Above and beyond
Nontraditional TAs
TA Gail Gardner and her students meet weekly to discuss the finer points of world history.
Why would otherwise busy adults commit the extra time and energy to do a job normally dispatched to graduate students in need of academic credit or teaching experience? "To continue doing something I love," says Gail Gardner, a teaching assistant for HIST E-10c/W World History III: The Age of Empires and HIST E-10d/W World History IV: Approaching Globalization. Recently retired from a 25-year career teaching history at the Winsor School in Boston, Gardner has been a TA for Dr. Donald Ostrowski for three years while she works on a book about the history of medieval Europe.
Gardner's comment reflects a passion for intellectual endeavor and instruction that is pervasive among many of the Extension School's nontraditional TAs who, year after year, devote considerable effort to their posts. Unlike conventional TAs--graduate students who fill the role for a year or two, then move on--assistants such as Gardner are common at the Extension School. Many remain committed to a particular course or instructor for years, drawn to the continual interaction with professors and the fulfillment of working with dedicated, energetic students. Some, like Gardner, work for classes that meet over multiple semesters and enjoy witnessing students' evolution over time.
TAs Mark Ouchida, ALM '97, and Ilene Feldman, ALB '97, have stayed long after their own graduation, as both University employees and TAs. Both find their experience as students informs how they teach. Feldman, who is a TA for MATH E-3 Quantitative Reasoning: Practical Math, says, "I feel that I can understand where students are coming from because I was in their shoes; that helps me think about different ways to approach material."
Ouchida, an assistant for Introduction to Statistics and Quantitative Reasoning: Practical Math, agrees. While a student, he took statistics as a degree requirement and, after initially finding it difficult, developed an ongoing interest in the subject. He goes straight to the heart of why TAs play a critical role in making classes run effectively. "As a TA, you get to work one-on-one with students, and you get to know them really well, sometimes better than the professor," he says. "Because you're working in smaller groups, you have more individual contact, and you can see their growth over the course of the semester."
Dorothy Dudley, ALM '91, has been a TA for six of Dr. Sue Weaver Schopf's literature courses. In her most recent work for English Romantic Poetry, Dudley led discussion sections in which students explored aspects of poetry. "For the most part, I was the monitor of ideas, the instigator or facilitator," she says. Another ENGL E-150c/W English Romantic Poetry TA, Rob Fox, notes an additional crucial role: giving feedback on assignments. Because this is a writing-intensive course, he annotates student writing with extensive comments. "How people write is as important, if not more important, than how they think because there's no shortage of ideas--writing is often the stumbling block."
Fox, a partner in the real estate department of the law firm Nutter, McLennan, & Fish in Boston and, hence, hardly a person with idle time, is a classic example of the nontraditional TA. Last fall, Schopf's poetry course was offered only online, and Fox faced the challenge of simulating an in-person experience for distance students. Three tactics were applied: his campus section meetings were videotaped and streamed over the Internet, the class utilized an online discussion forum, and Fox worked to respond to student e-mails within two to three hours--no small feat during his daytime life as a lawyer.
For these TAs, there's one reason they return semester after semester: Extension students. Those in Gardner's sections come early and stay late, expanding 50-minute meetings into two-hour conversations. "They are so committed," she says. Fox particularly respects those who are in undergraduate and graduate programs. "To get a degree after slugging through a full workday takes real dedication," he says. Dudley attests students here are truly unique. "Extension students have this experience and knowledge of the world that allows them to see things from a variety of different angles," she says. "That's a terrific asset."
-- Chris Morrison