Being a TA at UCREamonn Keogh

Outline In this brief talk, we will see

• Why doing a good job as a TA is important

• Some tricks for communicating clearly

The Basic Idea

• TAs are the face of the CS Department– Critical for undergraduate education

• You need to take it seriously• Teaching can be a lot of fun• Good practice for public speaking

How can you achieve this?

• You need the right attitude– Pride, professionalism

• You need to– Prepare– Communicate– Support each other

Having the right mentality

• You are being paid by the taxpayer • TAs and Instructors are on the same team• Assume the role with pride:

– You are the Dpt, you are the course, you are the lab• Communicate and speak up

– Follow the decisions made by the team– Express concerns and objections politely

• Be cooperative and proactive– Be a team player– Help other TAs

Being interactive

• Feel your class and adapt• Students are afraid to ask or answer

– Encourage them!• Best trick: long pauses work well

– Try waiting for 3 seconds• Use questions:

– Help you see if they follow.• Answer every question:

– Even if to only promise to follow up later– But, take irrelevant material offline– Admit when you don’t know

Preparation

• Think about your audience, goal, context.• Develop your plan (slides, notes, speech)

– Target to the needs of your audience.

• Rehearse, prepare mentally– Make sure you know what you are talking about.– Have a few skeleton points in front of you.– Have fully worked out difficult parts

• Useful tip– Say what you plan to say– Say it– Say what you have said

Oral communication

• Speak in a way that feels natural but– Loud, and slow.

• Speak as in a one-on-one conversation.• Make eye contact: a few is enough• Mind your body language:

– Don’t pace up and down nervously– Don’t fidget with your hands– Videotape?

Written communication

• Write legibly, don’t rush• Use large enough letters!• Try to be concise and clear• Don’t keep your back to the class• What you write should capture the lesson:

– Main important points– In a stand alone fashion, is possible

Conclusion

• A TA represents the Dpt and UCR:–Be professional

• Do your job well–It can be very satisfying

You are evaluated by the students

• The students must evaluate you.• At a minimum, two people at grad division,

plus Amy Ricks will read your evaluations.• If you a very good.. there is an Award.• If you are very bad

– You can be forced to take remedial classes– You can be denied employment (by either grad division or Amy)– Your advisor can be informed.

Least liked TA attributes

• Our TA speaks too softly (Number 1 problem)• My TA is not fair

– Vague definition of fairness though• My TA is not helpful, s/he does not know…• My TA is arrogant and condescending.• Our TA is never in his/her scheduled office hours.• My TA favors certain students.

Cheating

• Most of the anti-cheating responsibility lies with the prof

Homework for Next Time

• Prepare a 8 minute talk on anything– (use powerpoint, or whiteboard)

• Each person will give their talk• Afterwards, each person will give two things

they liked, and two areas of improvement.

14

Tips for Giving a Good TalkTips for Giving a Good Talk

Dr Eamonn KeoghDr Eamonn KeoghComputer Science & Engineering Department

University of California - RiversideRiverside,CA 92521eamonn@cs.ucr.edu

Oct 12th 2015

Modified from the notes of Edward R. Tufte, Craig S. Kaplan, Eamonn Keogh and others

Outline Outline In this talk I will give advice on giving talksIn this talk I will give advice on giving talks

• General advice (Logistics) • Organization• Making clear overheads• Avoiding common pitfalls

ConclusionConclusion• I will invite your questions and comments

• Show up early. You may have a chance to head off some technical or ergonomic problem

• Have a backup plan. Bring a laptop, but also bring a USB stick, and put the talk online,… Bring a PPT file and a PDF file..

• Check out the room ahead of time. Before your talk, check out the room, and make sure it has everything you need.

• Invest in a laser pointer. They are inexpensive, and are extremely useful.

• Rehearse timing. This is the most common sin

General AdviceGeneral Advice

Slides ISlides I• Use the biggest fonts realistically possible. Small fonts are hard to read

• Use highly contrasting colors.

• Avoid busy backgrounds. Too much in the

background makes the text hard to read.

• Avoid using red text. Red text is often hard

to read.

Slides IISlides II• AVOID ALL CAPS! All caps look like you're shouting.

• Include a good combination of words, pictures, and graphics. A variety keeps the presentation interesting.

Slides IIISlides III• Be terse

• The sales forecasts show an increase on the horizon. • Sales heading up

• Use bullets or numbered items appropriately

• Test your slides a few days before your talk

Goals• Ease of use • Reusability • Reliability

Outline of our method1. Design 2. Implementation 3. Testing

Slides IIIISlides IIII• Begin with an introduction slide (Who you are, why you are giving a talk, the title of the talk)

• Next, give an outline (“roadmap”). For such a short talk, you might want to combine this with the above

• State your point (one simple slide)• Demonstrate your point (a few slides)• Review your point (one simple slide)

• End with a slide that reviews the entire talk

• We introduced the TSP problem• We explained why it is an important problem• We explained why it is a hard problem• We introduced a new heuristic to solve TSP• We empirically demonstrated the utility of our approach

Slides VSlides V• At all costs, avoid moving back and forth through your slides!

Slides VISlides VIImportant Note• We tend to optimize our figures for the LCD monitor in our office.

• However, projectors often have different contrasts and resolutions....

Annoying Personal HabitsAnnoying Personal Habits(This means you)

• Playing with jewelry • Licking and/or biting your lips • Constantly adjusting your glasses • Popping the top of a pen • Playing with facial hair (men)• Playing with/twirling your hair (women) • Jingling change in your pocket • Leaning against anything for support• Fillers: “ah”, “um”, and “and”• Starting every sentence with the same word • Sticky floor syndrome• Avoiding eye contact• Lack of enthusiasm

Handling QuestionsHandling Questions• Don’t be defensive

• Acknowledge a good point

• Defer unrelated questions for the end

• If you don’t know, admit it

• Accept gracefully a mistake

“You may be right, I will need to check though”

Most people will be on your side, but be prepared to handle adversity

ConclusionsConclusions• I have given some hints on presenting, including

• General advice (Logistics) • Organization• Making clear overheads• Avoiding common pitfalls

Questions?Questions?