Caught in Between

(This blog is a continuation from my most recent one: http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/shared/2010/11/butterflies/ In that one, I talked about my experience with Chem lab and how it taught me to use all resources available to me…in this blog, I’ll talk about what it’s actually like to be a TA for the course.)

Butterflies… I’ve never known what it was like to love a job before I got one earlier this semester as an Intro to Chemistry Lab Teaching Assistant. And as cheesy as it sounds, it gives me butterflies every time I step into the lab, ready to do work with students for 3 hours.

I would have never thought that I’d be in this position–when the possibility of it was mentioned to me as a freshman right after I’d completed the course, I thought it sounded cool and was interested. But by sophomore year, orgo had me feeling defeated and I never really took steps on being a TA until some of us got emails from the professor, Dr. Pasternack, this summer. So I bit my lip and applied, and well, here I am!

Lesson 1: Don’t count yourself out before someone else does…you never know what can happen!

no I don't usually look like this...if I did I would ruin experiments hehe

I was really nervous when I got the position because I honestly doubted myself and felt as if I was not good enough to do the job or as competent as the other students who were selected to be TAs. But at the same time, I was thrilled that I got to be one of the people I used to admire for their influence and ability.

Then the work began…we had to do a training module to ensure that we would know how to act in the case that large acid or base spills happened, that glass broke, that fire broke out, or that a student was injured by some chemical. Thankfully nothing major has happened this semester, but we always have to be on guard and able to respond if something does happen.

one of the posters used to warn students about the dangers of not wearing goggles in lab

The first day of lab was weird, because students were writing my name in the space entitled “TA name” on all of their assignments. As silly as that sounds, it was like “wow, I’m somebody’s something.” Some asked if they should call me “Miss” which was weird. But it was all so cool!

Lesson 2: Just because something is scary doesn’t mean it can’t be awesome at the same time… so don’t let prospects of scariness scare you away.

Then I began thinking, hmm, I wonder if they will like me? I wonder if they will think I am stupid if I can’t answer a question clearly? I was a student once and I know what students often thought of TAs…some were great, some didn’t know what they were doing, some were rude and pretentious jerks, some were down to earth. So when the professor told us to give out citations for improper footwear on the first day of lab, I was thinking “this i snot how I wanted to start out…seeming like a mean TA.” But it was my job and you do what your boss tells you to do so I did it, apologizing to each student and ensuring them that it was not going to adversely affect their grades or anything.

But after that, I got more comfortable with having to be the leader of my section, making sure students had on proper attire, shoes, and goggles. I walked around often to help students who were having experimental issues and just to check up on them. I rarely sat at my desk because I was too jittery at the thought of a student saying “Dominique! Dominique! I don’t know what to do!” (yea I heard a lot of my name this semester :P  )

the TAs desk...with attendance sheet and pencil.

Lesson 3: Discomfort can mean moving out of a place of complacency, which makes you a better leader…so it’s ok to be uncomfortable at times! It means growth.

I eventually got to know each of my students’ names after the 2nd week and made sure that they knew I knew who they were. I’m very big on remembering people and letting them know that I do remember them, because who doesn’t like to be remembered?

So my semester was spent fluttering from lab bench to lab bench, using my prior knowledge, knowledge from other TAs, and Dr. Pasternack’s very detailed lab notes to help my students (even saying my students gets me all weirded and  cooled out at the same time!)  I will say that one thing that has definitely helped me a lot is the ability to ask the 2nd year TAs for help, because there were some times where I did not know what to do for some experimental faux pas. And in the case that something happened where we didn’t know what to do, Dr. Pasternack was always a phone call away, in her office.

Lesson 4: Using fellow co workers is an awesome thing.

The downside of TA-ing? Well, grading is no fun. Especially when you have large quantities of it stacked up next to your already large pile of homework. It’s even less fun having to explain to upset students why he or she lost points here or there, and sometimes that ends well and sometimes it ends in “I don’t care I am submitting it for a regrade.” But as most things do,  it teaches you, even if the process is no fun.

