Teaching Fellow Orientation

Today, I begin my career as a graduate student.  Cool.  Except it's a bit weird because today wasn't about being a graduate student.  It was about being a Teaching Fellow.

It's Thursday, September 1st, 2011, and I just got home from an entire day of orientation.  Here's how that shit went down.

I got up around 7 to get ready, deciding at the last minute to completely change my outfit (I wanted to wear something that left my calves bare, so my ace bandages could be a conversation starter, but I didn't want to wear a skirt, and my capris worked with the bandages to make my legs look stubby as hell).  I headed out around 7:40 and immediately caught a bus up to the B line.  As soon as I got to the T stop, a train pulled up, and I was able to get a seat easily.  The ride into BU was smooth.  And that was the end of my public transit luck today.

I got to CAS early and decided to briefly take some notes sitting outside.  I knew we were supposed to give a quick 3-5 minute presentation on the topic of our choice, and I wanted to sketch out an outline of my topic so I could be extra prepared.  Plus, it was a good 20 minutes before I had to be inside.  When I finished, I found the entrance to CAS and walked up four flights of stairs rather than look for an elevator.  A friend had warned me that the 5th floor of CAS was sort of split in two, and that I might have to go back down a couple flights to get to where I needed to go.  Fortunately, I went into the right entrance and walked out of the stairwell to find myself at registration.  I picked up my folder and nametag and headed into the auditorium.

It slowly filled up over the next twenty minutes, but I was relieved to see that I wasn't even remotely the first person there.  A lot of people knew each other; it was an orientation for all new TFs, which included non-first-year students who hadn't been TFs before.  I felt a bit weird because I usually try to strike up conversations in situations like this, but it was difficult to feel comfortable, since it wasn't clear who was a first year student and who wasn't.  Before we got started at 9:00am, a guy sat next to me and struck up a conversation.  He was a first-year as well, in physics, and had gone to BU as an undergrad.  He seemed very nice, and I was kind of relieved to have a conversation with someone.

We then got started for the day, with various deans talking to us about how to teach effectively.  Nothing was really that new for me in terms of the teaching tips.  After working in SAT prep, I err on the side of dressing professionally when I teach; while I'm not going to wear a skirt and heels, or a pants suit in a lab section, I'm certainly going to set an example and be conscious about my outfit choices.

The one thing I did appreciate about the morning session was that everyone was very clear that yes, this is going to be a pain, and yes, you will make mistakes, and no, you don't have to be an expert in whatever class you're teaching.

The biggest rude surprise, though, was that there is apparently a mandatory orientation next Saturday afternoon.  I'm actually quite angry that we weren't told about this already.  Arg!

We had a break during the morning session, and I met another person who's a TF for the same class I am, named K.  She and I grabbed lunch together and went to the same afternoon workshops, where we met some other TFs in biology, Ka. and As.  The workshops were somewhat mediocre.  There were three, and we could only go to two, so we picked the time management workshop and the "nuts and bolts" workshop.  All of the workshops were run by TFs who had been selected by their departments as the best TFs for the past semester.

The time management workshop was very disappointing.  Two of the TFs were late; the two that were there when we got started said that they would basically just tell us some general information about being TFs.  One of them did joke about how he shouldn't have been picked for the time management workshop because he was so bad at it, but other than that, they barely touched on the subject.  They did discuss the importance of setting expectations for students and not letting the class take over your life.  I was hoping for tips on getting the work done effectively so that we can actually manage our time ... they did have some good tips in general, though.

The next workshop, the "nuts and bolts" one, was more about the nitty gritty stuff, like grading and plagiarism (the one I didn't go to was about preparing lesson plans and how to teach, but I learned from other new TFs who went that it was kind of like the time management one, and the TFs didn't talk much about the actual topic).  We talked mostly about plagiarism and difficult students, which was helpful.  We also got a list of resources, like who to contact if we need help with AV stuff.

