to be a TA

[nibot]

You are driving home from school steadily at 65 mph for 130 miles. It then begins to rain and you slow to 55 mph. You arrive home after driving 3 hours and 20 minutes. How far is your hometown from school? What was your average speed?

And that, my friends, was the first problem on my first homework assignment as a first year graduate student at the University of Rochester, "a private university established 1850." Admittedly for "TA Training," the most annoying part of which is getting up at 07:00 EDT when you're still on Pacific Time.

It looks like I'll be the TA for basic electronics lab, the equivalent of Physics 7B, which I'm pretty happy about. I have an offer for a research position but I think I want to do the TA gig instead, at least this semester. Unfortunately it's not nearly as awesome as kennyjensen's electronics lab (the famed 111 lab), so we won't be making Tesla coils... hmm... OR MAYBE WE WILL.

By the way, write to me: Tobin Fricke; Department of Physics and Astronomy; Rochester, NY 14627-0171.

Comments

Re: that grad-school-level problem

[nibot.livejournal.com]

hmmm.. you might be on to something.

they tell us that it's to "practice being a TA." we present the problems on the blackboard.

they videotape us. probably for blackmail material.

Re: that grad-school-level problem

[squarkz.livejournal.com]

well then, if they're videotaping it, they probably don't want to pick something for a problem that's gonna make you look like a fool, huh? nice of them, really.

you come back in a month and let us know what your homework problems look like, and then we'll all have a good laugh. or cry.

Re: that grad-school-level problem

[nibot.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, i'm not complaining. (-:

Re: that grad-school-level problem

[barks.livejournal.com]

well it makes sense to me - if you're in the midst of learning to 'be a TA' then you should have a really easy question. you shouldn't spend half your brain on figuring out the question, and then the other half on the entire point of the exercise.

[ragnus.livejournal.com]

has it started snowing yet?

[nibot.livejournal.com]

right now we're at the 90 deg F, 100% hum phase. Then the blizzards come.

[ragnus.livejournal.com]

it's not snowing because you're soooooo hot, melting all the ice and girls.

[pbrane.livejournal.com]

I have an offer for a research position but I think I want to do the TA gig instead, at least this semester.

eep? Why would you do that to yourself? I mean, I like teaching the little brats, but it's way more work than an RA, esp. in your first year, when you're not used to TAing, and your supervisor still doesn't expect you to be able to do much.

Seriously, first year in grad school WILL KICK YOUR ASS, so do anything you can to make it easier.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

My TA training started at 8:30 am and lasted until 5 pm. And as the other person said, why are you TAing if you could be paid to do nothing (research) instead?