Teaching is My Passion

I have always had a passion for teaching and I was glad when I was given the privilege to attend the training programme for Teaching Assistants (TA) in Semester 1, Academic Year 2006/2007 at the Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning. As a teacher, I see myself as a communicator, a disciplinarian, a conveyor of information, an evaluator, a classroom manager, a counsellor, a decision-maker, a role-model and a surrogate parent. The TA training was an opportunity to improve my teaching skills.

Essential TA Survival Skills

Attending the TA programme was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. Through the programme, I picked up essential lessons and skills that will serve me well in my teaching career. Personally, I did not realise how exceptional our TA training programme at NUS is until I attended it. The following paragraphs give an overview of some essential TA survival skills I gained through the programme.

Punctuality

One of the major things I learnt during the training is to go to classes on time. This will communicate to students that I am serious about what I am going to teach. Also, if a teacher is punctual, students will not have excuses to be late. As part of the training, all workshops and seminars in the TA training programme started punctually.

Class preparation

A teacher must not go to class without preparing for it even if he/she has been teaching the same module for many years. This is because every batch of students brings with them different challenges. Apart from being well-prepared, a teacher should make his/her class interesting and informative by updating the contents of his or her course constantly. If a teacher is unable to teach or answer students' questions satisfactorily because he or she did not prepare well for the class, students may lose their confidence in the teacher and this could affect their attitude towards the course.

Class organisation

It is the teacher's responsibility to keep the class organised. While this may sound like an impossible task, it can be accomplished if students respect the teacher. A teacher who has a good knowledge of what he or she teaches and keeps his or her relationships with students professional, is often one whom students respect.

Relationships with course instructor

TAs should communicate with the instructor(s) in charge to understand their duties and responsibilities. Apart from this, there should be regular reviews with the course instructor(s) and these should start right before the commencement of tutorial activities. Other areas covered during the training programme included maintaining academic integrity, handling student diversity, managing time in the classroom, getting to know the class, handling common student complaints and so on.

My Experience as a TA

Student feedback (both positive and negative) reflected the extent to which I was able to apply what I learnt during the TA training programme, my relationship with students and how they liked my tutorial classes. The following are selected comments from students:

Strengths

• He is kind, patient, encouraging and always willing to help any student in need. He is also willing to spend time outside of tutorial hours to help needy students. Thank you!
  
  
• He is very organised and goes round to help check our work and solve the problems we encountered.
  
  
• He pays more attention to those who are slower; he leads us step by step and explains what he is doing.
  
  
• He is able to explain difficult concepts concisely.
  
  
• He is understanding and patient towards students. He has good knowledge.

Suggestions for improvement

• Try to be more aware of the allocated time as tutorial sessions sometimes ended late.
  
  
• It would be good if he can speak louder and clearer.
  
  
• I cannot understand his accent sometimes, but this is alright.
  
  
• Be more patient and teach slowly.
  
  
• To be more open towards class discussion so that we can help our peers.

My major shortcoming was that I was not able to manage my allocated time effectively during the tutorials. I plan to improve on this and other shortcomings when I take tutorial classes again in this semester (Semester 1, Academic Year 2007/2008).