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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1997)
mesday • December 9 ; 1997 Lifestyles :■ ' ' * i »A A i^w > i 0-y% w ^4 r ; : V U :y a iC,M * 1 r 5«Mn I . , >T^fc . - • ; ^lEE- iraduate assistants pull double weight as students and instructors By Stephen Wells Staff writer “Iht: first experience Texas A&M students may have had with student teachers was in high school — a iir| game known as “Sink the Sub.” In this intellectual- jjankuipt but liberating pastime, the object was to kejhe teacher storm out of the classroom and report ryone to the principal. Now, A&M students are seeing more student teach- than from their high school days without stooping ^iink them. fim general, there are three types of graduate student istants: the graduate assistant teaching (GAT), the duate assistant non-teaching (GANT) and the gradu- assistant researcher (GAR). Thirty-six percent of all graduate students at A&M rk for the University in one of these roles. Dan Robertson, director of graduate studies, de ified the schedule of an A&M graduate assistant. “The first requirement is that the student is a full-time iuate student,” Robertson said. “In the catalog, if they raduate student working toward a masters or doc- ate, they must be enrolled in nine hours of graduate- el classes. Half of their life is as a student, the other half, out 20 hours a week, is as a graduate assistant.” Rich Newman, a GAT for Statistics 325 , said the ad- atages to becoming a graduate assistant outweigh the Vantages. "In the math department, we have what is called an sistantship,” Newman said. “You do either research, ading or teaching. Every month we get a stipend, which is like a salary you can use to pay your rent and living expenses. I also get my out-of-state tuition waived, so I’m just like a student from Texas as far as tu ition is concerned.” Robertson said the advantages of gaining experience also outweigh the workload. “If you’re applying to teach at university X, Y or Z, it helps to say, Tve got a doctorate and I’ve taught a class. Here are my evaluations,”’ Robertson said. “That gives the graduate assistant an advantage over the applicant who can only say, ‘I’ve got a doctorate.’” Texas A&M is not typical compared to other large uni versities, who often use graduate teaching assistants (TAs) to fill in for classes without professors. “When I talk about teaching assistants, you must un derstand that Texas A&M takes a different position from other universities,” Robertson said. “People think that Texas A&M is such a large university that many graduate assistants will have fiill classroom responsibility, but the opposite is true. Most of our graduate assistants are what you would call laboratory TAs.” Brian Green, a sophomore accounting major, said he believes giving lab jobs to graduate students fixes some problems but creates others. “A TA may know enough to manage a lab but some times can’t communicate well enough to really teach the students what they need to know,” Green said. “I’ve heard a lot of complaints about TAs that don’t speak well enough for a student to understand, and that can create a problem. “On the other hand, some grad students that teach can relate more to a student because they have classes, too. They understand that their class is not the only one a stu dent is taking.” Not only can a graduate assistant relate to their un dergraduate students better, but they can learn from their experience as well. “It is actually very true that to learn something, you have to teach it,” Robertson said. “It’s not a student- teacher relationship, but a student-student relation ship. Some of the best teachers are students who ask good questions because the graduate assistant must be prepared to answer them and explain them.” portunUyTo^ji’crjoT^Vrst time that I realiled that tearhin life forever -' ] chan V ed my DAN ROBERTSON Director of graduate studies Newman said not all graduate assistants are as understand ing as a student would like them to be. “I think the biggest fault that they (teaching assis tants) make is that they’re graduate students, and their expectations are so high for their graduate work they pass those expectations on to their undergrad stu dents," Newman said. Developing a lesson plan is the most time consuming aspect of teaching a class, and for a graduate student, lost study time can be costly. “Making a lesson plan can take up a lot of time,” New man said. “But for me, after my first time teaching it was easy because I already had my notes and my lesson plan.” Newman said as a graduate student coming from an other university, he was on the outside looking in when he first arrived at A&M. “It was definitely a strange experience,” Newman said. “I didn’t realize how serious the Aggies are about some things. My first year here, I was always telling my class how Florida would crush them in football, and that didn’t make me very popular with them. But I picked up on the traditions real quick because people wanted to talk about them and I wanted to learn.” Being a graduate teaching assistant can have a pro found impact on the life of a graduate student. “I worked for seven years in industry, and I never thought I wanted to be a teacher,” Robertson said. “When I went back to school, I was sure I would come back to in dustry, and I only took a leave of absence. It was only when I got the opportunity to teach for the first time that I realized