Another successful quarter of teaching has come to an end. Usually I go on about the miseries of teaching and how disappointing the students were, etc. etc. Instead I'll focus on the positive; again this quarter, my students have outperformed the other TA's sections. This has happened often enough that I should no longer consider it a fluke. The difference is small, my students' average bested the other two sections by 30 pts and 10 pts respectively, where the classes' individual standard deviation was 140 points (all graded out of 1000 total points). I'm not a statistician, but I think consistently beating the other sections for 6 out of 6 quarters, even by small margins, means something.
The secret? Not coddling the little snots: tough love and high expectations along with a bit of attentiveness. This is college, not the 4th grade. I tell the stupid ones they're stupid and the smart ones that they're not trying hard enough. At the end of the quarter I get glowing TA reviews from them. The public loves me, and sometimes, I might even say that I'm proud of them.
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