9/24

This week, I had one person show up to my office hours. She asked two questions about the written homework, and I was able to clarify some details of the problem for her. Outside of office hours, I met with two of my mentees, one of which for the first time this semester. I made sure to remind them that their first exam is this week, and I sent them all an email with hints and tips on what to study. This week, I'll meet with all three of them, and I'll try my best to prepare them for their first exam.

Week of 9/24

Office hours this week were pretty crazy. Many students seemed to have the same question, but myself and another UTA weren't able to figure it out. This week was the first exam and I am very interested to see how it went for my lecture and to see if that increases the number of students attending office hours.

Rosh Bharthi Week of 9/24

This week, I helped two people in my office hour who needed help on the homework. I met with two of my PhySHIP mentees to go over how to study and provided some help on concepts they wanted cleared up. This weekend, I will email my third mentee what information I went over with the other two so that he can better study and be prepared for next week's first exam.

Week of 9/24

This week, I had one office hour visitor. I helped him through questions he had on previous homework he had trouble understanding and cleared up new concepts we learned in class. He seemed to understand much better by the time he left. I also met with 3 out of my 4 mentees - they are all trying very had studying and preparing for their exam next week. I recommended going over previous homework assignments as well as looking to the book for  a few extra practice problems.

Week of 9-24-18

This week the students had an exam on Wednesday, so I had quite a few people stop by Monday and Wednesday right before the exam. I did not have any come on Friday because they haven't learned any new content yet. A lot of the students ended up asking me to check the validity of their formula sheets to make sure they followed the guidelines and understood what the formulas meant. I seem to be getting the same few people who come to my office hours which makes me feel good because I feel like I am helping them enough that they want to come back for more support. 

Week of 9/24

The students have their first exam on Friday, which resulted in a big turnout during all three days of my office hours this week. On Tuesday I had six students come in for help preparing for the test.

Many of the students came in with questions about how to prepare for the exam. I was glad that I was able to help alleviate some of their stress regarding the exam by sharing some study tips and test taking skills that have worked well for me in the past.

The students also had a lot of questions on the study guide and homework problems they were given, particularly problems regarding force and tension. Many of them had conceptual misunderstandings regarding tension that I was able to clear up.

Week of 9/24

Surprisingly, no one showed up this week even though we had an exam on wednesday. Hopefully everyone did well on the exam and I hope to see more students

Week of 9/24

I had eight people in my office hours on Tuesday for both 0110 and 0174. The biggest problem in the 0174 crowd seemed to be the force on three boxes problem that we did in lecture this week. I also had one person today with a couple of conceptual questions before the first midterm. The biggest problem overall seems to be finding a good systematic approach to kinematics problems, although another common issue I am running into is a lack of understanding of vector addition and subtraction, which has caused issues with more complicated kinematics problems as we have moved deeper into the semester.

week of 9/24

We had our first exam this week. My office hours are on Tuesday, and the test was on Wednesday. 4 students came to my office hours in order to prepare for the test. The extra practice problems on Sapling seemed to be more challenging than the regular homework questions as all four of the students asked questions about these problems. However, the problems were very helpful, as they ensured that students had an opportunity to exercise problem solving skills and their understanding of concepts. Most students had a great grasp on mathematical concepts and just needed clarification of physics concepts as they pertain to projectile motion.

week of 9/24

I had no students come to my office hours this week but I received a lot of emails with questions regarding study tips for the exams. I was glad I was able to help alleviate some stress for the students as I was in the same position last year.

Week 5

This week the students had their first exam. Because of this, there were many students came in to my office hours. I was glad to be able to assist students with the same worries I had going into my first exam.

Hatridge Week 4

On Monday, I had a student from a different class come in and ask a few questions about a friction pulley and some multiple choice concepts. On Wednesday, I had another two students come in from Nero's class and assisted them in understanding core concepts in homework problems and gave them advice about test-taking. Later on Wednesday, I and the other 0174 UTA are assisted Dr. Hatridge in passing out exams to the class.

So far, I have seen the trend that the students who have visited me feel confident in kinematics and forces. However, the axes directions, negative/positive signs, and incline problems seem to confuse them the most.   

