Hours Log: 5 Hours
Cumulative Hours Log: 209 Hours This mentorship as a great experience for me in both a personal and professional standpoint. Personally, this experience challenged me to open up more and become comfortable with myself to the point I was able to speak in front of the class. I have seen these skills transfer over to all aspects of my life as I am much more conversational and willing to just be myself with people. Professionally, this experience helped me develop time management skills while also improving on my work ethic. I had a very busy schedule this semester and learning new time management skills was the best way for me to be successful at this mentorship. I learned new methods for teaching, ideas for activities in class, and I learned that this is a profession that I want to get into. The experiences I had from this mentorship related to my academic studies as both the courses I was teaching and the courses I was taking both centered around sports management. I also was able to look at the different styles of teaching between the courses I was taking and apply what I learned to the courses I was helping to teach. The communication and quality of supervision were excellent and gave me the sense that I had support if I needed it, but also the freedom to grow on my own. This autonomy really allowed me to immerse myself into the mentorship and find what aspects of it I did and did not like. This mentorship greatly influenced my career objectives, so much to the point where I want to be a college professor now. I will eventually go down this road, but I feel it is in the best interest of myself and my students for me to gain some experience in the field before I pursue a doctorate and teach full-time. This way I can teach the students about some of the experiences that I had and relate the content of our classes to real life events. If other students consider to be a teaching assistant in the future I would tell them to create a schedule and stick to it. The days where I strictly followed my schedule were the days where I was able to be the most productive. This can be a lot to handle, especially if they have other obligations outside of the mentorship, but it is very rewarding. The final note on this experience is that I had a lot of the students from my DEC 200 class come up to me as they turned in their course review and ask if I would be teaching next semester because they wanted to have another class with me. I heard so many nice things from my students and I did not expect that at all. I could not be more grateful for the students that I had, the experience that I was given, and the mentorship that I received.
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Hours Log: 5 Hours
Cumulative Hours Log: 204 Hours Going into this mentorship program I was not really sure what to expect. I had never been in a position like this before, so I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into. I found myself feeling kind of lost in the first few weeks and like I did not belong up in front of the class. I was hoping to learn new ways to lead a discussion, spark conversation among a group, help student understand concepts that we talked about in class, and maybe help teach a lesson or two. This experience far exceeded my expectations. I was the lead instructor in the DEC 200 class and by the last month or two of the class I really felt like I belonged up there. I was able to help the students grow and learn throughout the course of the semester. I also was the lead instructor for the SMG 370 and SMG 375 courses from time to time as well. Being able to teach a group of sophomores, juniors, and seniors allowed me to get a true sense of what it was like to teach to the different age groups. I helped students in some many ways that it is honestly an injustice to try to sum it up all in one post. If I had to sum it all up, I would say I was able to help the students overcome challenges they faced. Those challenges could range anywhere from homework help, generating ideas for papers, giving encouragement to give a presentation in front of the class, and just with parts of life outside of the classroom. Like I said, I did not know what to expect coming into this mentorship role but I can definitely say I did not expect it to be what it became. This is something I think I really would enjoy as a career at some point in my future. I know it's a large commitment, but it seems worth it. I had great communication with my supervisor over the course of this mentorship, and she helped me get through any challenges I faced during the course of this mentorship. I feel like I was allowed the opportunity to really grow into this role and find my own way in the world of academia. Hours Log: 5 Hours
Cumulative Hours Log: 199 Hours I do not know how we got here already. Somehow it is the last regular week of classes. Over the course of Thanksgiving break I was able to get caught up on most of the grading, and I only have a couple of items left to review. After today I will only have one more regular class day left and then the final exam day. Looking back there are not many things I would change about the organization that I would restructure in order to improve it. However, there is one thing that I would definitely change if I had the ability to. I would drastically change up the DEC 200 class. I believe the administration dictates what projects are covered in the class, which takes it out of the hands of the professor. It is those aspects that I would change. I have had many students tell me how they liked Dr. Tiell and I teaching the class, but did not like the DEC class in general. I honestly can't blame them. Many of the students told me how they were forced to take this class and that it did not apply to their major at all. I feel like this is a difficult way for a student to stay motivated if they are forced to take a class about a subject in which they have little to no interest in. It also hinders us as instructors as well. We had to resort to watching a lot of videos to introduce concepts to students since many of the students were not sports management majors. I am not sure how the other DEC classes work, but the way the students talk about the DEC program they are not too fond of it. I feel like the concepts that we taught in this class (annotated bibliography, project analysis paper) should just be included in a class relating to their major. I felt like when I was reading the papers for the students outside of sports management and business I did not have enough background knowledge to know whether what they were writing was correct or not. I could only judge the paper based on the grammatical structure they used. Hours Log: 6
