Evaluation of me as a TA

Last year I was a TA for two terms for the same undergrad course (CSC207 Software Design). I just received the student evaluations for my performance as a TA during the winter term, so now I have a clearer view of my performance during the whole year.

There were 9 and 8 evaluation responses during the Fall and Winter terms respectively, and the students gave me a mark from 1 to 7 inclusive, where 1 stands for extremely poor, 4 stands for adequate and 7 for outstanding. Here are my stats:

	Fall 2008		Winter 2009
	mean	std dev	mean	std dev
presentation	2.33	1.41	4.38	1.51
English	3.67	1.41	5.12	1.55
clarity	2.44	1.67	5.00	1.07
enthusiasm	2.78	1.79	6.00	1.07
question handling	2.56	2.07	5.12	1.73
grading fairness	3.44	2.07	4.88	1.25
grading speed	3.67	1.94	4.62	1.69
overall	2.67	2.06	5.38	1.41

I think that the stats kind of tell the story of me coming and adapting to Canada. I came last September and for the first term, I really really sucked as a TA. But then, as I slowly became more and more accustomed to the place, the people, the language and the academic environment, things got much better.

I especially note the “enthusiasm” stat. It’s actually surprisingly accurate: the more I got accustomed to this place, the more I started identifying myself with it and regarding it as a place to which I want to contribute. I just feel sorry for the poor students that had to suffer me during my adaptation period…