Week 1

I helped 2 students this week, but I had told them that I was a UTA and because I knew them outside of class. Other than that, no other students came to my office hours. I do not think that the class knows about it because our professor never announced it publicly. The two students that I helped out seemed to have more trouble with math then physics. I had to help them with trig and simplifying equations. I just helped them when they had homework questions but they seemed to do fine with most of the problems

Week 1

Week 1 consisted of no office hours. My faculty mentor (Nero) wanted us to wait till the week of the 19th to start office hours. I am currently in my first office hours, hoping people will seek help. I will post later in the week about my sessions.

The lectures have been straight forward. The majority of students answer the clicker questions correctly, so I assume they understand the material. They have an exam next tuesday, so I am hoping a few students come this thursday (5 days before the exam).

Week 1

This first week has been quite uneventful as a Physics UTA: no students showed up to either of my study sessions. I also don't believe many of the students have checked the Courseweb for the UTA session times yet. Later in the semester, as they get closer to the first test, I will probably have more students attend my study session for last minute help. This lectures have been very straight forward and I haven't noticed anyone that appeared to be struggling with the material.

Week 1

My professor didn't give the students UTAs' office hour information until Friday. So no one came to my office hour this week. It is not a bad thing for me to have a week to do the homework assignment and prepare for the group session. 

When attending the lecture, I listened carefully to the professor and focused specifically on how he explained complex problems to students. I began to realize how different it is between learning physics well and explaining it clearly to others. I also noted down some questions asked by students during lectures so that I could prepare my group session better.

 I still feel a little nervous for the upcoming week, but also excited to help others to learn physics, one of my favorite subjects. I prefer to help students individually. But if there are more than 3 students coming together, I would consider a group discussion.

Week 1

This week I assisted 0 students (I did not hold office hours)

I was expecting to start my UTA office hours this week, but was surprised to find out on Tuesday that Professor Nero did not need me to start until next week. This was nice because it gave me an extra three hours to do whatever I wanted, but I was definitely a little disappointed that I didn't get to start. I was (and still am) excited, and a little nervous, about starting my office hours.

On Monday night I formulated my review sheet and looked over the homework questions so I knew what to expect on Tuesday. Unfortunately, this was a waste of my time, but it definitely made me feel more confident about what I would be facing in office hours. The methods to solving the homework questions came back to me much more easily than I expected. I was confident that I would be able to help with any of them, and I hope that this holds true for future homework assignments as well.

My strategy going into this week was to break everyone into small groups, and I plan on sticking to that strategy. I think it will work well for me. With that in mind, I will still be open to changing up my style based on the number of students I have and the  needs of those students.

Although I didn't start this week, I am excited to start next week, and I am much less nervous than I was a week ago.

Week 1

I have to say I was a little nervous coming into my UTA session, but once I started everything came naturally for the most part. When the session started, there was soon about 5 students in the class. The first student who came in was communicative with respect to the help he needed (mostly on understanding the homework), but the rest of the students were for the most part passive listeners as I went over the problems. Even though I initially stated over the weekend that I wanted to divide the session into groups, I found myself subconsciously gravitating towards going over problems to the chalk board. This is what I am most used to when it comes to assisting others so I think I might just stick to it unless I receive some other feedback.

After about 2 hours, the first group of 5 students all left almost at once but they were quickly replaced by 2 more students. These students were more concerned with walking through some of the concepts and derivations that were shown in lecture. I definitely preferred helping in this manner because I didn't have to worry as much about giving the students too much help on the homework.

There were a few times where I initially made a mistake or took the wrong path when solving a problem but I was able to right the ship in those instances. Being confident in the material helped me to calm the nerves and to be honest the 3 hours flew by. All in all I had 7 students attending my session last night (1/15/15).

Welcome UTA Bloggers!

Hello UTAs,

This is the forum in which you will be posting your responses for the week in regards to your lectures, office hours, and over all thoughts and feelings about your pedagogic experience thus far. This is also a networking opportunity and support group among your fellow peers/colleagues.

We do ask that in the beginning of every post that you specify how many students you assisted (we suggest a sign in sheet) so that the A.R.C. can track how many students utilize our UTAs (this is included as a stipulation in your contract) and that your posts are consistent on a week to week basis (this is NOT the place to vent about professors and others...that's what Twitter is for).

In short welcome and I look forward to working with each and every one of you in the upcoming semester!

Best of Luck!


Caitlyn Hunter
Undergraduate Coordinator
Physics and Astronomy Department
University of Pittsburgh