Every year, a handful of juniors end up having a free period due to various scheduling reasons. But, we don't let them sit idle. Instead, they become TAs. This may sound like a cruel thing to do, but they really seem to love the responsibility. For us, grading endless quizzes, for example, just isn't quite as entertaining as it used to be. But for them, it is a brand-spanking new rush of power! Ahh.. remember that first A you gave? That first F? Can you smell the red ink? Ok, I use DCP purple and orange... They even seem to like things like organizing files and cleaning lab equipment. Go figure.
I just got a TA assigned to me during my one Algebra 2 period. She was in my Algebra 2 honors class last year, and earned an A+. She'll be grading the daily homework quizzes, grading other quizzes from my Numeracy class while I lecture (ok, she can do her own homework if I don't have anything to grade that day...), and helping tutor students in the class during individual/pair/group work time. She starts tomorrow and I am psyched.
Thinking Thursday: Earth’s Belt
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5 comments:
Purple and orange! Finally made the connection between your blog color scheme and the DCP school colors -
Congrats with the TA!
The joys of having a competent TA are boundless, I know --I'm lucky enough to have one of my math team kids as a TA. Bonus - he is also a tech god.
Enjoy!
Many of our students do office work. A 'lucky few' work in my (scheduling) office one period per week. I'm sure they'd love to grade, but, you know, partial credit? and I don't use multiple choice or T/F....
I temporarily have a senior TA in my algebra 1 class. He's just there waiting for a spot to open up in another 4th period class. I had him 2 years ago in pre-calc.
Anyway, I was giving a test on Friday, and was grading tests from the previous period. A student whispered something, and before I could even raise my head to see what was going on, this senior barked out, "Hey, no talking. Get to work."
Did I mention that he's in the Sea Cadets and is trying for a spot at the Naval Academy? That he's in fantastic shape and has a buzz cut?
There were no more problems that period :-)
My TA isn't quite that intimidating to the other students, but maybe I can get her in a training program.
In terms of partial credit, the Algebra 2 homework quizzes she is grading don't allow for any, even though we usually don't use true/false or MC either. I figure that there should be no partial credit available on a problem that you were assigned for homework, and given the answers to ahead of time. Especially since I make myself available for homework help before school for an hour everyday.
That being said, I think that I would trust her to do partial credit if I gave a detailed scoring guide to go along with the non-homework quizzes. Last Friday we had the homework quiz and a short open-notes quiz, and she had them both graded and recorded in my grade book by the end of the period. That rocks.
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