Cumulative Hours Log: 194 The classes before Thanksgiving break all have one thing in common. They are usually half empty. I know this is due to students going home for the holiday break, and honestly I do not mind. I know how stressful school can be, and being able to take a break from it for a little while is too good of a chance to pass up. Since I did not go to a school that was far away from home, I can only imagine how difficult it can be to be under all this stress from school while only getting the chance to visit home a few times every semester. I've had professors in my undergrad get mad at the fact some students went home early, but thinking about the fact this is one of the few chances they get to see family, I don't see the point in getting mad. By having reduced class sizes, this can make for some long class periods. For the students that are there physically, many of them are mentally already on Thanksgiving break. Thinking back to my undergraduate program, many of my professors did not teach any majorly important lessons on the day before Thanksgiving break because they knew many students wouldn't be there. This reduces the number of students who miss the content, which in turn reduces the number of students coming to the professor asking what they missed while they were gone. This is a well earned break for the students coming up, and hopefully they are able to enjoy their time off for a little while before exam preparation begins. Hours Log: 9 Hours
Cumulative Hours Log: 188 Hours I now realize all of the pressure that professors face towards the end of each semester to finish grading. There is a lot to grade and only a few weeks left to do it. I am currently in the middle of grading the project analysis papers from the DEC 200 course while also having to grade the presentations for the SMG 375 class. I do my best to give each presentation and paper an adequate amount of time while I am grading it. I feel like this allows me to the give the best grade possible to the students. While it can be tedious to read twenty-six different papers, I keep reminding myself of all of the hard work that many of the students put into writing these papers. The most respectful thing that I can do is take the time to thoroughly read through their papers and give them scores that best reflect the project that they turned in. Many of these papers are outstanding and I am very proud of the students who tried so hard on their projects. The same can be said for the students in the SMG 375 class that really stepped up their presentation skills and delivered excellent presentations to the class. The research that was put into these projects shows how committed these students were to understanding their topic and improving their scores. I also like the idea of getting the big projects out of the way a few weeks before the semester ends. This allows the students to relax a little bit before they have to start stressing over exams. This also allows me a cushion when it comes to the time crunch I am facing to grade all of these assignments. I think this will be something I use when I teach classes in the future. Hours Log: 8 Hours
Cumulative Hours Log: 179 Hours This week was a very big week for the DEC 200 class as their project analysis papers were due today. This is a culmination of what we have been working towards for the entire semester. The students have been working hard on this project for months now (or at least they should have been), and they can finally take a breath as they are able to turn it in. I had many students in the past few days asking me for ideas about their paper, to proof read for them, or to even meet with them to help them iron out any issues that they were having. I felt that I was able to help many of them as they were approaching me with questions. If the MBA program has taught me anything, it's how to write a long-detailed paper. I feel this is where the classes I have been taking really helped me with my mentorship program. My skills as a writer have grown immensely as a result of the classes that I am taking, and this allowed me to help the students in my classes. I also tried to push some of the students to write at higher levels if they had a high quality paper already. The students were very receptive to the feedback I was giving them, and many included the suggestions I gave them into their paper. I really enjoyed being a sounding board for the students to share ideas with and help them develop their topics for the paper over the past few months. The topic related to something that was in their career field, and it was nice to see many of these students so passionate and engaged in the topic that they picked. This was the biggest assignment they were facing for the year and now they can take a sigh of relief as the year is coming down to an end. This is now my big assignment for the year as I need to go through and grade these papers and assign grades to the students through Taskstream. I have read through a few of the papers already and I am already impressed. Hours Log: 6 Hours
