To get my degree in Psychology, one of the options I'm allowed to pursue is 496: Undergraduate Teaching Experience. I really enjoyed PSYCH 101 when I took it in winter quarter of my freshman year, and I thought I got along well with my sassy professor, so I took a chance and emailed her about possibly TA'ing. Within a week she called me in to her office, we talked a little bit about why I wanted this, and I was hired! For no pay, of course, but the experience was well worth it. I was the only undergraduate TA (or "peer facilitator", as they were required to call it", so I was tasked with stuff like office hours, entering in extra credit points, proctoring the tests, and creating student study guides. Not a lot of responsibility (like teaching a section), but a lot of necessary stuff to keep the class running smoothly.
During our first staff meeting, Professor Spector tasked me with creating study guides for the students to use each exam. She told me that previous TA's had chosen to just list out the terms we covered, but she wanted someone to do it more in the style of short-answer questions. I agreed to do this, so during lectures I would try to formulate questions that would ask students to remember relevant terms and ideas.
The email above shows the Professor's response to my first exam guide, which sent me to Cloud 9 for the rest of the day. I was really proud that I was able to create something to help the students study, and her encouragement was even more appreciated. She continued to be supportive of my other contributions, which really helped me to feel like I was making a difference in the class. I'm glad the Professor enjoyed my contributions, because a lot of the rest of this position involved busy work that I was worried she wouldn't really care about.