Having been a graduate teaching assistant for five years in a public university in US, here are some thoughts on teaching that Huanfeng wanna share with you. They arised from the tension between the general physics (as a course) itself and teaching undergraduate students in non-physics majors the subjects (as a way of thinking).
last updated: 06/14/2022
It was a cloudy afternoon when I was going through the steps of a problem on blackboard. A student couldn’t help but start to cry, telling me that (s)he tried to follow, but was just unable to understand and had no idea what to do.
We all know (s)he is not alone. And it is a problem, we need to work it out together somehow, though the solution is not always guaranteed like a college physics problem.
Late that semester, the drawing on quiz seemed telling me, emmm…fortunately, we worked out this time. (Actually, (s)he did a great a job in the course.)
I wouldn’t be happier to see any positive transition on my students. Because without any causual inference, they allow me to believe that my thoughts on teaching could make tiny tiny positive impact on who sits around and listens to me.
“Harsh grading, nice person, good teacher” 🔗
“Guide instead of give” 🔗
Students' Words 🔗
Including summer semesters, I have conducted PHY151 three times, PHY152 twice, PHY158 five times, PHY107 three times, PHY108 once and PHY101 once. When I received course evaluations, I always skipped the ‘scores’ and read comments directly. No matter what kind of words, positive or negative, reading them brought me a lot of fun.
I am curious about what I would be like in my students' eyes, since they played quite a special role in my life (for those five years and a half) who were such people: did not necessarily know me well but had to hear (or bear?) a voice weekly for three months. Hopefully, the voice sounded clear, effective and authentic (but who knows if it worked?).
Intentionally, I did not remind my students of taking evaluations, that’s why about half of my sections received too few responses to generate an evaluation report. That’s why, I really appreciated you leaving the words for me.
Words from my students: 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016.
Note: no evaluation reports generated in 2020 due to low participation rate, probably because all of us were trying to get used to the new lifestyle during the pandemic.
2021 🔗
| Fall 2021, PHY158 Section 9 & Section 11 |
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| Summer 2021, PHY158 Section M2 |
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| Spring 2021, PHY107 Section B1 & Section B2 |
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2019 🔗
| Fall 2019, PHY151 Section 6 & Section 14 |
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| Spring 2019, PHY107 Section A6, Section B2, Section B7 & Section M3 |
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2018 🔗
| Fall 2018, PHY158 Section 12 & Section 16 |
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| Spring 2018, PHY107 Section B3, B5, B6 & M4 |
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2017 🔗
| Spring 2017, PHY152 Section 10 & 12 |
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2016 🔗
| Fall 2016, PHY151 Section 8 & FIF2 |
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