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  5. First Year Education TA / FGL TA

First Year Education TA / FGL TA

First Year Education TA / FGL TA

TAs are assigned to the 1st year education courses that all first year students must take, “Student Success Workshop (SSW)” and “Multicultural Collaborative Workshop (MCW),” as well as the course “Foundations of Global Leadership (FGL).” TAs in these courses not only help with passing out ma-terials and taking attendance, but also offer guidance in small groups, provide support and facilita-tion in group work, and offer guidance for reports and presentations.
About 300 First Year Education TAs and FGL TAs are active at APU each year. One of APUʼs unique features is that TAs help manage classes, and are able to interact with and provide feedback to stu-dents from a perspective that is closer to the students.

1. The Role of TAs in Each Type of Course

SSW

SSW is a course aimed at supporting new students and helping them achieve success in their student life through recognizing that the ability to independently learn and ask questions at univer-sity is directly linked to “Student Success.” The course consists of both lectures in large classrooms by faculty members and work-shops held in small classrooms. TAs facilitate the workshops and provide learning support to students, such as by supporting group work and giving advice on how to write reports.

MCW

MCW is a course aimed at helping first-year students acquire the basic intercultural communication and multicultural collaboration skills and attitudes necessary for facing situations that occur when people from different cultural backgrounds work together. It in-cludes both lectures in large classrooms separated by language, and workshops in mixed-language small classrooms. TAs lead the work-shops in the small classrooms based on the lesson plan.
MCW also includes LTAs (Leader TAs) who lead and support the TAs.

FGL

FGL is a course aimed at learning about leadership models and gain-ing global leadership skills that will help students become “people who can change the world.” The course also includes collaborative work in mixed groups made up of students from the Japanese and English classes. Under the guidance of the course instructor, TAs are put in charge of two groups of about 6 students each to carry out group work and facilitate discussions based on various case studies from APU student life.

2. Skills Gained by First Year Education TAs / FGL TAs

Working as a First Year Education TAs and FGL TAs not only helps support the learning of the students in their cours-es, but also contributes to the TAʼs own personal growth. Through their experiences, First Year TAs can expect to gain the following types of skills.

  • Communication Skills
  • Facilitation Skills
  • Coaching Skills
  • Time Management Skills
  • Leadership Skills
  • Public Speaking Skills
  • Group Management Skills
  • Empathy

3. First-year Education TA and FGL TA training

First-year Education TA and FGL TA training takes place before the start of the semester, during the semester, and after the semester finishes. This training covers class content, team-building, and the development of TA approaches. Furthermore, pre- and post-meetings are held each class, and class review and preparation for the next week's class are conducted. TAs will discuss challenges and propose solutions together.

4. Message for future APU students from First Year Education TA / FGL TA

GRACE MARIANNE
Name:
GRACE MARIANNE
Nationality:
INDONESIA
TA experience:
SSW TA
Message
HIDAKA RINTARO
Name:
HIDAKA RINTARO
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, FGL TA
Message
HNIN OO WAI
Name:
HNIN OO WAI
Nationality:
MYANMAR
TA experience:
SSW TA, FGL TA
Message
I GEDE ADITYA D. N.
Name:
I GEDE ADITYA D. N.
Nationality:
INDONESIA
TA experience:
SSW TA, FGL TA
Message
ISTESHAM FARHAN
Name:
ISTESHAM FARHAN
Nationality:
BANGLADESH
TA experience:
SSW TA
Message
LIU ZEYI
Name:
LIU ZEYI
Nationality:
CHINA
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW LTA
Message
MIYAJI MISORA
Name:
MIYAJI MISORA
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW TA
Message
MOTOI YU
Name:
MOTOI YU
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW L/TA, FGL TA
Message
QONITA Aryana P.
Name:
QONITA Aryana P.
Nationality:
INDONESIA
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW L/TA
Message
RAYZAN RAHMANANDA
Name:
RAYZAN RAHMANANDA
Nationality:
INDONESIA
TA experience:
FGLMCW
Message
SHIMIZU NAIKI
Name:
SHIMIZU NAIKI
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, FGL TA
Message
SUHA Saamin Azam
Name:
SUHA Saamin Azam
Nationality:
BANGLADESH
TA experience:
MCW L/TA
Message
VOKHABOV ERKINBEK
Name:
VOKHABOV ERKINBEK
Nationality:
UZBEKISTAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW LTA, FGL TA
Message
WADA MANATO
Name:
WADA MANATO
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW TA
Message
WATANABE Kota
Name:
WATANABE Kota
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW L/TA, FGL TA
Message
YANGLEM MOTILAL
Name:
YANGLEM MOTILAL
Nationality:
INDIA
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW TA, FGL TA
Message
Message
GRACE MARIANNE
Name:
GRACE MARIANNE
Nationality:
INDONESIA
TA experience:
SSW TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

