TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL

Each semester we see students fill out evaluations about their instructors, maybe even give the input that instructors might have needed to be effective,which the instructors then only receive too late to be useful to that class. That may be acceptable if you're going to teach the same class for years and years and need only to tweak your approach a little,but if you're new to teaching and aren't going to be doing it every semester for your time here,this approach for helping you improve is a little ineffectual.

We decided to take action. We found a captive audience and asked them what works.
Here’s the gems of the results:

The best GSIs were:
-Prepared and knowledgeable about the material being covered
-Seemingly empathetic/approachable outside of the classroom.
-Explained things in simple term/held study sessions
-Asked for and implemented feedback
-Used simple and funny analogies to help us understand
-Often stayed beyond required office hours to help
-Patient in the face of complete and utter lack of comprehension
-Organized,informative and efficient:ready for common misunderstandings
-Capable of using every answer to make progress toward explaining the big picture

My worst GSI:
-Seemed hurried,impatient,and indifferent to whether we understood or not
-Used the same mode of explanation in the face of confusion
-Held sessions that felt lacking in purpose,structure or points.
-Washaughty,showed personal bias,,tended toward monotones

What works:
-Visuals
-Complex explanations don’tworkifnotsupplementedw/ pictures/graphs/media
-Using twoor three different ways to explain the same material so it sticks

Ways for GSIs to improve:
-Prepare more
-Try not to be nervous
-Be patient
-Remember what it was liketo be an undergrad
-Try not to show when you think a question is stupid