A humbling first week of teaching classes
I’m writing you after my first full week of teaching brilliant undergrads. Your girl is WHOOPED. Let’s chat!
Life stuff (that you just can’t make up)
This week was… humbling. Whoever thought it was a good idea to have me teaching advanced math definitely isn’t aware of my inability to do simple math - ESPECIALLY when in front of 20 brilliant students AND leveling it up to advanced. I blame the fact that the first six lectures cover probability and your girl’s brain just does not work in that way. I do not care about the likelihood that a part is defective. I’m simply cranky that it’s defective and I want a new one. Only now I have to care enough to calculate said likelihood. Are you bored yet?? Me too 🤣
In all seriousness though, I am spending HOURS prepping my lectures (see below pic for what every evening looks like after toddler bedtime). Then I get in front of these students, explain one thing, and six hands immediately jump into the air with all of these super smart questions. This wouldn’t be an issue if said questions didn’t end up in my having to make corrections in real time 🤦♀️
I am completely okay with not being the smartest in the room and in my classes I humbly make the corrections as we go and genuinely appreciate the student’s engaging with me. But three lectures in and I’m feeling a touch dejected. I’m hoping that it’s just this particular topic that is giving me trouble, but a tiny voice in the back of my head is telling me that I’m not cut out for this. The imposter syndrome is REAL. To combat it, I’m reminding myself that the students are listening which is a huge win annnd I’ll be done with teaching probability next Friday 🙌
Recent binge-listens
Remarkably Bright Creatures. Friends, I loved this book! Several peoples’ challenging stories intertwine in a super interesting way - to include that of an octopus?! YEP. Who knew something like that could make for such a good read/listen. Highly recommend!
