One of the unique aspects of the Department of Child Development and Family Relations is that many of the department’s large core courses offer teaching assistant opportunities to undergraduate students. Teaching assistant opportunities are valuable for undergraduate students to decide whether to apply as a graduate teaching position, great addition to a resume, and for a letter of recommendation. From my teaching assistant experience, I was able to fully grasp the concepts of middle childhood development, form a new appreciation for professors and teaching assistants, and reflect on myself as a student. In addition, I had the opportunity to strengthen several essential skills such as organizational skills, leadership skills, and communication …show more content…
However, as a teaching assistant, I had to retrieve past recollection of the course material and organize them in a logical, coherent manner for some else. For example, one of my teaching assistant duties involved conducting online test reviews. I now have a greater knowledge of the course material from conducting online test reviews. Before the teaching assistance experience, I had an unreasonable expectation of when I believed a test or a paper grade should be completed. However, I now have a new perception and appreciation for professors and teaching assistants. It takes a great extent of work and time to put together a large lecture style course. Some of my teaching assistant duties included taking attendances and grading quizzes, test, or papers. I did not realize how much time it went into grading quizzes, test, and papers. Since the tests were composed of a multiple-choice question component in addition to a short essay, I was able to reinforce my past knowledge of concepts and course material when deciding if the essay answers were accurate. Also, I was able to strengthen my organizational skills when managing my time between my additional classes, volunteer work, and my teaching assistant responsibilities. My teaching assistant experience has made me become more critical of myself as a student. I am more conscious of the impact of arriving late to class on the classroom environment. Therefore, I now make an extra effort to arrive at class on time. The skills acquired for my teaching assistant experience will be beneficial to all to all future