Teaching...

This semester I am enrolled in a Graduate Program in Teaching program. Part of the course requirement is that I must deliver 3 lectures to an undergraduate class that I am shadowing. After being bumped by the weather from my original slot I was all keyed up to finally deliver my inaugural lecture.

The course I am shadowing is Philosophy 1600 - Human Nature. My supervisor who actually teaches the course assigned me the introduction of Christian ideas of human nature starting with Augustine of Hippo and the Thomas Aquinas. Then as soon as I had my lecture prepared, he emailed me to let me know the topic had to be changed. He had not made it all the way through the material on Aristotle so now he wanted me to lecture on Aristotle's Ethics.

After an initial silent 'oh no!' I said sure I can do that. So I dug out my copy of Ethics and brushed up on it. I also wisely read the assigned readings from the course texts. I was all ready to lecture but an errant winter storm bumped me out of my Wednesday slot. My supervisor suggested I teach on Friday which was fine except the class starts at noon which is fifteen minutes before my GPT class ends.

No matter the rush, I slipped away early and headed off to my academic debut. I arrived just in time and moved up to the lectern. It was at this moment that I realized that in my rush to get to the class I had left my lecture notes behind. Going back for them was not an option.

So after a brutal 10 second panic I sucked it up and started my lecture. I was not exactly graceful but I was reasonably coherent and managed to cover all of the really essential points. The judicious use of several interactive exercises to bring the students into the discussion helped eat up chunks of the 50 minute session.

Once almost everyone had left I confessed to my supervisor that I had left my notes behind and that I had winged it. He looked down at his copious notes and then exclaimed "You winged it? Then that was excellent!"

At this point I could feel just how wet my tee-shirt was. I am sure I must have burned several hundred calories. But the satisfaction I felt told me that teaching is what I love.