Today made the last day of my first semester as a teaching assistant.
Since August, I have been charged with standing before a class of about 19 students and facilitating a course on Research Methods. Today, as we revisited what the students and I learned together, I was really moved to tears.
I didn't take this assignment lightly. It really meant a lot to me to be charged with sharing some research fundamentals with this group. Each week I was met with a mix of challenges that I had to strategize my way through. Mostly, I had to figure out how to translate the textbook into a vibrant classroom discussion and learning experience that would result in the students gaining some awareness about concepts that to many seemed foreign.
In the end, I honestly feel proud. To hear the students' revelations about the subject matter and its significance to the profession; to see them draw connections about the class experience and what they have learned about themselves; and to see my own growth because of this learning exchange really felt like a major accomplishment for all of us.
Next semester, many of the students from this group will follow me over to my hybrid data analysis class for another semester's journey. I'm excited about next semester, but also about the prospect about being able to teach in this capacity for a living.
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I vividly remember the days of teaching to a crowd of stuffed animals in my bedroom when I was a little girl, and coming home from school mimicking everything that I had seen my own instructors do in front of the classroom. To be able to stand in front of my own class of real students is truly like a little girl's dream come true.
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