Tuesday, May 03, 2005

i've got class

So I'm about to finish up my first full semester of teaching. I'm sort of deciding to go out with a bang--stayed up until 3am last night finishing up the exam so a student could take it a day early. And of course I had to be in before 8am to give the exam. So tomorrow I give the real exam then I get to spend two full days grading them and preparing final grades. Exhausting, but then I'll be done and will have lots and lots of free time to do research in. There's that whole PhD thing I would mind wrapping up.

Overall I feel pretty positive about the teaching thing, which is nice because I have several friends that got education degrees then decided to give up on it after their student teaching. College teaching is nice because the kids are pretty mature. And you can always kick people out and/or fail them. Just kidding. But really you can.

The main thing I didn't like about teaching this semester was that I was teaching if for the first time. My overall view for the semester and its goals seemed pretty solid, but goals with individual lectures and how I plan reaching those goals needs a lot of developing. I was spending a fair amount of time--probably too much--preparing for each lecture, but I still feel that I can do a lot better. Teachers that have taught the course before have a pretty big advantage in that respect.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, first year teaching is the hardest part so its downhill from here if you stick with it. The lesson planning is time consuming and can always be improved but now you have a base to draw from. Good job.