Last week and finals week

Surprisingly nobody came in for office hours the last week for them. So nothing to report. For finals proctoring everything went well. The exam seemed pretty easy, all multiple choice and a cheat sheet. Just answering clarification questions. I was trusted to go get scantrons which was pretty cool. Nothing else to say now except. Now my watch has ended.

Week of 4/16/18

This final week of lectures covered material such as refraction, interfering waves, Young's Two-Slit Interference, and diffraction.  I also had 22 students visit my office hours during the week to review in-class clicker questions, homework, and more conceptual topics.  I will also be holding last-minute office hours during finals week to give students the chance to review material and prepare for their final.

Overall, I really enjoyed being a Physics 0175 UTA this past semester and will definitely take up this opportunity again in the future, given that my schedule lends the time for it.  My advice for prospective Physics 0175 UTA's, which may seem obvious, is to really keep up with and stay engaged during your class's lectures.  Sometimes lectures may seem slow since, as a UTA, you have already learned and become competent in the subject; however, it is important to put yourself in the students' shoes to understand the difficulties that they may have in grasping the subject.  The more engaged you stay in class, the easier it will be to understand the confusions that students have.

In terms of office hours, I found that it is best to structure them openly to allow for questions and discussion as opposed to having a scheduled review each session since students will always have different questions about different material.  I also found that students really benefited from the weekly review sheets I would type up after lectures since the reviews would outline the important information and include easy-to-understand explanations for things such as derivations.

Being a Physics 0175 UTA this past semester was a really unique and rewarding experience, and I would gladly take on such a position again, given the opportunity.

Week of 4/16/18

I did not have any students come during my office hours this week. I hope anyone who had questions about the material on the final was able to get help. I enjoyed being an UTA this semester. It was great being able to help other students with material they found difficult and try to explain in terms of how I understand it. Unfortunately I will not be able to be an UTA for physics since I am graduating this semester but I would have signed up for it again if I could.

4/23

So last week of office hours I did not see anyone, however, I was able to help some students outside of office hours. Overall I found this experience to be unique and I found that I helped more students in class rather than in my office hours. I hope to continue to UTA in the future and help students as much as I can!

Last week.

This week was busy. I had a student come to my office hours and we spent hours going over all her doubts from physics two. we went over a lot of the refraction problems and what equations to use at which instant. I helped her understand how to use signs in electric potential questions and all in all it was very productive. In class all the subject matter was covered and the professor conducted a review.

Week of 4/16

I didn't have anyone come to my office hours this week, which was somewhat surprising. I think a contributing factor was that Dr. Nero's classes were still learning new material, but it wasn't as crucial for the overall course as some of the previous topics have been. 

This semester has definitely been successful. I had a steady amount of students visit my office hours, and it was during those times that I learned to communicate ideas more effectively. In class, I had to develop an ability to figure out a problem without having equations on paper in front of me, performing more of an intuitive analysis of the question to do so. Again, I had to be able to effectively communicate ideas to students who asked questions in class. I feel that both of these skills are important for my professional development going forward, but I can always improve in both regards. Overall, I'm very glad to have had the experience of being a UTA.

Last week reflection

The last week of classes is over, and so too are my office hours for the semester.  I only had three students show up this week, which was somewhat surprising considering their final is in three days.  Some of the drop off was definitely because of the bonus points professor Devaty offered to students who came to my hours at least three times.  Although, this cannot account for all of the downward trend considering I had a few students who attended more than three times.  Another possible reason for the decline in attendance that I can think of is that my assistance was more needed towards the beginning of the semester.  Previously, some of the students had relied on me to help them learn and understand the lecture material.  Perhaps now at the end of the class, those students have already learned all the material, and they prefer to just review it by themselves.
Over the course of the semester, I had 13 different students in my office hours combine for a total of 46 student visits.  This was more than I had anticipated at the outset based on the number of one line blog posts from the previous semester stating that no one came to office hours.  The bonus my professor offered was helpful for motivating students to come and talk to me initially, and then some of them kept coming back since I was hopefully a good resource for them.
The thing that I liked the least as a UTA was the lack of stuff for me to do during lectures.  It was good to get a refresher on material and know exactly where in the coursework the students were in order to better answer their questions during my office hours.  However, my assistance was not really utilized in the lectures and I found myself sitting through two hours of lecture on material I already got an A+ on twice a week.
Overall, it was a successful semester.  I found that I benefited from the experience maybe as much as the students I was helping.  My advice to incoming UTAs would be to anticipate difficult problems/applications that students will be asking about and review it beforehand.  Sometimes, the easier concepts are what we remember from when we took the course, but the harder ones are what students will actually need help with.

