On Interacting with your TA
An anonymous student recently left complaints on the blog which I (along with my response) have deleted. The students comments were out of line, and frankly, insulting. When dealing with a TA (or any other human being) it is important to be polite and respectful. Those who have attended class regularly or have spoken to me on an individual level know that I am happy to listen to my students and to take into account their concerns. To take a recent example, rather than scheduling the final review session according to my own schedule I took a vote among my students so as to determine what time and day would work best for them.
If you have a concern, rather than leaving an insulting message, please email me (speaking to me is also good, but lectures are done now so you probably won't run in to me). Talk to me as one adult to another. Don't accuse me of being unfair or question my capabilities. Instead, explain your situation to me and offer possible solutions. Usually it is possible to come to some sort of compromise that will make everyone happy.
I care deeply about this class, both the material we are studying and my students. I put a great deal of time and effort trying to make sure that students learn, have a good time, and end up with the best possible grade they can get. I am always happy to do what I can to make the class better. Constructive criticism is a great help to that. However, it must be made in a respectful matter, otherwise it will do no good for anyone.
posted by Frank @ 9:32 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I realize that some students think the TA is not doing a good job when they receieve a low mark. And the truth is because those students don't study harder or interact with the TAs so they think that the TAs are unfair and useless. Don't think too much Frank. I think in this case that student holds total response for being disrespectful to you, and to this course. Have a nice day!
Thanks for the kind words! I'm really touched! It's good to have such good students are yourselves!
While I agree that the manner in which that student left the comment was disrespectful, I also believe that his/her concerns were not unfounded. I agree with the student in saying that it is a bit unfair to not know our marks going into the final exam and that close to three weeks before our papers are returned is stretching a little bit towards the unreasonable side in terms of length. I have other classes where the TA's and the Profs have also collected assignments or have had exams scheduled so near the end of term that they could not be returned within actual classes or tutorials. However, in all of those cases, including my English class, the TA / Prof have setup extra office hours to return those exams/ papers because they too felt that it is extremely important for students to know their mark before going into the final exam. I know that you, like all the other TA's also have exams at the moment, but is there any way that the same arrangement could be setup for Asia 100? Lastly, I want to stress that I do appreciate everything that you have done for our class Frank, so if in anyway you feel offended by this post, please be assured that I no way meant to be offensive or disrespectful, but rather just wanted to highlight some of my concerns and try to suggest some possible solutions. Thank you Frank!
Thanks for your comments Asia100 (I would encourage you to use your name though). I can see your point. I'm actually almost done grading. While I think it would be difficult to arrange a time to give back papers before the test I could email students who want their grades. I should finish them up by Monday or Tuesday and will post a message on the blog annoucing that I will email paper grades to those who want them.
I have a question, did yan Gueifei flee with the Emperor Xuanzong, or did she flee with An Lushan?
anyway it has been a good course and thanks for all your time and effort.
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