A GA or TA contract is often part of an admission offer to graduate school and sometimes motivated undergraduates can find positions in their departments. The obvious incentives include the pay cheque, the experience working with students (leading discussions, grading, lecturing, etc.), but what are the benefits that no one expects to find?
For me, within the first weeks of my first TA contract as an undergrad, I realized that TAing was going to help me become a better writer. I was marking short papers and I read 100 answers to the same question. I saw examples where students used the same evidence in different ways, how they used the evidence to construct arguments, how difficult it was for some to string together a coherent sentence. It was enlightening.
Before this, I was most familiar with my own writing. My experience as a student hadn’t included peer review – I’d never seen the writing of any of my classmates. Blogging was non-existent in my courses and there wasn’t any trading or proofreading going on in the classroom. Suddenly I had piles of student writing to go through, to edit, to suggest changes for clarity, accuracy, or strength. Explaining to a student where and why something was unclear or confusing forced me to figure it out for myself.
It’s when you try explaining something to another person that you find out if you really understand it yourself. This is something I never anticipated I would learn from being a teaching assistant, but it’s something I’m definitely glad I found!
Are there other hidden gems waiting for TAs and GAs? What was a surprise for you?
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