Week of 4/17 (Final Week)

Tom Reynolds
Physics 175
MWF Dr. Mueller

This week no one came.  Not one person had any questions for the final. Weird.

This semester has really been all over the place.  For the first half of the semester, I was getting quite a lot of students.  I felt really good about what I was doing.  I was getting through to them and I think they were really understanding it.

As for myself, I'm at the point where I can solve these problems with ease.  I can look at the integrals and sometimes the problems themselves and solve them just by inspection. This is good because this semester has been a lot of people coming with a myriad of topics and all wanting me to help them immediately.  I was able to look at the problem, figure out what it was asking, solve it and then formulate a way to explain it all in a few seconds.   At this point I feel I could take on an even larger role than I have now (not that I'd be allowed to).  This semester was not only useful to the students but also useful to me.

Things that could be improved: I feel my time in lecture was not useful.  Dr. Mueller asked clicker questions and I walked around the class to help during that time but I did not get any questions.  I also do not need any more lessons on this material, although watching demos is still fun. Maybe my time would have been better served in the recitations? It could be worth a try in the future.

Final week and reflection

My last week of office hours were actually pretty empty - one person came in. However at Hillman library on Friday night when the homework was due, 9 students found me while I was studying to help them with the last homework problem. This was over the course of like an hour and a half, and I practically got nothing done that night since I spent all my time with the physics kids.

The question was actually incredibly difficult, I couldn't even figure it out. It was the final homework question of the semester and had to do with destructive and constructive interference and I thought we had the proper formula but it required a huge algebraic equation that no one could solve. I asked two other TAs but no one knew how to do it. Still bothers me when I think about it, I don't like getting stumped



Anyway, this concludes my semester being a UTA for physics. I enjoyed it thoroughly (a lot more than I thought I would, and I had already anticipated it being a good time!). Do wish more kids came to my office hours so I could be of more use, a lot of weeks felt like time wasted at empty office hours. Overall found it to be a very valuable experience, I plan to UTA for more classes in the future.

Logging off,

Leon

Week 4/17

This week no one came to my office hour.

Week of April 17

This was my last office hours of the semester!! Although I thought I would have a good number of students show up this week, I ended up having only about 3, which I think is one of the least I've had this semester. I'm guessing its either the students feel super psyched and ready for the finals and the weeks' homework was easy or students haven't started studying for exams yet and so have got no questions. Being the kind of student I am, I'm leaning towards the latter.
Anyway, the students who showed up brought questions from the week's homework and I was able to assist with most of those questions. I've also got questions from anxious students about how to study for the final both in and out of office hours and I was able to advise them on what I thought were important to focus on and on what helped me succeed.

Week of April 17

A few students came to office hours this week with questions about the upcoming final exam. Most of the questions were related to the new material on diffraction and interference, but I still got a few clarification questions about magnetism and circuits.

Week of the 17th

Last week I did not have anyone at my office hours. It was the week before the final, so I expected people to come. Based of what Dr. Liu gave as examples in the class, I think the final will be difficult. I think that he will put questions on the final that integrate a lot of concepts from all of the different chapters in the course. Thus, students must have a good understanding of the all of the chapters to solve problems. In addition, because it will be multiple choice so students will not receive partial credit. I think the best way to study is to do problems from the homework, because those are the concepts that Dr. Liu thinks is important. In addition, a lot of these problems tie together concepts from different parts of the course which will prepare students for the final.

Week of April 17th

I did not have any visitors to office hours this week, even though it was right before the final exam.
Being a UTA was a great experience however, and I am thankful for the opportunity.