Cumulative Hours Log: 171 Hours I have taken time to highlight both the DEC 200 class and the SMG 370 class throughout the course of these blogs. The SMG 375: Sports Governance class has provided me with a great opportunity to learn how to grade presentations. These presentations last anywhere from twenty to thirty minutes and really challenge the students to conduct a great amount of research about their topics. We are in the middle of doing the second round of presentations and it is interesting to see how students chose to interpret the feedback they received on their first presentation. Some of the students have made the most of the feedback and adjusted their presentation and research to improve their scores for this second presentation. Others have chose not to and instead just opted to pass on the work because they knew they were going to pass. This shows that not all students are motivated by GPA and that every student has different motivations. I have always been a person that will try my hardest on every assignment and task that is given to me. I have students with similar mindsets in my classes, and they are easy to motivate. They are motivated by the letter fade and giving their best effort. As someone who is looking to become a professor in the future, I need to learn how to motivate the students that do not care about the letter grade quite as much. I honestly don't know how to motivate these students yet, and maybe the lesson for me here is that I can't motivate people to do something they do not want to do. Through the good and the bad, there is always a lesson for me to take away from my experiences. Hours Log: 7 Hours
Cumulative Hours Log: 165 Hours I would like to take a moment to dedicate a post to how amazing I think it is that there is a class dedicated to helping with the professional development of students in the sports management field. The activities that this class is engaging are some that I wish I had when I as an undergrad student. There are may days where I am sitting behind the desk and completing some of the activities myself or I am just taking notes about what Dr. Tiell says. This type of class shows that Tiffin University has a true commitment to the success of their student body and that they are willing to take the steps to allow their students to be successful. Helping students fill out their resumes, preparing for interviews they may have, or talk about anything relating to their professional development. I really enjoy sitting in on this class as it allows me the opportunity to help students that are in the position that I was just in, while also allowing me to be a student at times as well. The class seems to get along very well and mostly everyone seems willing to participate in the activities we have planned for the day. This class also is a stark contrast to the DEC class that I have. This class is made up of seniors, and it shows in the work that they do. All of the students are invested in the doing well in this class (or at least it seems that way) because it can help them in setting up their future. I am looking forward to doing the mock interviews and other activities with the students as we get closer to the end of the semester. Hours Log: 7 Hours
Cumulative Hours Log: 158 Hours I can't believe we are already through the first week of November. I've taken some time today to reflect on everything that I have gone through as a teaching assistant and all the ways I have developed professionally. Dr. Bonnie Tiell is definitely a star of the organization as she allows me the freedom to learn and grow on my own, but also is always there to offer support whenever I need it. There have been times where I probably should have asked for help, but I always have struggled to admit that I need help on things. She also makes sure to take time to talk to me about how classes are going, how my job is going, and how a potential job search is going. Having a supervisor that shows through their actions that they are invested in you makes it so much easier to add this mentorship to my workload. There have been many times where I have felt overwhelmed between doing classes, working at least forty hours a week, and taking on this teaching assistant role. I have developed so much as a person and as a professional throughout this process. I have become a lot more comfortable lecturing in front of the class, more confident in my ability to help answer questions, and I have deepened the knowledge I have regarding all of these subjects. I feel the area I have grown the most has been my work ethic. I have found ways to work harder while also working smarter. This allows me to be more productive and effective in my role within the organization. I still feel like I have a lot of room to improve still, but I am proud of how far I have come. A lot of that is in part to Dr. Tiell Hours Log: 9 Hours
Cumulative Hours Log: 151 Hours So far, the largest assignment that I have had to grade was the first part of the annotated bibliographies we had assigned to the students of the DEC 200 course. Part one of this assignment only required that students create five annotations for their sources. Part two however was a bit more demanding as it required ten more annotations. I did not have to do many annotated bibliographies during the course of my undergrad, but what I can say is that when we did them I certainly did not enjoy them. I feel a lot of the students share the same sentiment that I used to have. Now, as an instructor I see how this is beneficial and a good learning opportunity for the students. The annotated bibliographies that were turned in varied in their quality, but many students excelled at this assignment. As I have become more accustomed to grading it is easy to tell which students put in a lot of effort when creating this document and which students did not. That being said, I can now say that I am a lot more comfortable assigning grades that match the quality of work now. Before, I felt very hesitant to take points off and often felt too harsh when I did. Now, I am able to distinguish when I am being too harsh from when I am assigning a fair grade. I am still getting better at this, but to a certain degree I can definitely see my improvement. As I mentioned before, once I have my own set of classes in my future career as a professor I believe I will be more comfortable assigning grades. I spent four hours after class reading through each students annotated bibliography very carefully and felt I was able to give an adequate amount of time to each student's projects. I still have a few more to grade, but overall I felt very productive while grading today. |
AuthorDylan Work Archives
December 2021
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