Preparing to Teach
by Terje Saar-Hambazaza

• Remember that you are not alone, and that you can always ask for an advice from the other Rhetoric TAs.
• Don't be afraid of being strict with students in terms of late work or tardies, etc. They know the rules and are responsible for their own actions.
• In class, try not to take over the discussions. Also, always try to appear as neutral as possible. It will help your students to feel comfortable in the classroom, and they are more likely to share their ideas and thoughts.

Some Useful Resources:

• OWL at Purdue University
• Composition Center at Dartmouth University
• A Guide to Grammar and Writing, and the Principles of Composition
• Online source for critical reading
• Dave's ESL Cafe
• Interactive Quizzes

Experience as a TA: Negative
After noticing that the students were not as well prepared as they should have been in terms of reading the assigned essays and articles, I gave them a short, very simple quiz about the claims, reasons and evidence of the essays they were supposed to read. After that day, the students' attitudes changed. They were very well prepared for each class, and the in-class discussions were excellent. So, even though I am against quizzes in writing classes, sometimes (as I experienced in this case) they are necessary to make the classes more lively and the discussions more interesting.

Experience as a TA: Positive
LinguaMOO role play. The students are always very involved and create real identities for themselves. After these MOO classes the students are more open and willing to share their thoughts.

Best assignments:
I have created my own LinguaMOO role-play room. It makes the students think about the issues from the readings once more and puts them into different situations, arguing for beliefs they themselves might not have. I have learned that role-playing helps students tremendously in writing a mediatory essay.
Using LinguaMOO for discussions with others while at home is also very successful. This brings students closer together. They meet in a more relaxed situation (in the MOO from their own homes), and can chat on a certain given topic as long as they want.

Provided by:
Terje Saar-Hambazaza, a Ph. D. student at the University of Texas at Dallas where she teaches Rhetoric 1302. She specializes in translation studies, 18th and 19th-century women's literature, cultural and gender studies, and post-colonial theory. She received her Master's of Arts degree in Literary Studies from the University of Texas at Dallas (2003), and a Bachelor's degree in Theater Studies and Estonian literature and language from the University of Tartu in Estonia (2000). You can find out more about her teaching experience from her website: www.utdallas.edu/~txs018600