Week of 9/17

This week I met with the remainder of my mentoring partners.  I also attended lectures for the classes and brushed up on my Gauss' Law. I had a lot of students again at office hours and got a few opportunities to practice some of the teaching skills I learned at the UTA workshop.

Week of 9/17

Office hours were pretty busy this week as students prepared for their first exam. Most requested help on grasping the main concepts of one- and two-dimensional kinematics, as well as help on specific Sapling problems. I've started to notice that some of the same students return to my office hours, which is beneficial as the more I know about their learning style/understanding, the better I can personalize my advice.

Week of 9/17

No students showed up to my office hours this week. This is a bit surprising since there is an exam coming up this Wednesday. Hopefully they come to my Monday office hours for exam review.

Week of 9-17

This week I held office hours, but nobody came. In class we are working on kinematics. The first exam of the semester will be on Wednesday. There aren't any in-class participation points or assigned homework problems that have helped me gauge where students are in understanding the material. I am hoping students will stop by in office hours this week or email me if they need anything before the exam.

Week of 9/24

My office hours started ramping up in terms of attendance last week. Most of the time, students just wanted to work on Homework problems, but there were a few who had conceptual questions and one who had brought in some book problems.

I very seldom have anyone come in during Monday office hours. This Friday will be the first Exam of the class, so I am expecting to see a lot of activity on Wednesday and especially on Friday.

Week of 9/17
I attended three lectures this week. We had several interactive lectures this week in preparation for an upcoming exam. I expected to have people attend my office hours this week because the exam is on September 26, but no one from the section I UTA for visited. However, I was able to assist a student from the 0174 section of Physics 1 with a few homework problems.

9/17

This week, we continued Gauss's Law and went through various examples in class. Although no one came to my office hours, I met with two students outside of class. My main focus for the meetings was to cover the integration of electric fields for various types of line charges (linear, arc, and ring). The students said they found it helpful, and that the most difficult part for them was setting up the pictures. Afterwards, they were able to implement the picture into an electric field equation pretty easily.

Also, next Wednesday is their first exam, so I'm planning to meet with the students 1-2 more times before then to make sure they are ready.

Week of 09/17

This week I had one student come to office hours. I was able to help them gain a better sense of what the exam will cover. We also went over a few electric field and flux problems so they could get a better sense of how to approach them. I was also able to help students in class with their clickers, which focused mainly on electric field and flux. Overall I believe it was a good week and I hope the students are preparing for their exam that is next Friday!

week of 9/17

I had students come to each of my office hours this week. Some of them had questions about the Sapling homework while others had questions about the test format and what they should focus on when studying. I was able to tell them about my experience in the class and what I did to study for the test. One student in particular had trouble with how to approach word problems so I was able to do some word problems with her and break them down into smaller steps.

Week of 9-17-18

This week, I had people come to all of my office hours. I feel like since we are getting more into the harder content of physics like freefall and using the kinematics equations, people have more concerns. Also, there is an exam next Wednesday, so I had a lot of questions about the best ways to study and I shared how I got the most out of the class. Generally when students come to my office hours, they come needing help in Sapling homework and it is usually the same questions across all my hours. The students that came this week made it known how much my office hours helped them understand concepts and it truly made me feel appreciated and honored to have been given this position. 

Week of 9/17

Office hour this week was uneventful. However I had two incredibly productive meetings with one of my mentees: as I further explained the E-field in relation to an insulator's charge density, I could literally see her come to understand the material. It was an extremely gratifying experience. With another of my mentees, I am a bit frustrated - he seems very tired and almost resistant to the material. I will keep trying my best to get him excited about physics.

Week of 9/17 - Rosh Bharthi

This week, I met with two Physics II students in office hours and 2 of my mentees. I scheduled to meet my third mentee on Friday. For the people I met, they all had difficulties with applying Gauss's law. I explained the conceptual basics of Gauss's law to all of them. For the 2 mentees, they immediately began to understand it after the explanation and were able to do the homework problems on their own; this was beyond my expectations to see them grasp the concept so quickly. I anticipate in the future that I will have to explain topics in a simple, conceptual way so that the students can understand and use those concepts to take on more difficult problems. Students tend to get overwhelmed by complex derivation problems, so I will have to help them not over-complicate the problems and simplify the questions as much as possible.

