Self-evaluation 

Upon reflecting on my experience as an undergraduate teaching assistant. I have concluded that I have various strengths and weaknesses to work on. One strength that I displayed throughout my UTA experience was attention to detail. I believe that I am a detailed oriented person. I try to read through everything as thoroughly and carefully as possible so that I do not mess up in any way. I believe this strength has allowed me to grade the course material accurately for the most part. This strength of being detail-oriented has also led me to double-check the assignments I’ve graded to ensure accuracy. Another strength that I believe contributed to my success as a UTA was that I asked questions if I wasn’t sure about an assignment. This allowed me to comprehend the course material to the best of my ability. I found that I had a general interest in the subject material, this enthusiasm would be a strength because being interested in the course material positively affected how I approached grading the participation and extra credit assignments. Although I have not taken the Lifespan Development course myself, I have taken a similar course adulthood and aging. This gave me insight into some of the assignments given. Also having general knowledge related to the psychology field was a significant strength for me throughout this course. 

Although I believe I did well as a teaching assistant, there are some things that I believe I could improve on. Although I mentioned attention to detail as a strength, I believe this was also one of my biggest weaknesses at the same time. As I mentioned previously, I have an attention to detail mainly because I do not want to mess up and grade assignments inaccurately. I believe this focus on my performance caused me to grade activities at a slower pace than I would have if I didn’t obsess over every aspect of the assignment. This relates to or is caused by another weakness I believe I possess which is performance anxiety. I worry that I am going to mess up so I tend to overthink things which, counterintuitively could cause me to make mistakes I otherwise would not have. I believe the best way to address this weakness is to take a step back and try to relax and calm myself before grading any assignments. Recognizing that I possibly have performance anxiety is a great first step in the process of overcoming this weakness. I would eliminate the weakness of performance anxiety/over-focusing on my performance by reminding myself that no one is perfect and attempting to not set unrealistic expectations for myself. If I had an opportunity to be a UTA again, I would try to get out of my head and focus more on the course objectives and what is required of me instead of worrying about whether I am messing up throughout the experience. I believe that I would also grade the assignments as the students submit them instead of waiting to grade the assignments in one sitting. This also caused me to double-check everything as I was grading a lot of assignments at once. Overall, I believe that I did a good job as an undergrad teaching assistant. Although there are some things that I would have liked to of done differently, I am proud of what I accomplished and deeply value the experience and opportunity that was presented to me.