My first Office Hours as a TA
Posted in me! on January 27th, 2010 by nathan – Be the first to commentFirst, it appears that my post on Monday was some kind of “breaking news” or something, as it attracted quite a few commenters who were suffering the same problem. Odd.
Over Winter Break, I filled out an application to become a Computer Science TA, thinking that, like the last time I applied, I would be overlooked. However, when I got back to school, I received an email only hours before the first day of classes: I was picked to be a TA for W1004, Introduction to Computer Science. [Pronounced Ten-Oh-Four.]
Well, I’ve already had two TA meetings (there are eight of us), sent a rad email to the students for whom I serve as the primary TA, and yesterday, I held my first Office Hours, hoping that students would show up, but cognizant of the fact that their first assignment isn’t due for nearly a week and that like I tend to do, they will likely procrastinate.
About forty five minutes into the Office Hours, having received no students yet having made serious headway on my Operating Systems homework, I received these tweets from Brody:
They never come to office hours for that class
Really. You should expect two kids, later in the semester. The desperate failure, and the smarmy A+++ kid.
I mean, keep in mind: 1004 students are learning how to attend college so they are clueless in more than just OO
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Of course, only seconds later, a first student walked in the door. “Is this the TA help room?” He asked. I responded in the affirmative, as did the other random TA for some other class also presumably without students who care about Office Hours. He introduced himself to me as one of my students (not just a 1004 student but one in my mini-group) and asked a few questions about the class itself.
It was just an introduction, but honestly, a welcome distraction from OS homework and general boredom. At the time I think I was doing a Sporcle quiz as a distraction, so even though there was no Java to teach, a real human being was an upgrade.
Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to my future Office Hours. Hopefully, Brody is wrong and students will take advantage of my help. If not, at least I’ll get along fine on my OS homework!
I went to the eye doctor for the first time in two years last week. It had been two years because that’s how long it took for me to run out of contacts from my last appointment. The good news is that I don’t have any kind of crazy eye disease or ophthalmological emergency (not that I was expecting one) but the bad news is that my prescription had to go up two more notches.
Recently at lunch in the JTS cafeteria, my friend Adam asked how one goes about making Beer Can Chicken. Amidst the discussion of marinating and sitting a chicken on top of a can of beer, I realized that actually I use a lot of beer in my cooking, if only because it’s unbelievably delicious. [It helps that I always have a
The full recipe is available on my
Just look at those onions. Delicious. Permit me a brief digression: in addition to onions, I’m also a huge fan of garlic. I put garlic powder or garlic cloves in nearly everything I cook. I love the stuff. Thus, when I saw the
In addition to the chicken and onions, what makes May’s April Chicken so good is the corn, the tomatoes, the beer, and the whole jar of Salsa. (I used salsa from Fredericksburg, TX this time – for those who care, I avoid salsa from anywhere but the Great State of Texas, out of principle.) Here pictured is the simmering mixture, nearly ready to grace the world with its deliciousness. Ah.
Last night, I opened the first bottle of Fireplace Contraband #2, my second homebrew creation. The beer is a doppelbock, about which
The other major part of my room is my bookshelf. It takes up a large part of one wall and in addition to having things on the shelves, I also have things taped to either side.
years back, and a sign from Columbia Catering that says “Home Fried Potatoes.”
The first shelf of my bookshelf contains a bunch of books (no shocker there, I know), including my six Sci-fi short stories collection, The Book of Basketball (
The next shelf is less exciting. It contains my excess soap, a hard drive that I use as a hammer, and a bunch of school books. It also has my Cowboys hat, and another Columbia catering sign on a small metal cube. This sign says “Whole Milk” and was left behind in a class this year, so I acquired it.
The other exciting shelf (there’s two others, but they don’t have anything important on them – just papers and water bottles) contains a whole mess of stuff! In addition to my
It’s pretty common for people to decorate their walls with LP covers, and at least two of my friends in this building do so. However, each of them has a ton of LP covers, while I have picked a specific two to frame and hang on the wall over my TV.
Levine of Maroon 5. I picked it up in Ireland when I was on vacation with my friend Daniel G during my year in Israel. I saw it and couldn’t resist, thanks to my love of Kanye, records, and that song.
Speaking of flags, another cool thing on my wall is this Texas-flag-adorned potholder. I don’t use it for pots, because we have other nasty potholders in my kitchen, instead I use it for decoration. It was a gift from Daniel (not the same Daniel as above) in my first year of college when he came to visit. Because of its placement, it’s often the first thing I see when I open my door to enter my room.
Finally, the most important part of my room is the giant Texas flag (4’x6’) that hangs over my bed.
So the next part of my room I’d like to discuss is a small strip of photographs on my right wall near my window. There’s twelve photographs, and each one has a story: [from left to right, top to bottom]
Those who enter my apartment are almost always immediately underwhelmed with the (lack of) decorations around the common room. On one wall is a giant picture of a scene from Live Free or Die Hard, and in another corner is a shelf filled with empty beer bottles. Other than that, however, the common room is boring.