Week of 9/17

During my office hours on Wednesday, I had the biggest turnout of students coming for help. There were four people there, which was overwhelming at first, because they all had different questions, and I was used to only having one or maybe two students at a time. I wanted to make sure that they all got something valuable out of the time. Having a group there actually proved to be a good thing,  because the students were able to work together and help each other out, along with receiving guidance from me. I think that having them work together in a group to answer each other's questions really helped them to learn. I find that explaining the material to others actually helps me to understand it even better and begin to better grasp difficult concepts.

Week of 09/17

I had one person come to office hours on Tuesday. We worked on some conceptual problems and some homework problems. I was also able to help another student remotely. Overall, it was a very good week! I felt good to be able to help out with some of the more difficult kinematics problems and with a common conceptual difficulty regarding Newton's 3rd Law.

Week 9/17

Students first exam is next Wednesday, so there have been many more students in UTA office hours than normal. I have been helping students come up with study plans and figuring out how to best utilize their resources in order to prepare for the coming exam. I assume that my office hours next Monday and Tuesday will be exceedingly busy as well.

week 9/10

This week people who started to utilize TA hours for homework help. One girl came in for clarification on material. It seemed interested that people often had the exact same questions and concerns I had while taking the class. People in class seem more comfortable asking for help on class questions as well.

Week of 9/10

I have had a handful of students come to my office hours this week. Many of them had questions about problems on the sapling homework. I started out by asking them what they did to solve the problem (i.e. what steps they took). Then I asked what information the problem gave them. I had them break down the problems, and as they were explaining to me what their thought process was and analyzing their work, with guidance from me this was often enough to get them to realize what their mistake was, or help them to understand a concept that they were struggling with. I felt that this way of learning was beneficial to me when I took the class because it forces you to think about the problem and actively participate in solving it, rather than simply being given the answer.

Blog post week of 09/10/18

I forgot to make a post last week, but during office hours on Tuesday I helped two girls with a couple of Sapling problems. We focused on breaking down problems into their component parts and creating a plan to approach each component. I did not have my office hour on Thursday as it conflicted with the UTA training session, which was a great resource.

9/17 Howe

Today, while walking to my first Office Hours of the week, I realized I never wrote a blog post for last week. Oops.

Last Week, no one came on Monday, likely due to the rain, but I had several people in on Wednesday and Friday. They mostly wanted to review Homework problems they got incorrect or were shaky on.

I thought the information session we had Thursday from 3-5 was quite interesting. I was a little overwhelmed at first however; I figured we just had the room til 5 and would be done sooner. That was not the case, but that wasn't a bad thing; we covered a lot of interesting facets of this position.

Hatridge Week 3

Once again, no students attended office hours. I presume the early hours of a Monday morning cause students to not want to come in. It's understandable, but I do hope to see some new faces as material increases in difficulty.

9/10

This week, I had one student show up during my office hours. He had one question on the online homework, and another for the written homework. He mostly solved the online homework -- he just needed to change a sign from negative to positive. For the written homework, I helped him get started on it. I reviewed with him what Dr. Hong taught in class, since integrating to find electric fields can be difficult at first. For most students, it's the first time they're applying integrals to solve problems, so it will take several attempts until they feel comfortable with integration problems. I expect to see a lot more students ask for help within the next few weeks, as the course gets harder and the exam is approaching.

Week of 9/10

This week I held my first office hours, attended two lectures, and attended the UTA work shop. No students attended office hours while I was there, but I think they will start to pick up now that we have started kinematics and the material is less straightforward.
Lectures are very straight-forward. There are no participation points or anything, so I'm hopeful students will attend office hours to try and engage with the material a bit more.
I am hopeful I'll have some attendance tomorrow morning in office hours because I am looking forward to being able to use what I know to help other students.

WEEK OF 9/10

This week I had my second office hour which several students came too and I helped them on the online homework. Most of their questions were on wording or format but some students were clearly more lost than others. I compiled a list of things that people seemed to trip up on to send to Dr Hong. We also had our first group grading meeting on Wednesday which was really productive as well as the UTA training on Thursday where I learned a lot about teaching styles.