All in all, I will have to say that I loveeeee being a Chem lab TA and I actually like when people question my judgment for wanting to be one (since, as I mentioned before, it is one of the most hated classes at Hopkins). I love meeting new students, I love the growth opportunities it has offered me, and I love that it has been forcing me to become more of a leader. And most importantly, I love being able to help as much as possible. If you’re able to be a TA, in college, in highschool even, I’d highly encourage it! It’s a great thing. :)

So this will be my last blog until finals are over, so I hope you enjoyed it!

–Dominique

One of my housemates here, Courtney, volunteers with an amazing program called Youth in Prison (YIP). The other day she came home and relayed the following story to us.

They were talking about the concept of superheroes…and somehow the topic of Angelina Jolie came up.

Superheroes, they decided, were people who helped other people. Particularly in Africa, where a lot of her UN work has been focused, Angelina is a little bit of a charity celebrity. Or, as we might now call it, a charity superhero. The group talked about her, the work she’d done, and about Brad and Angelina as a superhero duo. One of Courtney’s students interrupted though….didn’t she know that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had broken up?

We had not in fact heard that.

As Courtney relayed this story later, we couldn’t stop laughing (more later on the amazing volunteering, but this blog deals with something else). What had happened in our lives that we were getting American celebrity gossip from Capetonian teenage boys?

On the last morning of our holiday in Zambia, we went to the campground office to settle our tabs. Nearly an hour later we returned…there had been a TV at the bar. We sat there transfixed, watching news we couldn’t even decipher. Zambian news, you will probably not be surprised to hear, has very little to do with the news you might be hearing back in the States. Regardless, we couldn’t tear ourselves away. When we tried to recall the last time we had watched TV, we realized it had been (for most of us) in June or July, back in America.

I’m not living in the wilderness here, but I am living in a bubble. I know lots about South African news, particularly Cape Town news, and even more about local neighborhood news. I could tell you a great deal about the recent teachers strikes here, or the hospital strikes in Jo’burg. I could probably tell you more though, about the bickering politicians and the raises the Springbok coaches have been getting.

See, we have an interesting method of getting the news here. Our internet is rationed by the credit, our cell phones are pay-as-you-go, and American newspapers are not readily available. Go on a run, walk, or drive anywhere through Cape Town, though, and you will see broadsheets from the Cape Argus pinned up on lamp posts and bus stops. Mostly in Afrikaans, sometimes in English, and very occasionally in Xhosa, they give you headlines like…

“SAA Prez Owes R25m to Disgruntled Passengers”
“Dagga? What Dagga? Says Movie Star.”
Or this recent gem: “Sex Tape: It’s All Lies! Says Joost”

Needless to say, this doesn’t help me stay up-to-date news-wise. I don’t know who Joost is, for one thing. It is telling that most Americans have only just realized these headlines are not in fact jokes, and actually correspond to real news stories. You can imagine the slightly more risqué ones that I refrained from including here.

We’ve missed out not only on American celebrity gossip and television, but also those slightly more important news venues, like the New York Times. The one paper I do have access to is the Rondebosch Newspaper. Rondebosch, the neighborhood UCT is located in, is a semi-suburb of Cape Town. Accordingly, their newspaper deals with high school sports teams, city hall meetings, and the possibility of repainting the local laundry shop from the bubble-gum pink that residents currently find unattractive, to a less offensive beige. The painting has in fact been carried out, and the girls’ school hockey team is apparently doing very well, but that still hasn’t helped me feel any more knowledgeable.

I’m really starting to feel a little bit confused. My grocery runs now include copies of The Economist, which is doing a lot in the way of staying informed, but made the situation worse at first, as I realized just how much I’d missed out on.

It was nice to take a break from the constant onslaught of information I’d gotten used to at home (helped along by minimal internet usage and lack of cable television here) but I really think I need to ease myself back into the international news scene, and just rely on the Cape Argus headlines for entertainment on my runs from now on.

I hope you’re enjoying your magical wi-fi and English speaking newspapers!

-Lauren B.

P.S. We still don’t know if Brad and Angelina broke up….