I continued my work in Fall 2017 as a peer teacher for the Foundations of Engineering program. In addition to sitting in on lecture classes, I taught two hour-long recitation sections each week. One of the challenges I faced was that I taught for a total of three different professors - one for lecture, and two separate ones for recitation. This meant I had to keep up with three different calendars, think about extra assignments, and make sure my methods coordinated with each professor.
However, because all students took the same common exams, I had the advantage of seeing slightly different information that was presented, which allowed me to inform students about things their professor might have glazed over or missed, and figure out what topics were common among all three and likely to be emphasized on the test. I liked the smaller classes that I got to work with in recitations, and I felt like I made more connections with the students, which allowed me to help individuals better.
In my lecture class, we had only peer teachers, no grad TAs. My two coworkers in that class were sophomores, and I stepped up to take on more of the responsibilities of a regular teaching assistant. I helped distribute assignments among my coworkers to grade, I kept track of excused absences for the class, and I worked closely with my professor to track and grade late assignments appropriately.
I think this job has given me good management skills. I have learned to work with a lot of different people, and to figure out what the most important information is when it is coming from a variety of sources. I practiced time management skills when trying to grade exams quickly, and I had my first teaching experience where I was the sole instructor in the room.