Excitement/Terror
Classes start here in a few weeks. (As I suppose they do elsewhere). So I have exactly 17 days to finish getting ready for my class. I'm getting pretty excited about it, as I have this completely unrealistic picture in my head of how all of my students are going to love me and learn so much. My class will be super cool, fun, and highly educational. My students will be astronomy geniuses by the end.
Then the terror sets in. I only have ~4 lectures done at this point and my outline for the semester is pretty ambitious for a class that I don't feel entirely comfortable teaching yet. I still haven't settled on the details of what their research papers should be like and the prospect of actually writing 3 exams and a final is completely daunting. Plus, obviously, only 1/4 of the 75 student signed up will actually care about the class and many will probably think I am a horrible bitch.
I feel kind of bipolar or something, what with the frequent oscillations between excitement and terror. It's wreaking a little bit of havoc on my general mental well-being.
And to bring you up to date on the topic of my previous post, I have taken it upon myself (now that I'm done complaining and whining about it) to do something about what I perceive as holes in my education. I have signed up for a mini-Med School at the local medical school. It is a series of 9 weekly lectures by professors at the med school on different current medical topics. It's intended for the general public to increase their knowledge about medicine. Sounds right up my alley. Perhaps I'll follow Craig's lead and buy a really boring book about Reconstruction next time I'm at the airport, too. :)
Then the terror sets in. I only have ~4 lectures done at this point and my outline for the semester is pretty ambitious for a class that I don't feel entirely comfortable teaching yet. I still haven't settled on the details of what their research papers should be like and the prospect of actually writing 3 exams and a final is completely daunting. Plus, obviously, only 1/4 of the 75 student signed up will actually care about the class and many will probably think I am a horrible bitch.
I feel kind of bipolar or something, what with the frequent oscillations between excitement and terror. It's wreaking a little bit of havoc on my general mental well-being.
And to bring you up to date on the topic of my previous post, I have taken it upon myself (now that I'm done complaining and whining about it) to do something about what I perceive as holes in my education. I have signed up for a mini-Med School at the local medical school. It is a series of 9 weekly lectures by professors at the med school on different current medical topics. It's intended for the general public to increase their knowledge about medicine. Sounds right up my alley. Perhaps I'll follow Craig's lead and buy a really boring book about Reconstruction next time I'm at the airport, too. :)
posted by Meredith | 9:03 PM
4 Comments:
Some un-asked for advice:
don't assign too much work (it only creates more work for you)
don't get upset if you're criticized
don't let them smell your fear
it's OK to fall behind and cut stuff out
being ahead by 4 lectures is a lot! I am usually finishing a lecture right before class.
You'll do great! But I'm not sure you should read that book like Craig. That still concerns me.
I'm telling you, that book has been a lifesaver over my summer of salary reduction - I won't buy another book until finish it, and it's boring enough that finishing it isn't much of a threat. My book spending as dropped to practically nothing.
(Over the summer, I'm a university employee and not a student, and have $150 dollars or so taken out of my paycheck for retirement. Which they immediately give back to me upon graduation, when I have a job and don't need it as much.)
Oh, and I've got another month and a half before classes start. The glories of the quarter system.
I, too, have "retirement" money taken out of my summer paycheck. The plus side here, though, is that we are fulltime employees over the summer versus halftime during the school year. We end up being paid nearly double in the summer, so I don't miss the money quite so much.
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