I always tried to offer both moral and academic support by reminding students of content from class, giving encouragement, providing further explanation about class material, and supporting growth in class. Above all, I always provide friendship.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

I gained more knowledge on how to treat people and connect with people from different backgrounds. I was also taught effective time management skills as a student. Since I started working as a first-year TA, my perspective on the academic world has evolved as well. Being a TA has encouraged me to improve both as a student in my academic life and in my personal character.

Message for future APU students

I think prospective APU students should be open to what comes, including what they will learn during their time at APU both outside of and within the classroom. Don’t be afraid to try and experience things as everything learned will not be wasted. Most importantly, expect fun things ahead!

Message
HIDAKA RINTARO
Name:
HIDAKA RINTARO
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, FGL TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

I think that the first-year education courses SSW, MCW, and FGL in which international and domestic students have active discussions and work together on projects are classes that are unique to APU. Therefore, I aimed to provide support so that students could better sense the uniqueness of APU.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

I learned and developed countless skills through my first-year education TA experience, but among those, what I learned foremost was the ability to be observant. The needs of each student vary depending on the content and circumstances of assignments and the student’s situation in class. Therefore, observational skills are inevitably required in first-year education classes and you gradually come to acquire them through each class experience. Acquiring these observational skills has helped me in my own activities, such as assigning roles according to members’ individual characteristics in the student group I represent.

Message for future APU students

At APU, while students of course have the opportunity to learn in an international environment, there are also experiences that regular university students cannot have, such as that learning being supported by the students themselves! As first-year education TAs in particular are involved with class management, I think this TA work is a great experience for a future career! You should definitely try applying to be a first-year education TA once you enroll at APU!

Message
HNIN OO WAI
Name:
HNIN OO WAI
Nationality:
MYANMAR
TA experience:
SSW TA, FGL TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

I helped my students to express their opinions freely. I listened to their stories carefully to learn their backgrounds and understand their way of learning. I cheerfully facilitated groups so that students could be comfortable in the class even when they were tired. I also supported them in learning to be great leaders and in learning the necessary skills for APU's multicultural environment.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

I was nervous to work as a first-year education TA for Foundations for Global Leadership at first. I was not used to talking comfortably with strangers so it was a big challenge for me. However, I gradually gained confidence and the experience of managing students helped me with my student life, too. In group discussions in my classes, I can now easily facilitate the discussion while being inclusive and understanding.

Message for future APU students

You will not regret it.

Message
I GEDE ADITYA D. N.
Name:
I GEDE ADITYA D. N.
Nationality:
INDONESIA
TA experience:
SSW TA, FGL TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

Aside from class management, as a TA, I often invited my students to think beyond the learning materials taught in class and connect the philosophies to their everyday lives to encourage them to seek purpose throughout their APU lives and live mindful lives.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

Being a TA has taught me the importance of communication in teamwork especially when trying to solve a problem together as a teaching team. At the same time, learning communication has also fostered my confidence.

Message for future APU students

When you hit a brick wall, remove the bricks one by one and use them to create your path.

