<p>Have you ever been in a class taught by a TA? I heard from a friend that some classes in the college are taught by TAs and I wondered if some classes are actually a large number???</p>
<p>I haven't had a class with a TA as the primary instructor, but for one week my computer architecture class was taught by my lab TA. It was terrible. Most graduate TAs speak English as a second language so talking about difficult subject with a difficult understanding of the language makes a difficult lecture. Take this pearl of wisdom, "If you can't pronounce the instructor's name, then DON'T TAKE THE CLASS!" </p>
<p>Many introductory courses like Chem 141/151 and Elzinga's Econ 201 section have 300-500 students. That's the largest I have ever heard for a class.</p>
<p>I've had classes with TAs in economics (the department is losing faculty, hence TAs teach a lot of classes) and in anthropology.</p>
<p>the only TAs I've had are in either the italian department (TAs teach 101-202) and in ENWR210.</p>
<p>With the exception of the fact I thought italian was really hard, I thought the TAs were great. They're really close to your age, readily available, very knowledgable (and if they don't know the answer, they always ask a professor), and IMO much more approachable. I wouldn't want to take a 400 level math class with a TA, but for what classes they teach, I think they're fine.</p>
<p>A TA that I had in my first semester for Italian 101 was horrible. But from what I heard, the others were great.</p>
<p>who'd you have? mine isn't here anymore, but she was a hottie, and good, too!</p>
<p>I think you're talking about Maggie, right? I had Fran Ula.</p>
<p>No...i had heather ;-).</p>
<p>Fran is sick nasty at soccer btw--i don't know how good of a T.A. he is though--although I think he proctored for heather a couple time and was he the one who ALWAYS said "adesso" after every frickin sentence.</p>
<p>What does adesso mean?</p>
<p>I sat in on a class called "Celebrity" this past weekend... and i believe it was taught by a graduate student.</p>
<p>the class was excellent. all the students were active in conversation, and i definetely plan on enrolling in that particular class next semester.</p>
<p>What's that class about?</p>
<p>adesso means now</p>
<p>it was a class where everyone went over several papers written by students on various topics like "the demeaning of women in hip hop". Also, there were many papers looking over rap lyrics from artists like kanye west... we even watched his music video for his hit, "Diamands are Forever", at the end of class.</p>
<p>A great time, no doubt about it.</p>
<p>I think TAs are a lot like professors, only they have less of an education. There are good ones, bad ones, and everywhere in between. Naturally I try to take classes with professors, but I haven't had any bad experiences with the TAs in discussions or as instructors.</p>
<p>I'm posting another reply, because I want to get to 100 posts to see if that removes the "junior" from my profile.</p>