that teaching was what I wanted to do. Being a graduate assistant changed my life forever.” Even if a graduate assistant is not planning to make teaching a career, working with undergraduate students is a rewarding experience. “I love what I do,” Newman said. “Because I enjoy my job, I don’t see it as a constraint on my life.” QoCden ‘K&Y, Notionof Honor' Society Christmas Party - TOMORROW at 8:30 pm in Rudder 302 Bring Secret Santa gifts and clothes for drive ATTENTION: UNDERGRADUATE & GRADUATE STUDENTS |5tudents who will either complete all of the ring requirements as bribed below after the Fall ‘97 semester final grades are posted, or ir commencement, may order their rings beginning approximately juary 20,1998. Please visit the Aggie Ring Office between December 19 to complete an audit request and to receive further information. ie event you will not be in the College Station area between January and February 10 to place your order in person, please pick up a mail ier form and be sized for your ring between December 15 & 19. AGGIE RING ORDERS THE ASSOCIATION OF FORMER STUDENTS CLAYTON W. WILLIAMS, JR. ALUMNI CENTER DEADLINE: December 11, 1997 Undergraduate Student Requirements: You must be a degree seeking student and have a total of 95 undergraduate credit hours (H reflected on the Texas A&M University Student Information Management System. (A passed Jp course, which is repeated and passed, cannot count as additional credit hours.) 2. 3Q undergraduate credit hours must have been completed in residence at Texas A&M K University, providing that prior to January 1, 1994, you were registered at Texas A&M University and successfully completed a fall/spring semester or summer term (I and II or 10 p weeks) as a full-time student in good standing (as defined in the University catalog). I 60 undergraduate credit hours must have been completed in residence at Texas A&M H University if your first semester at Texas A&M University was January 1994 or thereafter, or if H you do not qualify under the successful semester requirement. Should your degree be if conferred with less than 60 undergraduate resident credits, this requirement will be waived 1 after you graduate and your degree is posted on the Student Information Management System. 3 You must have a 2J) cumulative GPR at Texas A&M University. 4 You must be in good standing with the University, including no registration or transcript blocks I for past due fees, loans, parking tickets, returned checks, etc. Graduate Student Requirements If you are a December 1997 degree candidate and you do not have an Aggie ring from a | prior degree, you may place an order after you meet the following requirements: 1 Your degree is conferred and posted on the Texas A&M University Student Information I Management System; and 2. You are in good standing with the University, including no registration or transcript blocks for | past due fees, loans, parking tickets, returned checks, etc. f you completed all of your course work prior to this semester and have been cleared by the thesis clerk, you may jsquest a “letter of completion” from the Office of Graduate Studies no later than December 5th. The original letter >f fcmpletion, with the seal, may be presented to the Ring Office in lieu of your degree being posted. Procedure To Order A Rina: 1 If you meet all of the above requirements and you wish to receive your ring on February 19, 1998 , you i must visit the Ring Office nfi later than Thursday. December 11. 1997 to complete the application for I eligibility verification. 2. If your application is approved, you must return and pay in full by cash, check, money order, or your I personal Discover, Visa or MasterCard (with your name imprinted) no later than Friday, December 12, I 1997. Men’s 10K-$290.00 14K - $394.00 Women's 10K-$170.00 14K-$195.00 Add $8.00 for Class of '96 or before. The ring delivery date is February 19, 1998. THE PRINCETON REVIEW Looks Uke H\e ofkev guys u^U^ppy enbouF FUe H\e Rviv\ceFov\ Review KCAT cowvse. + pts. avg. increase MCAT? We’re sorry if it seems hard to believe, but a national study just completed by IRC shows that our students improve their scores by an average of 8 points. If any other test prep company would like to conduct an independant head-to-head study of score improvements, we would be delighted. And if you would like to improve your scores significantly, you should call us today. 409/696-9099 800/2REVIEW Classes start on Jan. 31st! * THE PRINCETON REVIEW i’d wilh Princeton I Iniversity nor the M(7 FREE CHRISTMAS CASH Register in the lobby for $500.00 and help us celebrate our B-CS branch openings. No need to be present at Dec. 18th drawing, and you do not have to be a customer to win the cash. But if you like personal banking with a local flavor, P&M will be the place to Homestead. am P&M State Bank 122 W. Fourth Street in Hearne 2553 Texas Avenue in College Station 3601 E. 29th Street in Bryan REMINDER To students, faculty, and staff from the University Libraries: Help make library materials more available for users by returning items no longer needed so that they can be discharged and shelved before the Spring semester begins. Please renew your other library material. All campus users may renew by completing the new Web renewal form at URL: http dlwwxv/ tamu. edu/library/direct/cird Faculty, staff, and graduate students also may call the renewal line at 845-3807. 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