I am now the "prestigious" undergraduate TA for our Data Structures class. When I took this class (at another school), I had to do it in Java. Now that I am teaching it, it is in C++, and sad to say, my C++ isn’t the best in the world. As a TA, I have to teach a lab section that is 3 hours long. The lab may or may not cover the same material in class, so I have to spend time to prepare for the lab sections in case they have any questions that I am unsure about.

The teacher though, is asking to see if I am willing to teach another lab section. The reason is one of the four TAs cannot speak English very well. He ends up standing in front of class and just writes down the code. He does not explain it to the students at all. I feel bad for both the students and the TA both, one cannot learn things that they cannot comprehend without explanation, while the other has a difficulty expressing his ideas and thoughts.

My dilemma is, should I teach the extra lab? If I were to teach another section, then I do not have to grade students’ homeworks. However, if I were to teach the extra lab, most likely the students will come to me for help. Don’t get me wrong, I love to help people, but I do not have the time for myself if this were the case. I am currently taking 5 classes, which is fulltime. I am also working at two different places, 10 hours each giving me 20 hours total. On top of that, I would now have to teach two labs, 3 hours each, along with about 1 or 2 hours of preparation. Will I have enough time for the extra students to come to my office hours for help?

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