> 10% of the questions the rest of the semester will be how to do something in the IDE. And, occasionally, you're not going to know the answer.
Most of the things they will need to do will be laid out for them before hand. I also have nothing against them asking me more questions. I'm technically paid by the question and it's better for them to ask these questions in an environment that is as conducive to learning as a classroom instead of needing to ask a boss/coworker on the first day of class.
> Saying "I don't know" can be intimidating to someone who doesn't have 20+ years of experience.
Sometimes the answer to other things is "I don't know" but, every time I didn't know something and I have to help a student I always follow it up with "but let's dick around with this a bit and I'm sure we can get it working"
> As for source control and automated testing--congratulations, you are now Mr. IT-guy for 30 people for the next 14 weeks. And students can be really creative in wedging their repositories. To this day, I still have no idea how one student managed to create a recursive repository in Subversion. You really have to be committed to accept the cost of the things I recommended.
If a student is paying 15-30k a year and I'm making 8.50$/hr to help them I have absolutely no problem helping them. They are quite literally paying my salary. I've answered emails at 2am before an exam, met up with students on weekends before exams, and spent hours with students to help them "get it".
School should be about getting taught the material you need to succeed. It should be our goal to achieve that even if it's a little hard.
And again, I don't think that student is going to be making a recursive svn directory in front of their boss after you helped them out of that ditch and it's a good thing you did.
Agree with all of your points. I'm simply pointing out that all of these things take time away from my primary mission which is to teach my material.
I need to teach the material as it generally is a building block for what comes later. If I don't get the material across, I've done a bad job as well. If I teach Data Structures, the students need to know that when they come out of my class or they will fail the next classes. (I had to reteach Data Structures to a class that had a bad teacher once before I could teach my material).
And, I applaud your dedication as a TA. People have zero idea how much effort goes into actually teaching a class. As the instructor, teaching a 14-week, 2 2 hour lectures per week class is a greater than 40 hour/week job including planning, constructing projects, running the infrastructure, answering questions, office hours, and grading exams.
That is, sadly, why I don't teach much anymore. I would earn more hourly by working at McDonalds than I do if I lecture at a university. :(
Most of the things they will need to do will be laid out for them before hand. I also have nothing against them asking me more questions. I'm technically paid by the question and it's better for them to ask these questions in an environment that is as conducive to learning as a classroom instead of needing to ask a boss/coworker on the first day of class.
> Saying "I don't know" can be intimidating to someone who doesn't have 20+ years of experience.
Sometimes the answer to other things is "I don't know" but, every time I didn't know something and I have to help a student I always follow it up with "but let's dick around with this a bit and I'm sure we can get it working"
> As for source control and automated testing--congratulations, you are now Mr. IT-guy for 30 people for the next 14 weeks. And students can be really creative in wedging their repositories. To this day, I still have no idea how one student managed to create a recursive repository in Subversion. You really have to be committed to accept the cost of the things I recommended.
If a student is paying 15-30k a year and I'm making 8.50$/hr to help them I have absolutely no problem helping them. They are quite literally paying my salary. I've answered emails at 2am before an exam, met up with students on weekends before exams, and spent hours with students to help them "get it".
School should be about getting taught the material you need to succeed. It should be our goal to achieve that even if it's a little hard.
And again, I don't think that student is going to be making a recursive svn directory in front of their boss after you helped them out of that ditch and it's a good thing you did.