At this point, the orientation was for all new TFs in all departments.  This was both helpful and not helpful; it was nice to meet TFs from other disciplines, and feel like a part of a strong community, but a lot of the information we got was not relevant to being a biology TF, or at least not for intro biology, which is what I'm teaching.  There was a ton of information that was only relevant if you were teaching discussion sections, and even more that was really only about independently teaching your own class.  It's not that I don't think it's all important; it's just that I gave up my whole day for this orientation, and at least several hours worth of information was utterly irrelevant to me.

After the workshops, all of the biology TFs met up and we walked over to BRB.  When we got there, we all introduced ourselves, and learned a bit about the course we're going to take over the course of the semester, as is required for first year biology TFs.  The other biology TFs are really great, so I think the pedagogy course will actually be somewhat welcome.  Of course, we already have homework for it for tomorrow!

We wrapped up (and by wrapped up, I mean we spent the next two hours) by each teaching the mini-lesson we prepared.  Everyone did a great job, even if we all need a little work.  I'm just remembering back to when I was training for SAT prep, and there were some relatively ineffective teachers.  So it was cool that everyone has a good handle on teaching already.  We finally ended around 5:00pm, and went over to another building, where the barbecue was being held out front, right in front of Comm Ave.

It was nice to hang out and chat.  A., one of the other people who was at my interview weekend, is also at BU and is also a first-year TF, so that was really awesome!  After about an hour of hanging out, a bunch of us headed out.  A. and I got on a B line train which came relatively quickly, but it was seriously packed.  I had hoped that with the Sox game and moving day, most people would either NOT be taking the B line, or if they were, they were getting off the outbound trains at Kenmore.  But nope, crowded as usual.  Woo-frickin-hoo.

The slow T ride was interrupted around Packard's Corner because the driver had to honk at someone and the horn got stuck.  The driver got out to see if she ran over something, but I think it was just the horn getting stuck.  A lot of people got off the train at that point, but I correctly (a first!) guessed that if I stayed on, we'd move soon enough.

I got off at Harvard Ave and spent forever and a day waiting for the bus home.  There were a ton of buses going in the opposite direction, but none in our direction for at least twenty minutes, and at least twenty people were waiting at the stop with me.  When the bus finally arrived, I was able to somehow get on in the back.  Once I was on, I realized why it was so jam-packed: an elderly woman had gotten on the bus with a large, square-ish cart full of cans (I've passed her on the sidewalk before; she's actually a recognizable figure around Harvard Ave/Street).  Because she was up front with her cart, a young woman with a baby in a stroller couldn't use that front space, and was stuck in the back, right before the back steps.  So people were cramming into the "downstairs" portion of the bus, unable to go up the step to the back of the bus.

That plus traffic from moving day?  We were practically crawling.  It was miserable.  By the time I finally got off, I immediately went to the store and grabbed some soda and some candy because arg!!  I Then had trouble changing out of my jeans; my calves were very swollen.  I was very unhappy to see that only one incision didn't break at all; two of them had their scabs broken and torn, and the third one, which has been healing extremely poorly,* was oozing pretty badly.  My legs are in the most pain they've been in for a while today; not only are they swollen and angry from today, but they were already sore this morning from physical therapy yesterday.  I "graduated" to the next band strength at my appointment, and I did two and a half miles on the bike.  Why did I push myself so hard when I knew what the rest of the week would entail?  NO FUCKING CLUE.

Tomorrow, I have actual CM graduate student orientation in the morning until early afternoon, followed by TF orientation take two (for biology TFs only), and then TF lab safety training.  So I'll finally register for classes tomorrow and afterwards, I'll pick up my Terrier card and my T pass.

The plan for the rest of the evening was to do my reading assignment for tomorrow, and to make a list of the classes I know I have to fit into my schedule (the pedagogy course, which is actually just something I have to register for--no set class date/time; the intro bio course I'm TFing labs for, so I can attend lectures; and hopefully orchestra).  But the people upstairs are blasting music with heavy bass, and I want to take a broom to the ceiling.  Or something more violent and less acceptable.  Seriously, it's September 1st, and this is the Boston area.  STUDENTS LIVE HERE.

* This summer, I had calf surgery to treat exercise-induced compartment syndrome.  I'm finished recovering and I've started physical therapy, but I'll be dealing with swelling and numbness for some time longer, and my incisions (especially my left interior incision) have not all been healing very well.