The Department is pleased to announce that the following Teaching Assistants/ Demonstrators have been chosen as recipients of the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award in 2021/22 Semester 1: (Name in alphabetical order)
Huang Yange (CHEM3810) & Ip Hiu-to, Toby (CHEM1070A)
This award is given each semester to Teaching Assistants/Demonstrators that demonstrates exceptional performance and devotion to duty while acting on behalf of the department. It is a prestigious honour that serves to recognise the best of the best within our ranks. The awardees’ teaching performance, contribution to Department and character are considered during the selection process. Each awardee will receive a $1,000 prize.
We are grateful to have our Department Chairman, Prof. Kwong Fuk-yee, to present the certificates and awards to the awardees.
What’s more, we are happy to have Yange and Toby to share with us their wholehearted feelings of receiving this achievement 🙂
Sharing from Huang Yange (Responsible course: CHEM3810)
As a teaching-lab demonstrator, thinking in students’ positions is the most important thing for me. Firstly, always keep safe and serious in the lab and then get to know what students want to achieve in each experiment (for example: understanding the reaction mechanisms, mastering the various experimental skills, explaining some interesting observations, and so on) so that students and demonstrators can work together to reach the goal. What’s more, always being patient and enthusiastic, it is very common for students to encounter many troubles when conducting the experiments for lack of experience, helping them patiently can be more effective to ease their tension and solve the bad situation. Students may also have questions about the experiment which shows their curiosity and excitement about the experimental chemistry, keeping an enthusiastic attitude can be helpful for communicating with students and making them get involved in the experiment completely to create a relaxed and efficient atmosphere during the whole class.
Sharing from Ip Hiu-to, Toby (Responsible course: CHEM1070A)
Being a teaching assistant is similar to doing research in a few ways: (1) have to do experiments, (2) never listen to anyone blindly, even an expert, and (3) don’t be afraid of failure.
Different people have different characteristics. We have our own advantages and disadvantages, it is crucial for us to identify them, then fully utilize our strengths to benefit our teaching, and overcome our weaknesses. As a result, never listen to anyone blindly and do your experiments on teaching. You may fail during the modification, but you can find out the method that suits you the best progressively.
At last, I would like to express my gratitude to CUHK Chemistry department, for providing financial support and giving me the flexibility to do my experiments on teaching.
Hearty congratulations to Yange and Toby, and many thanks to all nominators and our selection panels!