Anyway, I did socialize with someone. And that someone is my Math TA. His name is Stephen Longfield, the TA of my Math 220 (that's calculus 1) discussion section. Stephen normally talks with a soft voice and sound unconvincing, maybe that's what made me easy to approach him.
But to talk about our communication, I have to start a bit earlier. It was the Friday before, when my CS 125 instructor, Lawrence Angrave, gave us a handout with a few problems. All the problems are very easy, except for one. The problem is a problem about computability.
For those who are interested, the question is like this:
Given a positive integer N, if N is odd, then multiply N by 3 and then add one. i.e., 3N+1. If N is even, halve N. Take the resulting number and repeat the process, and you will eventually reach 1.
The question is are there any number that will not reach one? If no, how do you prove it?
Lawrence did not talk about this problem in depth, as I am sure it will take a long time if he chose to do so. Anyway, I took the problem home, and try to solve it. (I know no one has solved it before, but just try) And then I tried using different methods and come up with a few equations about the problem. However, I was stuck in one step.
So I emailed Stephen to ask him about the problem (the problem that I am stuck with, not the question stated above), considering that he is a Math student. He gave me a very positive reply and very knowledgeable answer. Though I still have not solved the problem, his answer really helped me a lot. We got a few emails back and forth and talked about the problems. I also gave him some opinions on the classes he conduct. His classes are great in content and he has great notes, but he spoke with a lock of confidence. Through these contacts with my TA, I not only learned a lot academic knowledge from him but also knew more about him as a person. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to chat with him before or after the discussion section yet as I have classes both in the hour before and after the section. I will find a chance to chat with him and find out more about him soon.
There's a few things I want to say about your experience....
ReplyDelete1. That sounds fantastic, I think developing relationships with TAs and professors is rare, and often leads to anonymity and I'm sure the TA/Professor is just lost in a sea of faces every day. Your willingness to reach out to your TA probably helped him as much as he helped you.
2. The constructive criticism bit on both ends is also something I believe really defines the development of a great relationship...Instead of you just asking for advice and then the relationship fizzling to an end, you've started the back and forth required for furthering the communication the two of you have.
3. I hope it continues! (Which I'm sure it will)
Approaching someone who is quiet is sometimes difficult for me because I am never sure if they want to begin a conversation and because you did that, I have to say congrats!
I feel it is great that you took the opportunity to get to know a TA, and also that you are planning to spend more time in the future to get to know him better as well. I think that those experiences will definitely help you in that particular subject as a positive relationship with a teacher can only be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteI have a few questions as well. What was his response when you gave your feedback to him about his classes? Most of the feedback we give to our TAs are anonymous in nature, but your's was different. I think the type of response that he gave will reflect a lot on his character.
Also I am not very clear on the connection between the question you got in your CS class and the reason you decided to approach your TA. How are the two related? It would be great if you can explain that. Thanks.
Lastly I would like to ask about the approach you use when speaking to him. Did you use a formal line of communication, or has it been more casual seeing as it is not all academic related? I think there is a fine line when we speak about casual topics to our elders especially our teachers, and I am interested to find out how did you phrase your feedback. Thank you very much for your time.
Wow that seemed like a great experience to get to know a TA on a more personal level. I would love if you could explain how you moved from a student-teacher interaction to more of a personal friendship level interaction? I think your method of approach would definitely be something others can take tips from, in the future.
ReplyDeleteAlso I’m curious to know how you would like to continue your network with him, both inside and outside academics. It would surely be a different experience.
It definitely seemed like a great idea to get your ideas about how the class should be, to the TA. Was he pretty receptive of your ideas? It would be a great help if you could also give some more information on how you communicated this to him because I think sometimes things though said in good intent may not be understood by the other as we intended to, so how you communicate this to the other person is a pretty important part of it.