-Mitchell Dubaniewicz

Final Week

This semester has been very interesting and I really enjoyed helping out the students understand the physics problems they have trouble with. I hope I was able to help the students understand the information from the midterms well enough for the final but it is interesting that I did not get any students come in for the last week except one. They do not seem to have a very firm grasp of the information Dr. Nero is providing them based on the responses to the questions in class. I hope to do something like this again in the future. I would give advice for any incoming UTA that it is very useful to go through the information that is covered in class before attending lectures so that the students can gain trust in what you can provide because it is pretty easy to lose that if you lead them to the wrong answer. I would like to thank everyone that helped me through this journey in teaching physics- I appreciate all that I learned. 

Week of 4/16 & Reflection

This last week has been relatively quiet in office hours and lecture. I haven't received too many questions or seen many students in office hours, though a few do come by to check their understanding. With finals approaching, I wish everyone good luck! Being a TA this semester has been a privilege and I've thoroughly enjoyed it throughout. I'm glad I was able to help students solidify their understanding of physics and I wish them all the best in their future endeavors. Compared to last semester, I'm glad more students showed up in office hours and asked questions. I really felt as if I was making a bigger impact on my students this term, compared to last. That being said, best of luck to everyone and have a great summer!

week of 4/16

The last week of being a UTA has just come to an end. I did not have any students this week which was somewhat surprising considering their final is just around the corner. Overall, being a UTA has been a great experience for me. I wish that the students would have been more willing to use me as a resource, however the times I was able to help students was very rewarding and I believe that I was a beneficial resource to them.

Week of 4/9

All quiet on the western front. Nothing to report in my second to last week of office hours. All I can hope for is that people are doing fine on their own. Professor has a good handle of things in lecture and people go to his office hours so I am not worried.

Week of 4/9

No one came.

Week of 4/9/18

This past week in lecture covered material such as induced electric and magnetic fields, electromagnetic waves, Maxwell's Equations, and light polarization.  I also had 20 students visit my office hours this past week, mainly to go over things such as homework, quizzes, or their second exam.

Week of 4/9

Hello everyone,

One person came to office hours last Thursday, and no one came on either Wednesday and Friday.

Sort of a slow week.

Best,
Mahmoud

Week of 4/9/18

I did not have any students come to office hours this week. I'm expecting some students to come next week since it is the last week of classes before their final exam.

Week of 4/9

This week one student came to my office hours for help on one hw problem.

week of 4/9

This past week I had no one come to my office hours. I answered some questions about electromagnetic waves propagating through space. The main thing that was confusing students about the clicker question was about whether the wave was "out of phase." I think they were just confused because it made no sense for the magnetic field to be "out of phase" with the electric field. 

4/14

Not many people have come for the past two weeks. It's been nice to be able to study during office hours, though. Can definitely appreciate it after having close to ten people at once every day leading up to test 3.

4/9

no surprise~ still no one came

Week of 4/9/2018

This week we completed The refraction of light, lenses and optical instruments in class. No students came for office hours this week. The class final will be held on April 19th and I hope students are going to do well.

Week of 4/9

No one came for office hours this weekend. Finals are approaching and some of my friends in Phys 2 already are worried about their exams as some of them haven't done well in their midterms. I helped with reviewing their mistakes in their previous tests and found that they are just silly mistakes, and a very few of them are lack of proper understanding of the concept. I hope to see a couple of students next week as Finals are very close.

Week of 4/9

The week was again not too busy. I had a few visitors at office hours, but it wasn't too much. I'm expecting more people to show up next week for finals week, but I doubt it will be as much as when I had office hours right before the students had their midterm exams. I will still try to prepare for whatever questions I may receive, but I won't be expecting to have a lot of people coming next week.

week of 4/9

I had a new face show up to my office hours this week as we draw closer to finals.  We discussed the recent material and how what they've been learning all semester culminates with Maxwells' Equations.  Only one more week of classes to go!  I expect the number of students at my hours next week to jump back up significantly as more students take advantage of the dwindling opportunities to get help prior to their Monday morning final.

Week of 4/9

This week was rather quiet in office hours and lecture. I didn't see any students in office hours, but I answered a few questions regarding heat and wave motion in lecture. I helped explain some conceptual examples to students during class, as well. The remaining topics tend to be more difficult than items we've considered previously, so I expect to see more students in office hours before the semester ends with their questions. After all, the final includes more content on the later untested material than the cumulative, older material.

Week of 4/2/18

Again nobody attended my office hours. I do here that most people go to the professor instead. I do think that I will have some people before finals week but we shall see. Other than that nothing to report.

week of 4/2/18

The class has been learning about electromagnetic radiation and studying its wave property. In Office hours I was able to help a student from a Physics 1 to understand torque and how to use the equation. She sat with me and did about 5 hard problems from the textbook. No-one from physics 2 showed up this week.

