Autobiography
Hello,
I am a chemical engineer by trade (NOT A CHEMIST, grrrrr) but have found myself teaching over the past 16 or so years. I've actually been teaching for even longer than that really. My first formal teaching experience came when I was 16 years old (a long time ago). I was in high school just as the computer generation really was getting started. I'm old enough to know about punch cards (ours just used HB pencils to darken in the rectangles) and when the TSR-80 was an amazing piece of technology in our school. I got along with our Computer Science teacher and when he was hired to teach a McGill off-campus course, he hired me as a teaching assistant! I really enjoyed the experience and the kicker was that I was teaching high school teachers. One of whom was my eighth grade English teacher (she was awesome so there was no need for payback). A couple of others were teachers I would see in my own high school's hallways.
Since then, I've been a teaching assistant at McGill and UBC eventually gravitating towards college instruction, definitely something I love to do. I really enjoy the interactions with students and seeing those moments when a student's mind expands and he/she "gets it". Those are the times I think most teachers work towards.
I remember that at my first college interview I asked the panel what the turn-over rate was. The answer was that people either tended to leave in two years or stay for twenty. You either hated or loved teaching. I think that is still true today. I'm definitely in the latter group.
The challenges definitely have changed in my eyes from that time long ago when I first tried to show someone more than twice my age how to do something to just today when I tried explaining a technical concept to someone half my age. I guess that makes for interesting times for instructors.
We now deal with online courses, increased accommodation requirements, under-trained high school graduates (I do not blame their teachers but rather the system that is geared towards increasing teacher workloads while pushing students out), tighter budgets, and, at times, entitled students. It's a balancing act that sometimes frustrates but most often rewards the practitioner.
I am a chemical engineer by trade (NOT A CHEMIST, grrrrr) but have found myself teaching over the past 16 or so years. I've actually been teaching for even longer than that really. My first formal teaching experience came when I was 16 years old (a long time ago). I was in high school just as the computer generation really was getting started. I'm old enough to know about punch cards (ours just used HB pencils to darken in the rectangles) and when the TSR-80 was an amazing piece of technology in our school. I got along with our Computer Science teacher and when he was hired to teach a McGill off-campus course, he hired me as a teaching assistant! I really enjoyed the experience and the kicker was that I was teaching high school teachers. One of whom was my eighth grade English teacher (she was awesome so there was no need for payback). A couple of others were teachers I would see in my own high school's hallways.
Since then, I've been a teaching assistant at McGill and UBC eventually gravitating towards college instruction, definitely something I love to do. I really enjoy the interactions with students and seeing those moments when a student's mind expands and he/she "gets it". Those are the times I think most teachers work towards.
I remember that at my first college interview I asked the panel what the turn-over rate was. The answer was that people either tended to leave in two years or stay for twenty. You either hated or loved teaching. I think that is still true today. I'm definitely in the latter group.
The challenges definitely have changed in my eyes from that time long ago when I first tried to show someone more than twice my age how to do something to just today when I tried explaining a technical concept to someone half my age. I guess that makes for interesting times for instructors.
We now deal with online courses, increased accommodation requirements, under-trained high school graduates (I do not blame their teachers but rather the system that is geared towards increasing teacher workloads while pushing students out), tighter budgets, and, at times, entitled students. It's a balancing act that sometimes frustrates but most often rewards the practitioner.
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