My First Lecture!

So as a graduate student, I am required to be a teacher's assistant (TA) for one of my advisor's classes. When I did this last year, I was only required to really help out with the labs, grade papers, and the lectures were done by the professor. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I was sent an urgent email saying that my advisor was going out of town and he needed someone to teach his class...2 days later! The senior graduate students in my lab were going to be busy, so guess who got slammed with the responsibility...yes, MOI! Little ol' me that shies away from public speaking at all costs (especially in front of large audiences)!

Well, I had no choice really, so I sucked it up and confirmed with my advisor that I'd be able to teach is 100 student class! He sent me a copy of his notes for the class, which were of course only 3 pages long full of diagrams (because experienced professors can just talk from the top of her head and be 100% correct...most of the times hehe). I knew that wasn't going to fly for me though, so I went through and rewrote my own personal notes, reminded myself of some of the details of some concepts, and tried to prepare myself for any potential questions the students would ask.

On the day of the class, I reminded myself that I had a B.S. degree already in Materials Science & Engineering and these kids could not boast the same...therefore I was the AUTHORITY,lol! That made me feel a bit better going in. My dad joked and said if some student tried to show off and ask a question that made him feel smart and wanted to challenge...that I could bust out with something TOTALLY over his head...which I could certainly do after taking courses like (Crystallography, Structure & Defects), Thermodynamics of Materials, Kinetics of Phase Transformations, Advanced Biomaterials, Polymer Characterization...you get the idea,lol.

Well to my surprise, as soon as opened my mouth and began to teach, I felt at ease and really enjoyed explaining the concepts, writing on the board, and answering the questions of the students! When I went in, I didn't think I would have enough material, but near the end of the class, I found I could have spoken for another 15 minutes or so. What really encouraged me was when students seem to be nodding their heads when I was explaining something, or when a student would say, Oh okay I get it now , after answering their questions. One of the undergrad students that I did know, after class came up and told me that I did a really great job of explaining the material and that everything was clear. SUCCESS!!

I am really excited I had that opportunity, and it has reopened to me the possibility of going into academia and teaching once I complete my Ph.D. I still don't think my ultimate goal would be to become a tenured professor though. I want to teach just for a while and ultimately be working in industry. I'm a very practical person that way but I would love to help inspire and teach those behind me! We shall see...

Posted in: Teaching Assistant