Ever have an embarrassing class as a TA?

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Yorick

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I'm a TA for Physics and in the lecture/lab today (this is Physics I), the other undergrad TA, the graduate TA and myself were all completely unprepared for today's lab activity so while we had all the answers, we couldn't explain how to do most of the problems. It was a funny sight though, we stand/sit in the front of the class waiting to go over to students who have questions except the other undergrad and the grad TA were focused on their iphones looking up how to do the problems while I was BSing solutions for all the other students..... It was a weirdly difficult lab on waves that the lecture beforehand poorly covered. (thankfully there was another professor subbing in who left immediately after the lecture). We looked at the handed in labs after, unfortunately this was by far the worst one for them yet....

I guess it's because I was the "runt" I'm a sophomore and the other undergrad TA is a senior and the grad is a Ph.D student.

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It happened all the time when I was a TA in college, and it happens all the time to my TAs in medical school. It is absolutely hilarious when the TAs get confused, and even funnier when residents are TAing a session and have trouble. Thus far, medical school has been mostly about superficial memorization. While I think intellectual curiosity is a virtue, I have learned pretty quickly that things run smoother if you don't ask too many unscripted questions.
 
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It happened all the time when I was a TA in college, and it happens all the time to my TAs in medical school. It is absolutely hilarious when the TAs get confused, and even funnier when residents are TAing a session and have trouble. Thus far, medical school has been mostly about superficial memorization. While I think intellectual curiosity is a virtue, I have learned pretty quickly that things run smoother if you don't ask too many unscripted questions.

That's hilarious! Hahahahahah
 
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This was like every lab or discussion section when I was TAing for the bio department. I would crack a lot of jokes though and threw in some silly dances so I made up for my total lack of knowledge
 
All the time! (When in doubt, throw up a tangentially related youtube video on the screen lmao!)
 
Yep... One of my students told me off and asked me why I give wrong info all the time lol (in terms of administrative stuff like when to hand in lab reports and what they needed to write in it).
 
When asked a question I don't know the answer to, I resort to the "How will you ever learn anything if I just tell you the answers. I am sure the answer to that is in your textbook."

It's ~99% effective.
 
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When asked a question I don't know the answer to, I resort to the "How will you ever learn anything if I just tell you the answers. I am sure the answer to that is in your textbook."

It's ~99% effective.

Lol I hate doing that because then my students become afraid of asking me questions.
 
lol- I was teaching a graduate class last year and a student totally looked up something I said on her iPad and called me out. Damn technology.

The thing is, people misspeak. This was simply me calling a 'reservoir,' a 'host.' It was still embarrassing as hell though.
 
That's so damn funny!

Well I had a bio TA who always told us to look at the board or read our lab books if we had a question (even though we were asking him because the answer wasn't in the lab book or on the board). And I always knew it was because he didn't know the answer himself lol. So in the end we stopped asking him questions because he would just have mood swings all the time.
 
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Ha, I had an interview question that was this sort of scenario. What would I do if, as a TA, I taught my section wrongly and they F'd up on the test?

I suppose you take the blame and apologize to the class while giving them the correct information.
 
I'm a TA for Physics and in the lecture/lab today (this is Physics I), the other undergrad TA, the graduate TA and myself were all completely unprepared for today's lab activity so while we had all the answers, we couldn't explain how to do most of the problems. It was a funny sight though, we stand/sit in the front of the class waiting to go over to students who have questions except the other undergrad and the grad TA were focused on their iphones looking up how to do the problems while I was BSing solutions for all the other students..... It was a weirdly difficult lab on waves that the lecture beforehand poorly covered. (thankfully there was another professor subbing in who left immediately after the lecture). We looked at the handed in labs after, unfortunately this was by far the worst one for them yet....

I guess it's because I was the "runt" I'm a sophomore and the other undergrad TA is a senior and the grad is a Ph.D student.

rofl. premeds sign up for TA positions to pad their resumes for medical schools but fail to actually live up to the job description and stunt the learning of other, legitimately curious students. premed TAs suck
 
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