Lecture 2

Lecture 2, Thu 10/05

Course specific instructions

Week 1 prep

TA description of duties for CS8

We need two TAs present in each lab section as per the assignment detailed below:

8am - 11am : Boyuan and Nemanja
11am - 1:50pm: Tim, Jian and Yun
Boyuan - print homeworks and in class assignments for ALL sections. These must be given out and collected durin the lab sections.
Nemanja will look into automating grading for coding style

Switch on 11/07

Instructions on how to lead the lab sections:

Make sure you have the room key - you can get the key from Benji (CSE)
Familiarize yourself with the lab before coming to section
Make announcement about not swicthing sections or doing it with the consent of the TA
Arrive 5 minutes early. 11 am TAs should arrive 10 minutes early to get prepped by the 8am TAs on things to watch out for, and information that needs to be relayed to the students. 8am TAs, please stay an extra five minutes to ensure a smooth handoff.
Log into the instructor computer in the front of the room. All TAs should try to do this at least once during the first lab section because you have to set up your desktop environment the very first time. Make sure you have display mirroring setup so that the information displayed on your screen and that projected to the students is the same. Make sure your font sizes are large. Open terminal and zoom in to get a display that can be easily viewed by anyone at the back of the room.
Remind the tutors to do the rounds rather than camp out for extended periods of time.
Remind the tutors to actively look for things that students are doing incorrectly or struggling with because of missing information and convey feedback to you.
On the white board keep a running list of 1) problems that you encountered during the lab (these should also be conveyed to me via slack) 2) helpful tips and information that should be conveyed to students during the lab. The onus of this task is mostly on the 8am TAs.
During the very first section, we will have one person from ECI (this time its Scott) available during all sections. If students have problems with their CoE accounts direct them to Scott for help.
If you get questions related to course policy (late hw submission, etc) either point the student to the syllabus or ask them to post a question on Piazza.
If you find that your list on the whiteboard has become signifantly long, make an accouncement 15 minutes into the lab section. Avoid making ferquent announcement.
During your announcement demonstrate on the instructor computer what it is that you want the students to pay attention to and complement it with verbal cues (specially if what you are talking about is technical). Talking alone may leave students more confused and remember that the acoustics in Phelps 3525 are somewhat lacking.

Streamlining the homework distribution and collection process

Prepared by Diba Mirza