Personal Narrative: A Career As A Teaching Assistant

Before leaving biology lab on December 6, I had the honor of interviewing the graduate assistant-teaching for biology 211 lab. During the interview I learned a lot of things about the teaching assistant like her background information and education. Her name is Lauren L and she is a graduate student at Iowa State University. Lauren has worked at Iowa State University for five semesters as a teaching assistant for biology 211 lab. She chose the teaching profession because she truly wants to teach and get some experience teaching undergraduates. She also wants to play a role in helping undergraduate students decide or declare a major because she wants her students to recognize that she cares about them. Lauren’s philosophy of teaching is that

why she chose to become a biology lab teaching assistant. Her response was that she wants to teach undergraduate students because she wants to challenge students beyond their comfort zone. She also wanted to gain some teaching experiences by teaching the same biology lab course for five semesters. By teaching the same biology lab course, it allowed her to experience first-hand what it is like to be in a real classroom environment because she has been teaching students of various backgrounds, performance levels, and interests in science. By being a teaching assistant, it provided her an up close and personal perspective view of what a teacher is responsible for outside of the laboratory course. For example, she spends some of her own time to prepare for the laboratory activities such as setting up the two different types of microscopes, plants, and tools that are used to dissect. Outside of the laboratory class, she spends time grading student work and collaborating with faculty at Iowa State University. As a result, she structures a learning environment that addresses a variety of learning styles, interests, and abilities found within her laboratory courses. Her classroom management system is very simple because she tries to keep all of her students actively engaged by allowing them to work with one another to complete the laboratory activities. By using this classroom management system, this prevents any misbehavior and helps student become more successful