Message
ISTESHAM FARHAN
Name:
ISTESHAM FARHAN
Nationality:
BANGLADESH
TA experience:
SSW TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

My job as a TA was to help students build the foundation of their university life. If we figure out how to learn more effectively before we dive into learning, student life will be much easier.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

My growth as a TA is something I am proud of. It made me more responsible towards my community and helped me develop a lot of important skills, such as teamwork and communication. Besides that, having the opportunity to make positive and meaningful impacts on a lot of students' university lives helped me fulfill self-actualization by giving me a sense of recognition and validation for my work.

Message for future APU students

As a message for future APU students, APU offers a basket of opportunities which can help you grow as a person and also professionally. Explore the basket, pick the opportunity that aligns with your interests, and work hard.

Message
LIU ZEYI
Name:
LIU ZEYI
Nationality:
CHINA
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW LTA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

I provide support that matches students’ individual characteristics.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

The work fostered my ability to teach and support students in lower year levels. My ability to look out for others has improved.

Message for future APU students

Please take action and seize your chance.

Message
MIYAJI MISORA
Name:
MIYAJI MISORA
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

First of all, I always tried to connect with everyone with a smile so that students could enjoy the class!

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

Collaborating with partner TAs while dividing the roles and being able to utilize each other’s strengths to work with students and run the class more smoothly was an incredibly good experience.

Message for future APU students

There are many challenging activities at APU. Please find out what you are good at and what you like while taking on the challenges you are interested in!

Message
MOTOI YU
Name:
MOTOI YU
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW L/TA, FGL TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

The students in first-year education courses are all first-year students that were just high school students a short while ago. Therefore, many of them do not know the so-called basics within the basics, such as how to submit assignments or operate Office 365, or even about typing and file management. It’s natural that there would be no opportunities to be taught such basics after enrolling. To that end, I created an atmosphere in which students could ask such questions without being embarrassed and actively asked them whether they were able to do such things.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

As I have continuously been a first-year education TA since the Spring of my second year, I have not experienced the regular APU practice of “Wednesdays without classes” since my enrollment. It has also been difficult for me as a night person to wake up very early in the mornings for the inevitable assignment of first and second period. Even so, there have always been students behind what I’ve done up until this point. I did not continue being a TA as a source of my own learning, growth, or change. Even on nights before TA days when I slept late following an assignment, the reason I was able to continue waking up early to commute to campus for two years on Wednesdays was because there would be students there waiting for me. I want to express my gratitude to all the students who have together helped me to form my classes and student life, learning from one another in both the fun and difficult times.

Message for future APU students

As everyone comes from various backgrounds, rather than those backgrounds being a source of resentment or regret, I hope that they are something we can use positively.

Message
QONITA Aryana P.
Name:
QONITA Aryana P.
Nationality:
INDONESIA
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW L/TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

I was willing to get to know each of my students. Remember that you assist students who are new to APU; let them know that they can always rely on you.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

Throughout my experiences as a first-year TA, I found my passion for education and counseling and I ended up being a student counselor for several Indonesian youths. Being a TA helped me learn how to conduct a meaningful and insightful learning environment. I also got my internship in an Education NGO thanks to my experiences as a TA.

Message for future APU students

Explore yourself; you'll learn a lot when you focus on your growth :)

Message
RAYZAN RAHMANANDA
Name:
RAYZAN RAHMANANDA
Nationality:
INDONESIA
TA experience:
MCW TA, FGL TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

Smiling, being energetic, and being confident are methods of support that are simple but often forgotten. As TAs, we are role models for everyone and senpai that students take as examples in their APU life for a short period. TAs are a first face and first point of contact with APU life, which is why being happy and confident is majorly important. We should not only teach skills such as communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills to students, but also implement these skills in our lives as TAs. This implementation includes smiling and being happy, since a happy person makes everyone surrounding them happy too.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

Without the TA/LTA experience, I would never had had the courage to do my own projects and make other organizations' projects successful. I am very grateful for this experience as I am now able to work with people from other nationalities and languages to create events such as multicultural weeks at APU or start my own creative industry business outside of APU which focuses on education.