Week of 9-10

This week in office hours, I only had one person come on Friday to ask me questions on the sapling homework for the whole week. The person who came was the same person who came to my office hours last Friday which was exciting for me knowing that she felt safe and I helped her enough that she wanted to come back to me for help. The questions were on the kinematics equations in one dimension.

I attended three lectures this week. On Monday there was a somewhat traditional "sit and listen" type of lecture. On Wednesday and Friday, class was more interactive, as students were required to answer a set of clicker problems and collaboration was strongly encouraged. I feel that I was able to assist students who had questions about the problems without plainly giving away the answers.

I did not have any visitors during my office hours, but I expect some in the future  because the material is getting more challenging.

Additionally, I feel that the mandatory science UTA seminar on Thursday was especially helpful because I have never been a UTA before. I am glad that I attended.

9/10

I did not get anyone for office hours but was able to clear up many misconceptions while the students were doing group problems in class. This week we covered electricity and I feel like the students are grasping the concepts pretty well.

Week of 9/10

This week, I had two students come to my office hours for help with the Sapling homework. Both were struggling with interpreting velocity vs. time and position vs. time graphs, in addition to seeking help for a challenging one-dimensional kinematics question. By walking through the problems with the students and giving them advice on how to solve them, I feel as though I was able to help them better understand the material. Additionally, this was the first week of graded clicker questions during lecture. I was able to help students approach specific problems as I walked around the room during lecture. I'm hoping that as lectures become more problem-solving focused, more students will seek out my office hours for additional help, if needed.

Week of 9/10 - Rosh Bharthi

For this week, one student came to my office hours to ask questions about the homework. I helped clarify some points and made sure he understood the process for solving the problem. I met with my PhySHIP mentees. The meetings allowed me to learn a bit about each student's situation regarding why they might need extra help, and I got to learn more about what their concerns were. In the future, I anticipate helping them by tailoring my teaching style towards their learning styles.

Week of 09/10

This week I had one student come to my office hours. She was having a bit of trouble understanding a kinematics problems so I helped her derive the kinematics equations and understand how to approach each of the problems. I think by the end she finally understand how to solve almost any kinematics problem by using physics concepts.

Hatridge Week 2

9/12/2018 - Wednesday 8:00-10:00am

No students attended my office hours. In lecture, we covered topics such as dimensions, force vectors, kinetic equations, and position/velocity/acceleration vs time graphs.

Week of 9/10

During my office hour, no students from Physics 2 came, but I did help two students in Physics 1 with basic kinematics problems. Outside my office hour, I met with each of my PhySHIP mentees. These meetings went very well: I helped to clarify the concept of electric fields, as well as provide problem-solving and time management strategies.

week 2 of office hours

This week i encountered two students in my thursday office hours. One of the students was in a different lecture than the one I am assigned to. It was a little difficult at first to help her as I was not sure what her teacher had covered thus far. Additionally, she had a different sapling homework assignment than the one that had been assigned to the students in Dr. Broccio's class. However, I was able to help her understand and navigate the homework problems.

PHYS 0175: 9/3

This week, I held office hours for the first time and already got to meet one student. In fact, she was in the room before I even sat down. I was surprised to see someone during the first week, considering previous blog posts describe very little to no students showing up. Regardless, her questions were with the written homework, and dealt with concepts that Dr. Hong planned on going over during the next lecture. For the other homework problems, I helped her fix any errors with vector notation and her confusion about the unit vector.

Outside of office hours, I haven't met with any of my mentees in person, and only one has contacted me through email so far.

Week of 9/3

I attended two lectures this week, as there were no classes on Monday. My office hours were on Tuesday, and I had no visitors. It is more likely that students will attend in the upcoming weeks because the UTA office hours schedule has now been posted on course web.

Week of 9/3

We only had one lecture this week, and I didn't hold office hours since there were no classes on Monday. Tomorrow will be my first office hours. I know the material pretty well and the lectures are a good review. I expect office hours to be a bit slow but start to pick up in the next week or so.
I made a review sheet and solutions last week for Courseweb and I'm hoping students found it instructive.

