i was a teaching assistant for 3 semesters, helping out in the
- 24/25 s1 iteration of CS1101S
- 24/25, 25/26 s2 iterations of CS2030S
i think there are a few reasons first to consider if you should take this burden:
- is your timetable packed? would adding the extra workload actually affect you?
- do you actually want to teach? would you be willing to go the extra mile, spend a bit more time?
- is the type of help you're providing something you want? are you actually having to teach, or are you just helping out with lab work, and is that what you want?
i think money should be not a concern, but i am very much coming from a position of privilege. i think that there are other ways to make money if you really wanted to, so doing TA roles just to make money does not make numerical sense. honestly, you would make more money tutoring outside, for less work, if you know how to play your cards right.
however, it must be important that it doesn't compromise your actual grades (unless it doesn't affect you anymore (you have a high enough gpa to buffer)) because that would be really short-sighted.
also, TAs do very different things in different mods. i personally chose to do 2030S over 2103T because it felt like i had a lot more ownership over how i taught, and i could interact with my students a lot better. in addition, CS1010S was my favourite experience of a tutorial/studio, and i really enjoyed TAing that mod.
i think the biggest benefit i got was understanding how people think. talking to my students really allowed me to understand why they struggled - and i realised that while their final answer might have been inaccurate, the path they took there was something i could use for myself. i saw a lot of this in 1101s, where i saw students live working out some difficult recursion questions, and they came up with a lot of good ideas, that i honestly never thought of myself.
networking is nice too: you meet the newer CS students, and while they might not be as skilled now, they'll reach that level soon enough, and it's nice to have more people you know in the industry tbh.
being able to try teaching is also something you won't get the chance to do much after you graduate, so i thought it'd be nice to try - especially since it's always been a possible thought for me to actually go into teaching eventually.