Main objective

Your main goal in your response is to make the TA feel heard. Acknowledge their thoughts, commiserate with their (or their students’) struggles, and reassure them that things are going to work out in the end.

How to read self reflections

As you read through a TA’s self reflection, copy and paste snippets of what they write that you’d like to respond to into the comment box. This will give you a way to directly respond to specific things they bring up from their classes that day (or week). Use Edstem’s (or Piazza’s) quoting functionality to differentiate what the TA wrote from what you write.

What to say

Most of the time, you will want to share something from your personal experience that is relevant to the TA’s current situation. If you had to deal with shy students, or you had projector issues, tell the TA about it!

How much to write

Try to write a response that is proportional to what the student wrote. If they wrote a lot, respond to as much of it as you can. Conversely, if they didn’t write very much, you don’t have to, either.

Comment on what you know

Just like when teaching, don’t make things up if you don’t know! Give suggestions based on your experience, and do not speculate on things you are unsure of.

Compile a summary

While you are reading and responding to reflections, keep a running set of notes for recurring themes or outstanding events. Some examples:

Many TAs experienced the same issue where attendance is dropping off
One TA had a very bad experience in their class
There was a particular room that had AV issues

Sending this summary to the instructor is a very helpful way for them to address these issues, either as a class, or individually as necessary.