In my essay I will prove...

This semester I decided to do a split assistantship in order to get more funding. On top of my preservation duties I now also assist with a lower level history course. My main duties are to take attendance, answer the students questions and grade assignments/exams. I have had to learn how to grade for thesis, documentation, and conclusion so far. It was pretty interesting to see the difference between my writing and theirs. I really had too high of expectations for them, but I quickly adapted to a more realistic view. I know we all must have been at that academic level when we started college, but you don't realize how far you have come until you can compare like this.
On their first quiz I did have a few funny errors, such as assignation instead of assassination and un-PC terms used to describe minority groups. I know they worry about spelling errors, but so many of them seem to rely on the spell checker and go for the first word that is offered to them. Our goal this semester is to teach them how to write rather than memorize historical fact. So far we have gotten some of the students to respond and follow directions, but not all horses will drink when you bring them to water. The hardest part has been to teach students to write a clear, strong thesis and then use evidence to prove their argument.
This week though, the professor fell ill and because we were already behind and had an exam coming up, he asked me if I would cover his two sections. It was some what intimidating to stand in front of them and give a lecture I didn't write, but I think I did well. The other TA said that the students seemed to respond better to me, but I think that may have to do with the fact that the class is predominantly female. The other section was much quieter, but I chalk that up to the fact that they didn't know me like the other section did.
We also administered the exam today. They all knew what was to be expected because we gave them the questions ahead of time, explained the exam format, what was expected in their essay, etc. I made sure to clarify that they needed to use a specific number of sources from their reader since this was a major issue on the quiz the week before. I was getting questions and panic emails all the way up until 11pm. I also had one student email to say that she hadn't been able to acquire the reader for financial reasons. We made other arrangements, but I wish she had come to us long before late the night before.
During the exam we were careful to watch over the students for cheating and to see if we could identify any issues the students were running into. Well unfortunately I didn't catch one issue, which was another student who did not have the reader for some reason. I wasn't able to figure it out until after he had left the room, but he did email after to state that he didn't know we needed that we needed a reader. I know I had held that reader up along side the book at least twice the day before the exam to clarify that one was to be used during the test and the other was not allowed. Luckily the professor stated he would deal with that situation.
I did enjoy my experience teaching though and wish I had more opportunity to do so in the semester. I think it would be really interesting if the professor would allow me to write one of the lectures, but I don't think that is likely to happen since we are behind in lectures. I have been asked if I want to be a discussion leader next year, but my program is already setting up another assistantship for me that sounds even better.