Message for future APU students

Don’t forget to be happy!!
Being a TA/LTA in both MCW and FGL has given me an opportunity to become a better leader. Managing more than 100 people (including TAs and students) was a challenging experience and a first time for me. Throughout the semester, there were many skills that I gained, including time management, team discipline, and communication skills, and these skills have helped me in other leadership roles at other organizations as well as helped me to have Do not give up - being a TA is a challenging experience, however, what you will get at the end is worth every sweat poured into this amazing experience!

Message
SHIMIZU NAIKI
Name:
SHIMIZU NAIKI
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, FGL TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

The needs of students vary greatly even among students taking the same course, such as students wanting to be able to write well or students wanting to be able to conduct themselves well in groupwork. Under those circumstances, I did not provide uniform advice or support, but instead I thoroughly provided support beyond the classroom, such as talking to students, correcting assignments, and interviewing them bearing in mind their individual goals. In doing so, I try to support the students in achieving their individual goals in a way that the professor cannot cover entirely in the classroom.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

A broader outlook: First-year education TAs do not act alone, but spend a lot of time discussing small details with the professors and other TAs. Within those discussions, I learned about many approaches I had never thought of before, such as having various approaches towards the same goal and TAs responding to students by taking advantage of their individual strengths as TAs.
・ Ability to think ahead: TAs need to take action to achieve the goals of each class in light of what is be achieved each class towards the outcomes that should be reached after all fourteen classes. During job-hunting as well, I was evaluated on the approach I developed over the course of my TA work in which I create a detailed plan to achieve goals and act in accordance with it.
・ Flexibility: TAs work with students with different knowledge and qualifications, but therefore, rather than responding to all students in the same way, TAs need to be flexible and put themselves in the student’s position, even for their responses outside of the classroom. The skills I developed through such activities enabled me to respond calmly and flexibly in other unexpected situations, such as when I participated in an exchange program.
・ Knowledge of the subject: TAs are not only required to teach, but to check in on students’ understanding and practice. Therefore, as a TA I was able to form standards for “how to demonstrate great ○○ skills” by observing numerous cases. The writing skills I developed as a result helped me when writing reports for class and when writing logically and concisely about my own experiences for job hunting. The leadership skills I developed through first-year education TA work also helped me to build a better AP house environment when supervising Resident Assistants (RAs), each with their own set of values, as well as when I had to conduct myself optimally in group discussion tests during job hunting.

Message for future APU students

The skills that can be developed in first-year education at APU are valuable assets. In Japan, universities that provide full first-year education and TA systems like APU are rare. Through first-year education, you can acquire the skills to survive in a chaotic society, and by demonstrating these skills in AP house and your university life, you can put the theories you learn into practice. So how about learning skills that can only be gained at APU? I am looking forward to seeing you at APU.

Message
SUHA Saamin Azam
Name:
SUHA Saamin Azam
Nationality:
BANGLADESH
TA experience:
MCW L/TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

I made sure to always be readily available for students, but also build boundaries regarding working hours. If a student contacted me late at night, I would guide them with their query the first time, but also remind them to be more timely from then onwards. This approach also helps students learn the importance of deadlines and not leaving everything to the last minute.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

I think the most useful part was being able to interact with different people in a multicultural environment and broaden my mindset. Rather than just the students, I was also able to observe the teaching and facilitation methods of other TAs, and incorporate elements from that into my lessons. Moreover, first-year students face a lot of challenges, most of which you often have to solve during class time! This also aided me in sharpening and being more swift in my problem-solving skills.

Message for future APU students

MCW is a very unique opportunity, so make sure to cherish it! Be open to learning from others, and try to ensure that you are a dependable teammate for your peers. You will enjoy it more that way!

Message
VOKHABOV ERKINBEK
Name:
VOKHABOV ERKINBEK
Nationality:
UZBEKISTAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW LTA, FGL TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

I provided reminders about assignments, clarification of class content, and any help related to assignment submission and lesson preparation.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

Most certainly it would be the power to do something for someone else's sake. Listening skills, skills to provide constructive feedback, and skills to provide support and guidance tailored to each student also gave me skills as a consultant.

