This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Illinois State chapter.
Upon becoming a teaching assistant last semester, I had minimal quality interaction with any of my prior teaching assistants other than a continuous chain of emails back and forth regarding coursework. Now that I have successfully finished my semester as a teaching assistant, here is a list of thoughts that crossed my mind more than once and hopefully a list that will help any future teaching assistants prepare for the task they are about to face. Warning: if you don’t already have red pens, it’s time to invest.
1. I really should be getting paid for this.
2. I take back all the times I judged teachers for getting graded assignments back to me in an untimely manner.
3. Don’t forget to take the attendance.
4. There are how many students?!
5. And how many parts to the tests that I have to grade?!
6. And there are how many tests a semester?!
7. Grading will be the death of me.
8. I’m starting to hate red ink.
9. How do professors remember all their names?!
10. I’ve never had so many emails to respond to in my entire life.
11. THANK GOD FOR MICROSOFT EXCEL.
12. Really, don’t forget to take the attendance!
13. That was such a good comment, why didn’t I say that when I was in class and we were discussing this topic?
14. I’ve seen all your work, and I know the difference between when you really did the homework and when you didn’t.
15. When do I need to have the grades in by? Wait, did I already post those grades?!
16. TAKE THE ATTENDANCE!
17. No one told me I would have homework to do as the TA.
18. I really want to comment in this discussion, but I don’t want to intrude!
19. I can answer this! I can answer this! I’m going to answ-
20. Oh, they just answered it. *Sigh*
21. I hope I don’t look like as much of a hot mess as I actually am.
22. Do they even listen to me?!
23. Why is my bag so heavy? Oh yeah, time to pass back papers.
24. Why are my students not here?! Is everything okay?!
25. I should send them an email to see if everything is okay.
26. Stop. It’s college. Maybe they just didn’t want to come.
27. But I don’t want them to miss out and risk failing as assignment! Maybe I should email them.
28. Oh look, they emailed me. Go figure.
29. SERIOUSLY, DON’T FORGET TO TAKE THE ATTENDANCE TODAY.
30. More. Grading.
31. Need. Caffeine.
32. Thank God for the other TA.
33. This role has made me so much more organized!
34. Not.
35. I forgot to take the attendance again. Oops.