Signed up to be a TA for this sem and with tutorials starting next week, I am kinda feeling quite nervous about it. I am trying to prep for the tutorial 1 week in advance to make sure I am well-prepared for the first lesson, but the thought of not being a good enough TA makes me feel nervous for the class. Any tips?? what else can I do to feel more confident and be a good TA that my students can respect and learn from
Perhaps an idea you can explore is to practice a tutorial to your friends. It doesn't matter if they don't understand the content, just practice speaking out! Try to evaluate your own clarity and whether you can deliver the content smoothly. If your friends understand what you are saying, then you might get the added benefit of feedback about whether you conveyed the material clearly. I once heard my own TA practiced giving his tutorials to his online gaming friend over Discord -- so while everyone else was gaming away, my TA was just repeating his tutorial. It will be awkward at first, embrace this awkwardness. Hopefully, you can be more confident after little successes! All the best :)
Really appreciate that you care for your students’ learning and that’s much of the way to being a good TA already :-) Like the above commenter said, practise out loud, and practising with a friend is even better - much like how you would prepare for tech interviews haha. To go more into preparation, try to preempt what questions students might raise about the tutorial as well as the lesson material in general. This would likely help you be more confident as well. And don’t worry if you can’t answer some questions on the spot - that’s fine hahah we are all human and you can’t be expected to know everything (also sometimes students ask the craziest questions). Better to do your own research/ask the prof then answer the student later on, rather than half-assing an answer that might be wrong. All the best :-)
How to be more confident: Convince yourself that you are the smartest person in the room. Imagine all your students are just your friends that don't know how to study for this mod(bonus if u can do what the other commenter said and practice in front of your friends). You can handle everything that your students throw at you(and if you can't, just say you'll answer them later). If you are comfortable, your students will feel comfortable! Be relaxed and you will do fine! It's just another school day :)
Quick tips: 1. Remember that you have a fall back option :-). When you are stumped, just frankly say so. Take note of the question, check with course instructor and follow-up with students. Knowing that I can say "ah, I dont know that. let me check with the lecturer and get back to you." remove significant anxiety when I was a tutor ;-). It is more damaging to pretend you know the answer and mess it up. As long as you follow-up promptly afterward, students are actually ok with that. 2. Engage the students. Tutorials are not meant to be a mini-lecture. Get the class to response and bounce ideas. I use a simple trick to open up the class: Carpet bombing. Ask everyone a simple question (a step in solving the question, a definition needed in the question, possible alternative, etc etc).i.e. you drive the direction of the question, but students help to solve and piece together the final solution. It's ok that the student may be stumped sometime (I even jokingly let them "arrow someone" to help, or get a "crowd answer" etc). Make it clear that there is nothing at stake here and it is ok to say "dunno" or wrong answer. After a while, class will open up and respond. All the best! Enjoy the teaching :-).