Message for future APU students

Your first year is the most important one. Try anything and everything that you have never seen before. Student life is such a precious time in which any mistake is welcome, because mistakes are the stepping stones for your growth. Make friends, try out new things, and grow.

Message
WADA MANATO
Name:
WADA MANATO
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

At APU, students come together from all walks of life with individual values and characteristics. I aimed to value those individual characteristics and rather than providing uniform support, I supported each student with a different approach. I would first observe all students carefully and discover their individual characteristics through conversation. After that, I supported the student in a method suited to their individuality, such as only summarizing the main points rather than deeply intervening for students who seemed to prefer learning on their own, or conversely, providing hints to think about to students who seemed to work better when working with others.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

Looking back on my life now, I feel like I understand people better than before I did first-year education TA work. I have liked interacting with people since I was little and I still love it, but the previous me had a tendency to only look at others from my personal values. However, through the support of TAs I met when I was an SSAW (SSW) student in my first year, I realized the value of individual nature. When I put the intervention methods of those TAs into practice in my actual work, I discovered the “student’s uniqueness” which I was not able to realize before. At the same time, I learned the negative impact of my past tendency. In this way, I strongly believe that it was the first-year education TA experience that enabled me to realize aspects of myself which I needed to fix and make improvements.

Message for future APU students

APU is a university comprised of students coming together from all over Japan and countries around the world. Therefore, when you walk around the campus, you can meet a hundred types of people of all nationalities. I believe that this is a university where you can realize new ways of thinking that you didn’t have through these interactions and shape yourself. You can also discover new personal strengths through the university’s variety of extracurricular activities. Come and find a new you at APU. I am looking forward to welcoming everyone!

Message
WATANABE Kota
Name:
WATANABE Kota
Nationality:
JAPAN
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW L/TA, FGL TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

What I endeavored to do as a first-year education TA was support the students to step forward a little at a time. One example of an initiative I took for that purpose was support through interviews. I interviewed the students as necessary to set goals suited to each individual. By setting specific goals such as “I will begin the discussion first twice in the next class” or “When facilitating, I will call out members’ names”, I endeavored to steadily enable growth.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

The biggest change through the TA experience was becoming able to display leadership not only in Japanese, but in English as well. There are many opportunities for first-year education TAs to use both Japanese and English, such as doing activities together with international student TAs and supporting international students. When I first worked as a TA, I wasn’t able to communicate or facilitate well in English. However, as I experienced TA activities, I gradually became able to provide support in both Japanese and English, and I can now demonstrate leadership regardless of the language. For someone who has been in Japanese public schools from elementary to high school, this accomplishment has given me the confidence to take on the challenge of going overseas.

Message for future APU students

APU provides many opportunities for students to challenge themselves! One of those opportunities is being a first-year education TA. I think the experience of creating a class together with a professor while being responsible for the management of small classes and also being able to perform tasks in both Japanese and English like at APU is something that can’t be found at other universities. I am looking forward to seeing everyone make the most out of APU!

Message
YANGLEM MOTILAL
Name:
YANGLEM MOTILAL
Nationality:
INDIA
TA experience:
SSW TA, MCW TA, FGL TA
As a first-year TA, what kind of support did you try to provide to students? (Points of originality and ingenuity, etc.)

I still remember my first year at APU - it was a little overwhelming to adapt to university life and lecture styles. So, as a first-year education TA, I focused on providing supportive and engaging learning experiences. I have been trying to make a difference in my way of supporting students: I encourage students to share their cultural perspectives during discussions to create a richer learning environment for everyone as diversity is a strength at APU, and I’m open to listening to students’ ideas and feedback.

Looking back on your current career (student life), what have you learned, grown, changed, or found useful as a first-year TA?

I have improved my communication skills, leadership skills, and time management skills a lot as a result of being a first-year education TA.

Message for future APU students

APU is full of diversity. If you love diverse communities and engagement, come to APU and shape your future.

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