Another term done

It's not quite done, there's an exam to administer, but the teaching part is done. I do like teaching quite a lot, and I guess it shows because on Monday, about 100 (1/3 of my class showed up for the last 8:30 on a Monday morning class of the term) first year students stood up and applauded after I finished my course overview. I've been teaching for a while now, and that's the first time I've gotten an ovation for doing so. I'll save the pat on the back for when I need it.

Teaching well at the university level isn't a difficult thing to do, but it takes patience and organization. It takes a great deal of thought and empathy. If you walk into a room and shut yourself up for a few seconds, to take a few seconds to get the feel of the room, you'll know beforehand whether your lecture is going to fall flat or not. I had one class once where four of the eight students really disliked me, and there was nothing I could do about that. Longest thirteen weeks of my career, and teaching evaluations to prove it....lower scores than normal. This was a fourth-year course, too, so you'd think that the students wouldn't be so interested in what they felt about me as they were in getting through, getting out, getting to grad school or jobs or wherever they were going. It was personal, they didn't like me, and every misstep, every small mistake (hey, profs make mistakes! go figure!) was amplified. At the same time it didn't particularly bother me, because there's not much you can do to make people like you. I have been told that students either really, really like me, or really really dislike me. I think that's fine, I'd rather the extremes than inspire ambivalence.

As I say though, it doesn't matter one way or another whether the students like me or not. It's more important that they're getting the information they need and that they are learning something...or at least, that learning is available to them, because then they can choose to learn or not. This is the advantage of teaching adults, they have choices. I couldn't teach younger kids, I don't have the patience for that and I don't have the touchy-feely attitude about teaching. I do have a "take it or leave it" approach, and I'm not the best prof ever. Teaching science is more about talking about topics that are intangible, giving notes, giving lectures. It's not about discussions very often. It's not about "how does this make you feel?". It's about facts, and relaying facts in as interesting and captivating a manner as possible.

And sometimes, it's about spending Friday night with champagne and the laptop, making notes for Monday.