the teacher would do without me, since he's afraid of being mean. He shouldn't be. For your entertainment: An example of a mean minion
This week, we learned how to package a huge load of facts into a small article without leaving anything important out. Through the hologram example, the class and I saw how quotes should not be the story. They should provide a scene to set your story or complement the story you already have. Too many quotes can take over your story. It's more newspaper-like than magazine-like. In newspaper, it is supposed to be the voices of the people you are interviewing, since you are unbiased. In magazine, it is your story and your voice and your research. Quotes should be minimal in quantity and short. They should not be overwhelmed with words. Like Cyphers said, "They should be thought of as the exclamation point on the fact."
Hearing and seeing Neil on Tuesday made me more hopeful about why I am here. He made me hopeful for internships and for success in my future career. He also confirmed for me the necessity of learning multimedia and the advantage of taking the "dirty jobs" first.
I also learned about Geek magazine, which is actually very interesting and informative about today's culture. It made me think about the terminology because nowadays so many people classify themselves with the word "geek," but there are different types of geeks. The magazine focuses more on the original classification on it.
So how did I do with content and quotes here, Cyphers?
Q: Why have I never been taught how to interview in previous journalism classes? A: I do not know.I did not even realize it until Thursday's class. I just started reporting, without any guidance or techniques. I learned some things from experience, but I am happy I was present during this class. I knew to avoid yes or no questions, but never really considered that questions starting with "Do you think," "Should you" or "Have you" as part of that category. I also realized that many of my interviews lack the follow-up questions "How many?" and "How often?" Progress shall be made. Q: Why is every journalist I know a procrastinator? A: I think every journalism teacher can attest to that. Cyphers enlightened me on the fact that we like to put things off until we are forced to worry about them. Sometimes, it works in our benefit. Other times, we set ourselves up for failure. Q: Why didn't I know who Nikola Tesla was? A: Doesn't matter, I guess. I know who he is now, all thanks to tangents. Q: How often should I be updating my blog? A: Way more often than once a month. I'm a slacker. Q: Let's talk about my weird devotion to this class. A: Well, when I feel like distracting myself from doing other work, I log into Moodle and peruse assignments due. Today, I put off editing my story for APN because I was curious about their blog posts, even though I do not have to grade nor view them. However, it did inspire me to get this post out of the way. Now, it's time to check it off my to-do list. By the way, I hope you don't like tuna. Good thing I don't. I hear 59% of the tuna distributed in the U.S. is not really tuna. Oh well...
I heard someone say that, and I fully agree. This week, I learned how to give quick feedback without sounding harsh. It is important to sound as encouraging as possible. Cyphers also taught me that using students' names on the internet violates their protection rights, so I kind of broke the law last week. It's all fixed now, and it won't happen again. Besides the interesting grammar lesson about the phrase "down pat" and him directing me to use the DEC as a source for my story, I learned that we cannot have short meetings about the lesson plans. It probably will never happen because we always go off on random tangents. I think I taught Cyphers he should just leave erasing the whiteboard to me. Now time for some fun: Me taking attendance:
This week, the students learned all about finding good story ideas. They learned the basic elements of a story. I learned that just because they read the book and answered the questions doesn't really mean that they have it down pat quite yet. Class happens smack in the middle of the day, so the typically outspoken students don't really participate much. On Thursday, it hit me while I was handing back their work that I had only really remembered half of their names. However, I do not think that I did that bad because no one complained about me giving them the wrong paper. I got the hang of it; it just took me longer than I had expected. I always hated the classroom. I remembered why when I heard a bunch of the students inconspicuously tapping their fingertips against the keys and clicking the mice as they submitted the roundups during the lecture. Talk about rude. Just because I can't see their faces doesn't mean I didn't know who they were, either. It was interesting giving the students feedback, since it is something I have never done before. There were only a couple that completely missed the questions at hand, which shows they rushed through the work. I put more time and effort into the feedback for students that put more time and effort into their assignments. I called out the students who submitted in the work during class as politely as I could sound. A couple of students got back to me saying that they had submitted the assignment beforehand, but edited it during class. I told them not to do that because I can only see the last time-stamp, and that defeats the purpose of a deadline. Giving feedback took a lot longer than I had thought it would as well, even when not every student submitted something. Giving feedback through Moodle is quite simple, yet tedious. After meeting with Cyphers to go over the lesson plan and being in the classroom, I noticed that I need to be more comfortable speaking to the class and not just to the instructor. This includes looking at them, acknowledging them and participating more in class discussion, even if it means interrupting Cyphers.
