Post by burhan on Jun 25, 2019 9:18:06 GMT
From my 3 years of undergraduate schooling the most impact I've had was from one of my first year TA's in the form of an end of semester email, so I figured id share it here.
The email went as follows
The email went as follows
Howdy,
I wanted to let you know that all of your grades for PHYS 1010, except for the final obviously, have been posted to courselink. You may recall that I promised to consider giving a 1% bonus mark if I saw significant improvement in quality of the labs over the course of the semester. Having marked the final labs for the semester, they have met with my satisfaction. If you are looking for where the bonus marks are assigned, I would suggest looking at your grade for lab 1 on courselink. Congratulations.
This being the end of the school year, I would also like to take this opportunity to give some closing remarks. First of all, I would like to thank you for giving me the chance to teach this semester. I take great joy in sharing the lessons that others gave me and it would be impossible without you.
The second thing I would like to do is to pass on some advice that a TA gave me in my first semester. I will not tell you to ignore getting good grades. Grades are essential for progressing in the university system that is currently in place and it would be naive to say that grades are not important. However, in your pursuit of grades, don't let your marks come at the cost of learning and growing. Don't just learn or worse yet memorize material for the sole purpose of passing an exam only to expel it from your mind after the course is finished. You have a great opportunity to expand and elevate not just as a student, but as a person. Take the time to understand the fundamental concepts before you. This will allow you to do well in your courses and become knowledgeable in your field. I understand that there are only so many hours in the day and sometimes you must compromise the learning process in order to pass a course. I have done so myself and, while it pained me, sometimes you do what needs to be done. However, when you have the time, truly learn the material and don't let what you do in those moments of compromise become habit. Be more than just a container of facts. A book can hold all sorts of facts but it can never think, imagine, or dream. Be something greater. Be a scholar.
I wish you the very best in your future and I will see you at the exam.
Sincerely,
James
P.S.
As always don't forget to be awesome and, in case I don't get a chance to tell you in person, have a great summer.
I wanted to let you know that all of your grades for PHYS 1010, except for the final obviously, have been posted to courselink. You may recall that I promised to consider giving a 1% bonus mark if I saw significant improvement in quality of the labs over the course of the semester. Having marked the final labs for the semester, they have met with my satisfaction. If you are looking for where the bonus marks are assigned, I would suggest looking at your grade for lab 1 on courselink. Congratulations.
This being the end of the school year, I would also like to take this opportunity to give some closing remarks. First of all, I would like to thank you for giving me the chance to teach this semester. I take great joy in sharing the lessons that others gave me and it would be impossible without you.
The second thing I would like to do is to pass on some advice that a TA gave me in my first semester. I will not tell you to ignore getting good grades. Grades are essential for progressing in the university system that is currently in place and it would be naive to say that grades are not important. However, in your pursuit of grades, don't let your marks come at the cost of learning and growing. Don't just learn or worse yet memorize material for the sole purpose of passing an exam only to expel it from your mind after the course is finished. You have a great opportunity to expand and elevate not just as a student, but as a person. Take the time to understand the fundamental concepts before you. This will allow you to do well in your courses and become knowledgeable in your field. I understand that there are only so many hours in the day and sometimes you must compromise the learning process in order to pass a course. I have done so myself and, while it pained me, sometimes you do what needs to be done. However, when you have the time, truly learn the material and don't let what you do in those moments of compromise become habit. Be more than just a container of facts. A book can hold all sorts of facts but it can never think, imagine, or dream. Be something greater. Be a scholar.
I wish you the very best in your future and I will see you at the exam.
Sincerely,
James
P.S.
As always don't forget to be awesome and, in case I don't get a chance to tell you in person, have a great summer.
