KELSEY SPITALNIC 388V Portfolio 

Reflective Essay (Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017) -

 

Spring 2016: I was an undergraduate teaching assistant for a professional writing course at the University of Maryland.  The course is called “Technical Writing” and this semester it was an all-online course taught by Michelle Von Euw.  I took this course Fall 2015 as a blended learning course where we met once a week. It has been an interesting experience facilitating the course transition from having some in person class time to a completely online course.  Being a first-time English teaching assistant also required a weekly seminar, ENGL388V: Writing Internship.  My UTA responsibilities included providing feedback, checking and assigning points for minor assignments, and assessing drafts and assigning peer reviews for draft workshops.  For the ENGL388V Writing Internship Seminar, we wrote weekly discussion posts, had engaging discussions about different aspects of education and the classroom, as well as had student lead topic discussions.  In all honesty, I never expected being a teaching assistant for an English course was going to be a part of my college experience.  I am a nutritional science major and most of my classes are chemistry, biology, or nutrition related.  Each week I have appreciated being surrounded by dedicated students who are passionate about contributing to education.  

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Thinking back to when I was first offered the position as an undergraduate teaching assistant, I was not sure what to expect especially with the class being online instead of blended learning.  My typical idea of a teaching assistant is someone who grades exams, leads discussions, and is in charge of a lab section. In my English course experience I have only had a teaching assistant once so I have not had a lot of people in advanced to model the responsibilities.   At the beginning of the semester I documented goals and expectations that my professor and I had for my position as an undergraduate teaching assistant for the rest of semester.  These expectations included answering emails in a timely manner, completing my assigned tasks on time, and providing useful feedback to students.  Since the class did not meet in person, I think these were extremely important goals to work with.  If a student has a question they do not have the ability to talk to myself or the professor in person during class so responding as soon as possible allows the student to have as much time to use the feedback for their work.  I think this is something that I accomplished throughout the semester.  As it is, I check my email many times throughout the day so keeping an eye out for student emails was not a problem.  

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Throughout the semester, the other two UTAs, my professor and I would have monthly meetings to discuss various aspects of the class.  I found this to be a great way to keep up to date about upcoming assignments and changes going on.  We kept in communication through email at least a few times a week but it was nice to have the face-to-face meeting. 

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During the weekly meetings for ENGL388v with other students who are undergraduate teaching assistants, we had engaging discussions about many different topics in education.  Everyone had the chance to voice his or her opinions and ideas in a comfortable environment.  Two of the topics that I enjoyed discussing about the most were “Facilitating Discussion” and “Digital Literacy.”  I think it is important to encourage discussion and participation from students in a class.  In my opinion, one of the best ways to learn is to talk about the class material and explain everything out loud.  A common point that was brought up throughout the semester was that if you do not understand the topic well enough to explain it to someone else then you may not have the best understanding of the topic.  Discussion is a great way to evaluate our understanding of ideas as well as consider the perspectives of other people.  In terms of the discussion about digital literacy, this topic is important because education is changing with technology.  There are so many new and different opportunities and outlets to use technology in the classroom today.  I found a discussion about when and how to use technology in the classroom especially important.  I learned about many perspectives on this issue – Is technology making us lazy? When is it appropriate to use social media in the classroom?  What is going to happen to books and libraries if everything is online?  All of these ideas are relevant because not only are we in the process of learning how to use the different technologies, we are also in a position as UTAs where we can influence the types of media that are used in the classroom.  Being in such a small classroom like this and discussing focused topics with other students is something I have never experienced before. 

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Reflecting on the semester as a whole, it was definitely a new type of experience for my undergraduate career but it was enjoyable.  Having the weekly discussion was a great way to reflect on my work as a teaching assistant and I think overall it was beneficial to myself and the other undergraduate teaching assistants.  I hope that my feedback and guidance was helpful to students. 

 

Fall 2016: As I talked about in the 0101 reflection portion of this page, I never expected to be a teaching assistant for an English class throughout  my high school career.  I honestly did not even know it was possible for undergraduate students to have this position.  My career goals do not relate to English directly, but because this course is a technical writing course, the skills that this class develops will be very important.

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A few of the skills that this class focuses on that I am grateful for having multiple exposures to are writing a resume, writing a cover letter, and proposing audience-based documents.  My career goal is to become a physical therapist.  Working in the health science world, it will be important to be able to communicate effectively with patients, their families if necessary, as well as other health care providers.  Learning how to write a document in a manner that is appropriate for a specific audience is something that will be extremely important in my future.  In addition, the resume and cover letters and something that will definitely be needed when applying for jobs.

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In terms of the actual teaching assistant responsibilities, these have helped me with my organization, time management, and communication skills.  There are many activities and assignments that come along with this course and part of my job has been to grade them and provide feedback.  Sometimes during a busy week it can be difficult to fit everything in, but with almost two complete semesters of this I have developed a system that works.  

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I have enjoyed the communicating with students aspect of being a teaching assistant as well.  Although my communication is through email, it is a satisfactory feeling when students reach out to me and I am able to provide them with guidance.  It is nice to know that they are comfortable asking me questions that may not need to be addressed directly by the professor.  Overall I feel as though I have done a good job with answering in a timely manner.  I did my best to provide them with my opinions/thoughts on their questions as well as referencing the students to the specific resources that are offered to help on our ELMS course site.

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 This experience has definitely been a lot of work but I have enjoyed working with with my professor and creating relationships with other teaching assistants.  Overall, I am thankful for this opportunity because it has shaped my college experience in different ways.

 

Spring 2017: This semester, Spring 2017, is my third and final semester as a teaching assistant with Professor Michelle Von Euw for ENGL393: Technical Writing Online. Overall, the workload and types of questions/advice students ask for has been relatively similar each semester.  I do not think that there have been too many surprises or unexpected tasks.  The format of the class has stayed the same, aside for the addition or substitution of new UTA lesson plans.  

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In terms of how this experience has shaped me as a student, I think that my previous reflections cover that.  I have learned how to interact with students through online communication in a professional and timely manner.In addition, I have learned a lot about what it is like to be "behind the scenes" when it comes to preparing and running an online course.  I am very thankful to have had this opportunity as an undergraduate.  Although my future career is not related to teaching or English, this experience has made me a more well-rounded person.  Professor Michelle Von Euw has been extremely understanding, flexible, and helpful throughout this experience and I am happy I have had the chance to work with her for so long.

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Reflecting on the ENGL388V experience, I think the best part was the seminar for the first time UTAs.  The seminar allowed UTAs to have the opportunity to discuss and learn from one another about how to be a better teaching assistant.  I thought this was a great environment for everyone to share their thoughts and feelings about their semesters.  As I continued with the 388V portion of being a UTA, I thought it was nice to still see what other UTAs were thinking and doing on the discussion boards, but it did not have the same effect that actually being in a class and talking to them did.  The assignments were a good way to keep in check with what was going on in the class and have moments of reflection.  Overall, I would say that the ENGL388V was a positive experience.  Working with Lyra was just as fun and easy as working with Michelle!