AIs reflect on heavy workload

Students see them daily: sitting in large lecture classes, teaching classes, answering questions. \nAssociate instructors, or AIs, are a big part of an undergraduate student’s life, but for some it’s unclear what exactly they do.\n“I work,” third-year master’s of fine arts poetry student and AI Ben Debus said. \nDebus said on a typical day, he wakes up around 5 a.m. and writes poetry for three or four hours. He then goes to Ballantine Hall where he spends most of his day preparing for classes. \nDebus has to juggle the classes he’s taking, the classes he’s teaching and finishing his thesis. He said he typically takes one or two classes and teaches about two classes a semester. Debus said it’s just a matter of finding the time to work and of scheduling and prioritizing. For some, it’s more difficult to manage their time because of another job they have to pick up to make ends meet or because they have to take care of their families.\nDebus said that when he’s working on lesson plans, he tries to decide what the students need to know. Those things carry over into the assignments. \nFor the class Debus is teaching this semester, he started working on the syllabus last semester. He said he read a lot of poetry textbooks and anthologies and decided on which ones to teach. \nComputer science lecturer Charles Pope, who supervises several AIs, said AIs have to understand the nature of the assignments and material so they know what the students go through and can understand students’ questions better. \n“I always tell them to do the assignment early,” Pope said of AIs. \nPope said AIs have many responsibilities. He holds his AIs to a list of responsibilities that include keeping up to par with performance, lab management and time management.\nSome AIs grade papers for classes, some hold discussions and some teach classes.\n“I’d estimate I spend 20 to 25 hours a week preparing for classes,” said Rosemarie Connolly, an AI in the linguistics department. \nThose hours are spent on classes she teaches. She said much of her time is spent doing research, preparing for classes and talking to students. \nLike many AIs, Saurabh Ajmera, an AI in the computer science department, spends most of his day preparing for his own class and those he teaches, and helping students. The time he has during the day is spent looking for a summer internship. \n“I don’t do anything extra which you can define as a hobby,” he said. \nEven though being an AI is a lot of work, Debus said that he’s enjoyed his students. \n“I’ve had great students,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot from them.”