Weeks of 10/16 and 10/23

Again, apologies for the double-post, first week's post slipped my mind entirely.
Now that we're well into second-exam material, I've noticed the course content is getting significantly more sophisticated.  Most notably, circuit analysis and magnetic fields.  The former I'm able to help with very well, since I'm taking circuits right now, but magnetic fields haven't come back to me as easily as the other concepts.  For the first time, I've actually had to look back in my old notes and re-learn the concepts myself!  A lot of the time, enough students come to my office hours at once that they like to collaborate with each other while I'm helping one out, but it's slightly humiliating trying to work out an answer for a concept you don't fully remember and then getting the wrong answer anyway.  I'm definitely reaching a point as a UTA where I'm going to have to put in more effort than just showing up to class, grading, and office hours if I want to make sure I'm not as equally lost as the students coming into my hours.
Grading and lecture attendance has been going as usual.  I haven't been able to make some lectures on account of interviews, but I do consistently make Friday lectures.  It's certainly getting harder to find the motivation to wake up and get to a lecture 2-3 hours before my next class when I only answer maybe 1 or 2 clicker questions per lecture.  Perhaps there's a better way to utilize UTAs in this regard?

-Jeffrey Socash

Week of Halloween 10/31

This week was not particularly busy, which is always kind of a bummer, but at least I was able to get some work done for other classes. A student who regularly comes in came in today which was nice, and I was able to help him out. I think I'm making a good impact on him, because he is trying to figure out more of the problems on his own before asking for help. This feels really good because I haven't really felt useful or helpful these past few weeks and now I am helping at least one person. This is the sort of thing I was expecting when I signed up for being a UTA and it makes me excited to come to office hours. 

Week of 10/23

This week only two people came in, which is much better than the last few weeks. I was able to help with their problems and it didn't seem like they were too lost in class, just looking to verify their answers. One of the students was from Physics 2, which I do not normally TA for, but nobody else was in and I am currently in a Linear Circuits class that helped me answer her circuit questions, so I was grateful I knew what I was doing and able to help.

Week of Oct. 23

New week, same thing. No one came to my office hours, so once again I had very little to do this week. My UTA position is starting to bore me a lot, and this experience has definitely made me not want to do it again.

Week of 10/23

This week I had the same student come to my office hours that I've been getting every week. I helped her out with physics, and we bonded over our hatred for organic chemistry. The clicker questions in class are definitely taking more thought lately, but all in all things are going smoothly.

Week of 10/23

On Wednesday, three students came to office hours. They all had questions about a problem where a bomb is 80m in the air and explodes. They needed to find the velocity of one of the fragments, how far apart the fragments land, and the energy given off by the explosion. I think the hardest part was finding how far apart they land, because you needed to use a combination of energy and kinematics.

On Friday, a student from Physics 2 came to office hours. She had questions regarding circuits. The first was regarding a voltage source with an internal resistance, and the second was regarding a circuit with two capacitors. I had forgotten some of the equations needed, but after working through the problems together for a few minutes we found the solutions.

week of 10/23

there is not any student came over my office hour, they just had an exam on Monday, and the average is 75, it is not too bad! and it's already over half of the semester, we are getting there! good luck everyone! keep up the hard work!