[M.M.X.I.V. 29] TA busywork

Let’s see if I can write this post in the present tense only, perhaps with a combination of present-perfect and/or present-progressive. That way, I can stay on topic for today’s Daily Post.

As some of my readers know, I do both research and TA (teaching assistant) responsibilities as a graduate student. The research responsibilities use up a lot of my mental energy, and the TA responsibilities less so.

On ordinary weekdays, I can be fairly effective on my research duties between the hours of 08:00 and 18:00 in most cases (although I rarely work that full ten hours each day). I get distracted from high-energy tasks in the evening and on weekends. An important part of work that I feel people overlook is to know when they are not working hard and are just bashing their heads against the wall.

HOWEVER, I have found (NOT A FAIL OF THE PROMPT–this is the present-perfect construction!) over the last few days that I can be effective working on the TA “busy work” during off-hours and weekends (but never on Shabbat). Grading papers is a great way to pass time on the L, rather than playing on my phone, or journaling. And the last few days, I have completed grades on quizzes, homeworks, and am currently creating the solution key for the homework.

This latter task is DOWNRIGHT ANNOYING, however. Despite using LaTeX, I still have to code up the equations, use something like Mathematica to graph the figures (and I am not very good at the latter), and I need to check my solutions with the instructor as well. It can be a slow process, but it is necessary.

It could be that the annoyance I feel is just with this section, in dealing with the tedious problems of pure triple integrals, moments of inertia, and centroids (the latter especially when a symmetry argument is useless).

It could be worse, though. In some sense, I think I have it pretty good, being able to work in the evening and Sundays on TA work, when I cannot bring myself to do research during those times. I expect some long days when I have to create the homework solutions (every other week) during this quarter.

What aspects of your job do you consider high-mental-energy, versus busywork that can be done when you are in a low-energy state?

===========================

Today is the twenty-ninth day of M.M.X.I.V. That makes four weeks and one day.

It is now 18:00, so I will post the list of other Daily Posts at this time…

29 thoughts on “[M.M.X.I.V. 29] TA busywork”

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At least you still have the energy to think of how and a better way to answer the challenge.

“Shabbat”? So you’re a Jew?

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Mati Serrano
29 January, 2014 at 08:30
- Sometimes, I think I have too much energy, Mati.
  
  And yes, I am Jewish. Though I am not fully “shomer Shabbat,” I do make a compromise in the way I described.
  
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  Noah Weiss
  29 January, 2014 at 08:32
  - Cool! I’ve never met a Jewish person OL before. At least not that they’ve told me anyway.
    
    Strangely, the people I’ve been meeting OL and IRL since this year are involved – in one way or another – to post-graduate studies.
    
    Anyway, nice post. Keep it up!
    
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    Mati Serrano
    29 January, 2014 at 08:36
  - Thanks again! You’ll find that my online personality is honest.
    
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    Noah Weiss
    29 January, 2014 at 11:47
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In my job as a Mom, I find the grocery shopping to be busywork 🙂 This was a thoughtful response to the challenge.

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Photography Journal Blog
29 January, 2014 at 15:44
- Thank you! Indeed, any occupation or line of business has its busywork… and what is busywork to one person might not be to another!
  
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  Noah Weiss
  29 January, 2014 at 16:08
  - Yes, that’s true.
    
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    Photography Journal Blog
    30 January, 2014 at 07:22
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Interesting perspective! I have never been a TA and my college didn’t have TAs, but I’ve had friends who go to different schools be TAs and so it’s interesting to peer more into what their world might be like.

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Melissa
8 February, 2014 at 12:52
- Indeed. That’s interesting–I have never heard of a school bereft of TAs. Is it a small liberal arts college?
  
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  Noah Weiss
  8 February, 2014 at 16:15
  - Yes it was a quite small liberal arts college. When you got into your upper level classes, at least in my major, there would often be less than ten students in your class. Different in some of the schools larger programs, but not by much.
    
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    Melissa
    8 February, 2014 at 16:28
  - There is something good about being taught by professors for most or all of your classes, however. (Although I hope that my students are getting something out of my TA style…)
    
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    Noah Weiss
    8 February, 2014 at 21:56
  - Yes I really enjoyed it. Everyone looks for different things in a school. I had great departments and got to really know my professors and form great relationships with them that I especially appreciated. I think though that you don’t have to have a fancy title to impact someone, you just have to care. So a TA who cares can be more influential than a professor who doesn’t.
    
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    Melissa
    8 February, 2014 at 22:10
  - Very insightful … I feel the same way.
    
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    Noah Weiss
    8 February, 2014 at 22:30
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