this quarter, for the first time ever, i'm teaching a lecture course. i usually teach smaller classes (around thirty people), but this quarter my department chair requested that i take on this larger course, an upper-division requirement for all of our majors. teaching a lecture course has posed a couple of challenges.
first, i'm still adjusting to the lecture hall. it's not as overwhelming as it was the first day, but it's taken some adjustment. i hate having to use the microphone, i'm still not quite used to all of the classroom technology, and, at times, it can be daunting to see ninety students looking at me and writing down everything i say.
second, the lecture format is VASTLY different from the discussion-oriented classes i'm used to teaching. wednesday's class was one example of having not prepared correctly for lecture. in smaller classes, i can fill the time pretty easily because i'm good at generating discussion about the course materials that i've assigned. lectures are different because there are too many people to really foster a discussion. i have to fill the time talking. i'm realizing that i need to incorporate more visual aids--slides, charts, film clips, whatever. i have to be überprepared.
third, i have a teaching assistant. having a TA is great because she leads discussion section and, thus, fields the majority of my students' questions. she is also responsible for all of the grading, which is a huge help. but! i've never "been the boss" in any circumstance, so it's a little awkward giving directives to someone.
that's the lecture.
also for the first time this quarter, i'm teaching two classes at once. my other course is a smaller class that i've taught several times before. i arranged it this way, so i wouldn't have to teach two new classes at once. hopefully teaching two courses will help me with my time management! ha! hopefully i have time to work on some of my own research this quarter.
hopefully i find something to blog about besides teaching for the next ten weeks!
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4 comments:
You certainly have your hands full this semester. Go ahead and keep blogging about it though...I am enjoying reading about it!
:-)
I got nervous just reading about the microphone and then lecture hall... public speaking scares me.
But a TA? I could handle that part.
msabcmom--i guess as a fellow teacher you can sympathize with my teaching dilemmas!
joel--i'm ok with public speaking; it's looking like a dummy in front of a large group of people that i don't like!
I like being the boss of someone. I'm pretty good at the supervisory aspect, even if I'm far from being a good employee.
Oh, and I'd totall freak out about having to lecture. I'm not scared of public speaking, I just think I'd run out of things to say or get easily distracted and/or offended by students I know are not paying attention. I'd probably also freak about being a TA considering students often don't read! But I'm sure they read all the assigned reading for your class :D
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