3/26 and 4/2

Hello everyone,

The past two weeks have been fairly eventful as students were preparing for their third and final midterm.

I had the pleasure of explaining torque many times and of helping students make sense of seemingly convoluted problems.

As the semester is quickly coming to an end, I will make sure there is a strong end to the semester!

-Mahmoud

Week of 4/2

Was able to help a student out that came to office hours with questions regarding the cumulative material that Dr. Broccio had covered in class. We went over concepts like circuits and magnetic/electric fields. Hope to see more people come for help since finals weeks is near!

Week of 4/2/18

This past week of lecture covered material on oscillation of current and energy in circuits, RLC circuits and the associated current and energy decay, alternating current, and phasors.  Some in-class demonstrations were conducted to help students understand how changing elements in an RLC circuit affects the current decay.  I had 28 students visit my office hours this past week, mainly to work through problems on the exam that they took the previous week.

week of 4/2

One student came to my office hours last week.  I helped clear up some of his confusion regarding the application of Ampere's Law.

Week of 4/2/18

No one came to office hours this week. Hopefully some students will come next week.

Week of 4/2

This week was relatively light, being the week after an exam. The class looks to be wrapping up and there seem to be just a few more new topics before the final. For the moment, I will be focusing more on helping out with the VR labs than with answering questions in office hours.

3/26 and 4/2

Two Students came to my office hours this week. They have some very simple question from Phys - 1 related to the application of torque. Other than that I have discussed with my friends in Phys-2 about their relatively bad performances in Phys-2 and their very common and silly mistakes in exams and helped them with understanding some electricity concepts related to magnetism.

Week of 4/2

Light week. We held a review session on Monday during the normal class period time. I was able to help one student with a torque problem and another student with the right had rule to determine the direction of torque. No students attended my office hours this week, due to the test probably. Hope to see some next week!

week of 4/2

hmm.... so today is the exam day, but I still have no student in this week.

Week of 4/2

This week was busy in office hours, as I saw many students with last minute questions regarding their exam this past Wednesday. I was able to answer their questions regarding torque and spring motion, while also explaining angular momentum concepts that were essential to the exam. In lecture, we held extended office hours and went over student questions, as well. Today, we will continue our study of fluid motion and I hope to help students as much as I can, because I know this topic can be a bit confusing. Hopefully, the exams went well and I'll be seeing more students in office hours to answer questions on the new material.

week of 4/2

The students got their second exam back this week. The results varied but from the people I have talked to I have gotten the sense that it went better than the last one and they were more prepared for the type of problems this time. I had one student come to my office hours this week with a few minor questions and I think that I was able to help her with her questions.

Week of 3/26/18

The past week of lecture material covered inductors and inductance, RL circuits, exponential equations associated with RL circuits, and mutual inductance.  Students had their second exam later that week.  For the entire week, I had 32 students visit my office hours.  Most of them sought assistance with going over quizzes, homework, and practice problems to help prepare for the exam.

Week of 3/26

Nobody came this week to my office hours. It was surprising since they had an exam the following Tuesday. However, I hear people go to the professor's office hours all the time so I am sure they are fine.

Week of 3/26

Sorry for the late post, but there wasn't much to report on last week.  I had zero students show up for my office hours for the first time.  This makes sense though considering my hours were the day after Exam 2 and the day before Easter weekend.

Week of 3/19 and 3/26

I had the same couple of students attend office hours the past two Fridays to work on homework questions. They usually don't have much trouble, but will ask me about concepts that they don't understand if they get a problem wrong. One student came in last Wednesday asking about how to relate Force, Work, and Power in an incline plane question that Dr. Broccio solved in class. By the end of our brief discussion she was able to see the simple connection. Test on Wednesday so hoping the students preparation pays off!

Week of 3/26

No one came to office hours this week. Expecting more students will be in office hours next week since they have an exam on Friday which is also the last exam before the final.

Week of 3/19 and 3/26

No one came to office hours the week of 3/19. Last week I was able to help a few students for Physics 1 with conceptual problems. Hopefully people come this week since their exam is Friday!

Week of 3/19 and 3/26

Sorry for doubling up.

This week and the previous week, I had no one in my office hours. Its been very slow and event-less so far. I did help some students with a clicker questions during lecture.

Also, this week at office hours I helped a student who came for physics 175 with a very simple conceptual question. However, she had come for the other TA who was a bit occupied with some other students at that time so I didn't get her to sign for me. So yeah, I really hope people show up at least close to finals.