I am a math major grad student at a big public school, and we need to do TA every semester.
I got assigned to lower level classes last couple semesters, and it's been quite difficult for me. Even though I am a pretty nice person in general, I have so much trouble tolerating my students' sloppiness, arguing for more points when they don't deserve, and just explaining very simple things to students again and again in general (for example, why log(a + b) is not equal to log(a) + log(b)).
I am sure many will think my attitude is wrong, and probably I need to hear that. I am also a "harsh grader", as my students would probably call me. The way I was raised, it's very hard to accept people not working hard, but feeling entitled to good grades. I have students coming to me asking how they can get extra points without doing any actual work. I feel offended by that.
Let me know what you think about teaching in general. I enjoy doing research in mathematics and want to be in academia in the future. However, I feel this could be a problem for me if I hate teaching so much. Should I think more positively about this?
Answer
Personally I found that it got better as the years went on. It was irritating when students barely a few years younger than me were complaining and begging for grades, but as you get older the students become so young that they're cute no matter what they do!
Also, you need to assess your situation objectively. If by large public school you mean Berkeley or Michigan or others of that calibre and you're one of the strongest grad students there, teaching might not matter so much in your career (it still matters, but there will be other things that make your job worth it) but if you see yourself as mediocre, teaching matters a lot in tenure-track hiring, so you'd better get used to it. Furthermore, even some top tier schools care very much about your teaching records, even at the postdoc hiring stages, so if you do a bad job you're cutting yourself out of some jobs.
Becoming more approachable and bonding with your students (which is much easier to do as a grad student) will also make it more fun.
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