Being On the Other Side (Part 1)

In the first half of the year, I managed to get a (paid!) position as one of the demonstrators for second year anatomy lab. I spent a year previously as a TA for general microbiology labs, so it wasn't my first experience with teaching. This job was very low involvement: show up during lab and answer questions.

Unfortunately, I have forgotten most of the little things that happened from day to day. This upsets me because I know I got some funny comments every week, but at the same time, clearly none of them were very memorable. Mostly what I would do was pick some questions to quiz the students on, and go around from group to group talking to them and reviewing the material. There are several types of groups.

Group Style A: Some of the groups were really into it, and wanted me to go over all the pre-lab preparation questions and show them a zillion things. These were the fun groups because they gave me purpose in life. Usually I knew the answers, too. Occasionally there would be some random question in the pre-lab about something no one had ever heard of before, and us demonstrators would have a quick huddle to see if anyone else knew what the hell the lab book was talking about. Sometimes it wasn't even the question's fault--on my first day, I definitely looked like a total dumbass for the first several questions, as I hadn't been around cadavres in so long, I forgot what everything looked like in real life.

Style A has 2 subsets.

Subset 1: Some groups were really into it, but slow learners, or the type of people that are more comfortable having things repeated a lot or explained slowly. These are the best groups because I could spend a lot of time with them, get somewhere, and look smart.

Subset 2: Some of them are really smart. These ones are a mixed blessing. They're the ones that I could talk to about more advanced medicine stuff that we're learning in our year (this anatomical structure is important in this disease, or this surgery). They're also the ones around whom it's easiest to look like a dumbass.

Group Style B: This group style also has 2 subsets. These are the ones that really do not care or notice that there are demonstrators around.

Subset 1: It could just be because they are smart, prepared, and have no questions. They're nice people but don't need my help, and generally answered my quiz questions correctly and without prompting. When I'd stop at their tables, I usually only spent a few seconds there...

Subset 2: The most annoying type of group is the group full of outgoing friends that use anatomy lab as a social gathering. They don't need a demonstrator because they have no questions, because they aren't paying attention to what they're doing. Usually there's one or two people doing stuff, while the other three laugh loudly about their weekend. I get asked a question by one of the paying-attention-people, and have to talk over the two other conversations going on around me. I made my rounds to these tables, but I managed to avoid them by filling up my time with Group Style A groups.