PHYS 175 Week #1

This week I held office hours where I met with three students. All of them needed help with the online homework. I was able to help all of them-- most of their issues were small algebraic errors. Since it is early on in the course, the concepts aren't too tricky for most people yet. I also met with my mentor partners and that was very beneficial! We talked about their college career so far, what their strategy is, and how they plan to stay on top of things. I shared my personal experiences taking the course and what had worked for me.  I am excited to keep meeting with them, I think that my presence in the course will help them hold themselves accountable for their work ethic. They seemed to be very self motivated students who really wanted to succeed.

PHYS 0110 Week 1

This week was my first week holding office hours for the fall 2018 semester. Though no students stopped by my office hours, I'm hoping that, as the material gets more complex and students finalize their schedules for the semester, my office hours will become busier. This week I was also able to help students with in-class exercises, and I'm looking forward to continuing this task during many more classes to come.

This week as a TA I held tutoring hours for the first time. This was exciting for me as it felt like my first opportunity to directly impact students education. In class, I have also been able to help out during class problems more and more frequently.

Week of 9/3

For my office hours this week, I had two students come on Friday, September 7 at 11 am. No one came to my hours on Wednesday because they were not informed of our available hours yet. Both the students that came to my hours had the same question about a Sapling homework problem. The problem was dealing with three vectors, A, B, and C that added to equal zero, and they needed to find the magnitude of A and B knowing C and the angle of A and B from the x axis. The problem the students seemed to be having was solving for one of the variables in one equation and plugging it into the other. They seemed to have no problem setting up some type of equation with the correct signs for the vectors; they were just unsure of how to continue from there. A concern they had was that the video modules were simple problems and they were never introduced to something with three vectors, so they found it challenging. With some guidance, they were able to go through the algebra and plug in the correct values to solve. Also, one of the students was slightly confused with dimensional analysis and the difference between adding and subtracting, and multiplying and dividing. With time and actual word problems with units in them, I think she will find it easier to compare units and solve for the correct value.

Week of 9/03

Nobody stopped by during my office hours this week. That’s expected as the material is still not conceptually difficult yet. I bet more students will come as we get closer to the first exam.

Week of 9/3

I had my first office hour this past Tuesday. One student attended, and I helped him on vectors and a dot product problem. He had a question about a stability problem, where I explained the overall basics. He also asked questions about the class in general and how it's structured, which I was able to explain to him.

Week of 09/03

I had office hours on both Tuesday and Thursday this week and did not receive any visitors. We have still only had two lectures, though, so hopefully things will pick up as the material becomes more challenging. I'm excited to help!

week of 9/3

Today (Thursday 9/6) was my first time holding office hours for Physics 0110. No students came but this is expected as the material has just started and will eventually get harder. I'm excited to help as many people as I can this semester.

Week of 9/3

No students in office hour this week, however the class material has not become exceedingly difficult...yet. I'm sure students will seek help when the course picks up in pace.

Week of 9/5/18

This week is the first week of office hours. I have held two sessions so far this week; no students have shown up for help yet, but i expect that will change as the content in the course gets more difficult and they begin getting more homework assignments. I am excited to have the opportunity to help students succeed in this course.

9/5 Nero 174

This is my first time writing in any sort of blog post, both for this class and in general, so bare with me.

I am about fifteen minutes into my first hour of Office Hours, it being 10:17 on Wednesday. Monday would have been my first day, but this was not the case due to Labor Day.

There has not been any activity yet, but it is also only the second week of classes, so I expect attendance to ramp up as the work gets harder.

I'm excited to be able to help others in a subject I like, but am nervous to see how much I remember off the top of my head. I planned to bring my Notes from this class along with me for reference on how I worked through these problems, but I forgot to bring it to office hours. Hopefully I will have it for Friday, but I doubt I will need it for the first several weeks.

Hatridge Week 1 (Wednesday)

No students came into the office today, but I expect more to come in as homeworks start to roll in more and the material gets more difficult.

First Week of PHYS0174

This week, I attended the first two lectures for the section of PHYS0174 to which I have been assigned. There was some confusion because the professor did not have access to Courseweb or to his Pitt email until late this week.
The teaching style I observed is very different from the teaching style of the professor I had when I took the course, so I am excited to be able to use that experience as a way to help students throughout the semester who may need a different viewpoint on the material.
I created a worksheet and solutions reviewing what was covered in Week 1 to be posted on Courseweb as I will not have office hours this coming week due to Labor Day.