My first Office Hours as a TA
First, 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
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!
