I like my special TA chair.

The way the classroom is laid out for the second class I'm TAing is as follows: There are about 10 tables, arranged 5x2, with about three chairs at each, all facing the front. Behind the last row of tables, way at the back of the room, sits a single solitary chair with no built-in power outlets and no built-in network jack. This makes it extremely undesirable to the laptop-wielding students.

So here's the layout:

       x prof
  ---    ---
  ---    ---
  ---    ---
  ---    ---
  ---    ---
   x TA

I like this position, and I'm not sure why. Maybe the disruption of symmetry makes it a more powerful position, or maybe because I'm behind everyone.

It's kind of like when I used to play soccer. (You do things like that at the young age where you don't get to choose your own activities.) I sucked, so I usually played "left wing". However, sometimes, when we were doing really good, the coach would whimsically mix all the players around, and we'd adopt the following position:

x   x x   x  wings + strikers
   x   x     halfbacks
   x   x     fullbacks
    x        sweeper
     x       goalie

And I always loved being the "sweeper". It looks like that may be for similar reasons.