be a TA

I’ve been a chem lab TA at a university for the past two years. It’s a requirement to graduate with a PhD in chemistry (or if the adviser is lacking on funds). It’s a good experience, but grading sucks. It definitely helps with remembering long forgotten chemistry, though, and it’s awesome to get paid to go to school.

I am currently TAing intro CS for the 5th time in two years. I am really sick of it… but being a TA has been an overall great experience. My debugging skills are fantastic (leave it to the freshmen to generate every error possible) and somehow I’ve climbed to the top of many of my upper year courses.

I love teaching, I love helping others learn, and I love watching a person who’s never programmed before become able to solve standard problems in computer science.

It’s boring at times (anyone who’s graded hundreds of pages of code knows what I mean), but for me, it gives a satisfying result.

after chasing a woman that did not want a TA, I give up for now. Maybe next semester, or next year.

Actually it was probably the best time I had in grad school in terms of the actual reason why I was there (as opposed to more important things like the radio station, for instance!). Anyway, I enjoyed teaching for about three and a half years, mostly doing composition—it was rewarding work and some of the friendships I made there have lasted to the present time.