Through my own experiences as a student, I believe some of the best ways to learn come from working with and applying concepts from classes. Being able to personalize the subject matter allows the material to be absorbed, as you can see how it shapes the real world and not just your lecture hall. This sort of critical thinking is very important to the learning experience, especially now in the mists of the COVID-19 pandemic. Where many other facets of traditional learning have been disrupted, being able to write about and reflect on a topic is still an accessible means of learning, computerized or otherwise.

Open and honest lines of communication with your instructor is also an important aspect of education. Being able to have a conversation with your teacher and connecting with them can influence their perception of the material. Making and forging connections with students can motivate them to do well. The attitude and approachability of a professor can drastically change their effectiveness in my experience. All of my favorite subjects can be tied back to a very motivated teacher who cared about sharing their knowledge.

My primary job as undergrad teaching assistant for both the spring 2021 and the summer 2021 semesters were grading discussion boards. The discussion boards fall exactly into what I believe is one of the best methods of teaching, real world application. Each discussion board had a prompt tying back into the previous material and challenged the students to think critically and apply the ideas to their own life, or the real world.

Near the start of both semesters, I reached out to the class via email to introduce myself, due to my belief that open lines of communication are beneficial to students. Unfortunately, I couldn’t reach out as much as I would have liked due to COVID-19 and the online nature of this class.  Nonetheless, I opened myself up as a resource to the class. I only had a few students take advantage of talking to me, however I like to believe that made a difference. 

During the summer 2021 semester I had regular office hours on Monday and Thursday, from 3pm to 5:30pm. My goal with that was to provide quick answers to questions the students may have had. While nearly all of the correspondence fell to email chains, I did offer other methods of communication such as Zoom. This of course falls in line with the importance of communication idea as discussed before. I wanted students to feel like they could come to me with issues they had in understanding the subject matter, or questions on why they received the grade they did on any discussion board. Shrouding things such as that in mystery helps no one, I wanted to ensure everyone was on the same page the best I could.