Being a TA at UCR Eamonn Keogh Outline
Being a TA at UCR Eamonn Keogh Outline In this brief talk, we will see • Why doing a good job as a TA is important • Some tricks for communicating clearly
The Basic Idea • TAs are the face of the CS Department – Critical for undergraduate education • You need to take it seriously • Teaching can be a lot of fun • Good practice for public speaking
How can you achieve this? • You need the right attitude – Pride, professionalism • You need to – Prepare – Communicate – Support each other
Having the right mentality • You are being paid by the taxpayer • TAs and Instructors are on the same team • Assume the role with pride: – You are the Dpt, you are the course, you are the lab • Communicate and speak up – Follow the decisions made by the team – Express concerns and objections politely • Be cooperative and proactive – Be a team player – Help other TAs
Being interactive • Feel your class and adapt • Students are afraid to ask or answer – Encourage them! • Best trick: long pauses work well – Try waiting for 3 seconds • Use questions: – Help you see if they follow. • Answer every question: – Even if to only promise to follow up later – But, take irrelevant material offline – Admit when you don’t know
Preparation • Think about your audience, goal, context. • Develop your plan (slides, notes, speech) – Target to the needs of your audience. • Rehearse, prepare mentally – Make sure you know what you are talking about. – Have a few skeleton points in front of you. – Have fully worked out difficult parts • Useful tip – Say what you plan to say – Say it – Say what you have said
Oral communication • Speak in a way that feels natural but – Loud, and slow. • Speak as in a one-on-one conversation. • Make eye contact: a few is enough • Mind your body language: – Don’t pace up and down nervously – Don’t fidget with your hands – Videotape?
Written communication • • • Write legibly, don’t rush Use large enough letters! Try to be concise and clear Don’t keep your back to the class What you write should capture the lesson: – Main important points – In a stand alone fashion, is possible
Conclusion • A TA represents the Dpt and UCR: – Be professional • Do your job well – It can be very satisfying
You are evaluated by the students • The students must evaluate you. • At a minimum, two people at grad division, plus Amy Ricks will read your evaluations. • If you a very good. . there is an Award. • If you are very bad – You can be forced to take remedial classes – You can be denied employment (by either grad division or Amy) – Your advisor can be informed.
Least liked TA attributes • Our TA speaks too softly (Number 1 problem) • My TA is not fair – Vague definition of fairness though • • My TA is not helpful, s/he does not know… My TA is arrogant and condescending. Our TA is never in his/her scheduled office hours. My TA favors certain students.
Cheating • Most of the anti-cheating responsibility lies with the prof
Homework for Next Time • Prepare a 8 minute talk on anything – (use powerpoint, or whiteboard) • Each person will give their talk • Afterwards, each person will give two things they liked, and two areas of improvement. 14
Tips for Giving a Good Talk Dr Eamonn Keogh Computer Science & Engineering Department University of California - Riverside, CA 92521 eamonn@cs. ucr. edu Oct 12 th 2015 Modified from the notes of Edward R. Tufte, Craig S. Kaplan, Eamonn Keogh and others
Outline In this talk I will give advice on giving talks • General advice (Logistics) • Organization • Making clear overheads • Avoiding common pitfalls Conclusion • I will invite your questions and comments
General Advice • Show up early. You may have a chance to head off some technical or ergonomic problem • Have a backup plan. Bring a laptop, but also bring a USB stick, and put the talk online, … Bring a PPT file and a PDF file. . • Check out the room ahead of time. Before your talk, check out the room, and make sure it has everything you need. • Invest in a laser pointer. They are inexpensive, and are extremely useful. • Rehearse timing. This is the most common sin
Slides I • Use the biggest fonts realistically possible. Small fonts are hard to re ad • Use highly contrasting colors. • Avoid busy backgrounds. Too much in the background makes the text hard to read. • Avoid using red text. Red text is often hard to read.
Slides II • AVOID ALL CAPS! All caps look like you're shouting. • Include a good combination of words, pictures, and graphics. A variety keeps the presentation interesting.
Slides III • Be terse • The sales forecasts show an increase on the horizon. • Sales heading up • Use bullets or numbered items appropriately Outline of our method 1. Design 2. Implementation 3. Testing Goals • Ease of use • Reusability • Reliability • Test your slides a few days before your talk
Slides IIII • Begin with an introduction slide (Who you are, why you are giving a talk, the title of the talk) • Next, give an outline (“roadmap”). For such a short talk, you might want to combine this with the above • State your point (one simple slide) • Demonstrate your point (a few slides) • Review your point (one simple slide) • End with a slide that reviews the entire talk • We introduced the TSP problem • We explained why it is an important problem • We explained why it is a hard problem • We introduced a new heuristic to solve TSP • We empirically demonstrated the utility of our approach
Slides V • At all costs, avoid moving back and forth through your slides!
Slides VI Important Note • We tend to optimize our figures for the LCD monitor in our office. • However, projectors often have different contrasts and resolutions. .
Annoying Personal Habits (This means you) • Playing with jewelry • Licking and/or biting your lips • Constantly adjusting your glasses • Popping the top of a pen • Playing with facial hair (men) • Playing with/twirling your hair (women) • Jingling change in your pocket • Leaning against anything for support • Fillers: “ah”, “um”, and “and” • Starting every sentence with the same word • Sticky floor syndrome • Avoiding eye contact • Lack of enthusiasm
Handling Questions • Don’t be defensive • Acknowledge a good point • Defer unrelated questions for the end • If you don’t know, admit it • Accept gracefully a mistake “You may be right, I will need to check though” Most people will be on your side, but be prepared to handle adversity
Conclusions • I have given some hints on presenting, including • General advice (Logistics) • Organization • Making clear overheads • Avoiding common pitfalls Questions?
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