TA training and the Tour of Madison

I have finished a highly satisfying week long training for my job as a Teaching Assistant (TA). The work load was pretty light and I managed to learn a great deal. One of my teachers in College used to say that things change when you get to the 'other' side of the table, in class, and I am at the brink of discovering if that is true.

The training began with the advice of staying away from dating our students! We had a couple of sessions that showed us how we could present ourselves in class, deal with tough situations and keep everyone occupied. We also had a public speaking session that included a hilarious game of the whole class building a chain-story. I got to know that I would be TAing for an analytical chemistry course, so the rest of my training would occur separately from the rest of the class. We are five students and together with two senior TAs, Pam - the lab director, Gery - the undergrad chemistry advisor; and Prof Josh Coon - the instructor of the course, make up the ten-strong staff for CHEM 329 - the analytical labs.

We started with basic safety training and lab practices. Most of these were already outlined to me in College, but I thought they were emphasised upon strongly here. We also practised the first three experiments, I made a mistake and learnt that it was one that the undergrads are also know to make. The practises were followed by discussions and things went on pretty smoothly.

The Tour of Madison is organised by a group of organisations that work for International students in collaboration with a number of churches in Madison. A short welcome in the Red Gym, which was once a seat of armour, kickstarted the tour. We were made to choose drivers, based on their preferences, who would show us around the town. Someone asked for two European women, another wanted to take out three Indian guys while many called upon just about anyone. My guides Patrick (neuroscience grad) and Richard (IT guy) and fellow tourists Leo and Shaw (both law students) seemed to be a nice bunch. We drove around Madison for a couple of hours. The highlights were the walk around the Capitol, the stop at Lake Wingra (where one can rent boats and sails), the drive through the arboretum and the forest (that had two panthers prowling around) and the final stop at Tina and Bob's place. This stop at an American family's place was also part of the tour. I had the best vegetarian food outside home in Madison and met a lot of people - Americans, Germans, Chinese (one fourth of international students in Madison are Chinese). And that rounded up the day for me. I got back home and a nice meal. Sri made something that was supposed to be rasam and was about to throw it down the drain, but we decided to be nice to him instead.