ode to teaching

3 sections of calculus survived and i'm on the verge of hoarse, but oh well... that'll fix itself later.

all things considered, things went well, BUT, i was right... my professor visiting was strange.

my first period (8:40-10:00) went fine. we covered all 7 problems in the lab that we were supposed to and i conducted the whole period on my own, uninterruped. i was pleased with the pace and amount of info we covered even if i think the maple labs could be better designed.

my second period (10:20-11:40), went... differently. the prof. i teach for came in around 10:30 and throughout the period asked questions that were good for the students to know, but a little bit off tangent to the main point of the class. he also would go to help students one on one when they had questions and 75% of the time would stop me while i was in front of the room and ask for "the expert help". it totally altered the pace, and we finished at 11:50 instead of 11:40. between the 2nd and 3rd period he told me i was doing a fantastic job, and he knew his questions were wasting class time, so he apologized, but said he was curious and was certain students would wonder the same thing. fine.

my last period (12:00-1:20) started off with the professor there. i tried to anticipate his questions before he asked them at strange times so that there was a better flow to my interaction with him during the lecture. he left around 1:10, and i managed to finish at 1:19 since i was better able to anticipate my interaction with him.

i felt a little bad though... during the 3rd section especially, i kept trying to get started on the lab, and the prof kept helping students who had come in late and interrupted me to get my help when he got stuck. but it was a bigger production than if i just had to field the questions on my own. i felt bad because some of the students picked up on that his "help" was totally messing with my pace, and were quietly laughing/talking amongst themselves about it. i want them to respect both the prof. and me, and i mostly just didn't say much about him interrupting me since he's technically above me, and responded with the answers he wanted. the students dealt fine, but i think some of them picked up on that their professor was being more disruptive than helpful.

i hope the professor didn't catch on to that too seriously more than what he commented to me after the 2nd period. it was trying my patience, but i hope i covered that sucessfully well too.

we'll see.

anyhow, crazy maple lab class over, i get to go back to a chalkboard and doing homework problems next week... woohoo! :P

later dudes.