Ever since I did MITES (Minority Introduction To Engineering and Science) in 2007, I wanted to come back and be a TA. MITES was a life changing experience for me and I wanted to share that experience with others. Moreover, I’ve always loved helping people and I’ve been told that I’m a good teacher. It also makes good financial sense to be a TA: free food, free housing, and you get paid. Furthermore, if you’re going to be a TA, Engineering Design seems like the easiest class to TA: no p-sets to grade, no office hours to hold, no tests to grade. Thus, when I got the job as an Engineering Design TA for MITES 2010, I thought the summer was going to be really chill. Little did I know that being a TA would be just as rewarding, eye-opening, life changing and in my case just as much work as being a MITES student.
There are three parts to being a MITES TA: Pre-MITES, MITES, and Post-MITES. I was enthusiastic about being a TA. From the very beginning, I wanted to be the best TA ever (EVER). Before MITES began, the TAs had work to do. There were several handouts that we had to read, with topics ranging from the biological development of teenagers to what to do when you think someone is suicidal. I read ALL of the handouts the day I received them. Then, we met to go over our responsibilities as a TA. As a TA, you’re expected to be both a teaching assistant and a residential counselor. That is, you not only help that students with classes, but you also help the students grow and mature to ensure that they go on to do great things. We discussed our vision for the students in terms of what we wanted the students to do and how we could help them accomplish their goals. Then we did several team building exercises to get everyone acquainted with each other. After 9 hours of team building, we were pretty well acquainted. I was lucky to be a part of such an awesome staff this year. Then, we worked to become better TAs through teaching workshops. We prepared a lesson to teach to the “class” of TAs, who would then critique and offer suggestions for our lessons.
After that, the TAs are made aware of the events that they are responsible for. There are three categories for events: mandatory events, sign up events, and leadership opportunities. Mandatory events, as the name suggests, are events that all of the TAs have to attend. Sign-up events are events where a few, but not all, TAs are needed, usually just to keep the peace. Then there are leadership opportunities, which are events that a TA needs to coordinate completely. That’s not to say that the TA is the only one working on the event, but that the TA should completely coordinate the event. For example, the leadership opportunity that I signed up for was the MacGyver Challenge. The MacGyver Challenge is where the students are broken up into groups and they have to complete complicated tasks with limited materials. I coordinated what the tasks were, what the materials for the tasks were, what the materials that the students were supplied with were, then of course I had to go out and get all of the materials, and set up the tasks in Lobby 13. I had help from several TAs and an instructor to get materials and set up. We also discussed things like the Airport Shuttle schedule and what to say to your cluster.
Then MITES began. For me as a TA, there were three distinct periods: weeks 1-3, weeks 4 & 5, and week 6. Weeks 1-3 involved a lot of work that I brought upon myself. The Engineering Design class does the 2.007 robotics competition. However, at the end of 2.007 this year, most of the field was thrown away. Thus, I (or I should say, the Engineering Design staff) had to build most of the field from scratch. Thus, weeks 1-3 involved a lot of running around gathering lumber and other supplies to be machined (i.e. cut to size) in Pappalardo and the Hobby Shop. I worked all day either going to Home Depot to get stuff or machining parts of the field in Pappalardo or the Hobby Shop. At night, I decided to help the students with calculus and physics. I often stayed up until 1 or 2AM helping these students.
In weeks 4 & 5, things really started to ramp up. That field needed to be built, and robots needed to work. I felt overwhelmed. I then realized that I was so overwhelmed because I was hogging all of the work. I made sure that all of the work got done, but I didn’t consider how the work got done. I didn’t make sure that the work got done efficiently. There were two other Engineering Design TAs! Granted, there were some things that only I could do, like build stuff in the Hobby Shop, but there were some tasks, like sending out e-mails and making lesson plans that I could have easily delegated the tasks to them. With so many things to do in so little time, I decided we could get more done if we worked in parallel rather than working in series. I delegated more tasks to the other TAs while I was busy building the field. Unfortunately, the field didn’t work exactly how it should have because the sprockets that we ordered were a different pitch than the chain that we had. However, the students seemed to enjoy themselves, and I suppose that in the end that is all that matters.
In week 6, the elective TAs don’t really have anything to do because the MITES Symposium (final presentations from all the electives) took place at the end of week 5. However, because I wanted to be super awesome, I decided to make keychains for the Engineering Design students. When I was in Engineering Design in 2007, Aaron made keychains for all of the teams, so I decided to carry on the tradition. I also wanted to make keychains for the TAs because I really did enjoy working with them all. Then, one of the TAs asked me if I could make one for his dad and one of his friends, and I said, “Sure, no problem.” Then I thought that I should make some for the Engineering Design instructors as well. Then I went to the OEOP office and saw Sandy and Shawna and I knew that I had to make one for each of them too. Then I thought that it would be nice if I made some for my parents. Then I thought that I should make some for my cluster, because they all were really awesome. Then there was another girl named Jessica that was awesome, so I decided to make a keychain that had the name of her robotics team. All in all, I made over 50 keychains.
Making these keychains turned out to be much more work than I expected. First you have to use OMAX software to make a Waterjet tool path. Then, you have to Waterjet the aluminum. When you take it out of the Waterjet, it looks kinda rough, so I decided to polish them. To polish the aluminum, I used a buffing wheel and a polishing compound. The only problem is that the polishing compound gets caught on the lettering. So basically, the keychains get covered in gunk that is not easily wiped off. Then (yes, there’s more) I decided to file down the edges to make them smoother. And as a cherry on top, I deburred some of the holes of the keychains. AND, just to 1-up Aaron, I bought some dog-tag lanyards so they can wear them as necklaces too. Needless to say, this was a lot of work to do in a week. However, using the lessons of teamwork that I learned in weeks 4 & 5, I recruited the help of several TAs to clean and file the keychains/dog-tags. I couldn’t have had it done on time if I did them all myself. Thanks to the TAs, the project was a complete success.
Then MITES ended. The students (as usual, at the end of every MITES year) were very sad, crying and hugging while they said their goodbyes. However, both as a TA and as a student, I didn’t cry. It’s not because I didn’t care about the other students or that I didn’t grow close to them. It’s not because I didn’t think they were special. It’s because, for me at least, I knew that it wasn’t over. The friendships they’ve made, the opportunities they had, the lessons they’ve learned, none of that ends with MITES. I suppose that they were crying because they thought that they would never see the people that they have grown so close to. However, you certainly can see these people again! There’s a 60% chance that they’ll end up at MIT (or in my case, for the best MITES class ever, MITES ’07, there’s an 83% chance that they’ll end up at MIT.) Even if a good friend doesn’t come to MIT, what’s to stop people from visiting? I knew that this wasn’t the end of MITES, it was a new beginning. I looked forward to what these MITES students would do with the opportunities that were presented to them.
I’m glad that I was a MITES TA. I learned lessons about teamwork, friendship, time management and prioritization that I will always keep in mind. I am truly grateful for this opportunity.