When I first took Introduction to Logic, I was thrilled. The teacher was entertaining, the subject was fascinating and I took well to it, and I enjoyed the homework and in-class discussions - it was perfect! Not all of my classmates had the same experience, though. It turns out that Intro to Logic is the most popular course for liberal arts majors such as Philosophy and Communications majors who need to fulfill a math requirement, meaning that to many students, entering the logic classroom is a lot like entering a lion’s den.
With that in mind, I was overjoyed to be asked by my professor to TA the course the semester after I took it. My experience mostly consisted of a lot of emails, running office hours sections, and grading tests by hand alongside the course lead and the other TA.
Being a teaching assistant made me practice thinking on my feet in the face of difficult of confusing questions, as well as making sure I knew a topic inside and out before claiming to be an authority on the subject. Because I was the go-to problem solver, I needed to be able to understand and think my way around any edge case that they could try and put on my plate. I think that because of this experience, I’m a better problem solver and a more empathetic teacher. Helping students to wrangle their mathematical lions was a great way to spend some of my time during that spring semester.