Training.

The Fundamentals of Teaching, as I've learned so far.
1. Get to know your students, where they are coming from and what their motivations are.
2. Structure your sections/ classes. Have a Beginning, Middle, and End.
3. Teach to all the different learning styles.

That's it, folks.

I showed my sister, an elementary school teacher, the 30 page booklet I got at my most recent "Fundamentals of Teaching" workshop. That, sad to say, is the most official training document I've gotten. She laughed; she went to school for four years and then got a masters degree before she was put in charge of her own class. She tried to make me feel better about my lack of experience, but the only thing that will make me feel better about it is... experience.

Granted, undergraduate science and elementary education are very different.

The students are bigger.

I've been told not to discount all the years I've had as a student, and all the mentoring I've done in the lab, and all the presentations and seminars I've given over the years. Those count as training, apparently.

I'm just glad that the first class I teach is a lab. If I can get through the first day, the rest should be- well- should be cake.

But that first day... it's a week away and I'm already having anxiety about it!

1 comments:

Lisa said...

I think I was laughing more at the gobs and gobs of money that mom and dad paid and the gobs of money I am STILL paying more than anything else. And the 5 1/2 years I guess. :)
DON'T discount all of that experience. You've learned a lot about what good professors do and what good professors DON'T do from all of those classes you've been in. You might not realize it yet, but it will come out in your teaching. And you'll remember, "oh yeah, that one prof did that and I hated it, so I'm not going to do that!"
This is so totally fun for me! :)