My Teaching Experience

Dean - “Are you all set to teach?... They are a total of 120…The average age is around 21. ”

Me - “I think so” (hiding my nervousness and trying to sound as confident as can be)

Dean - “Just be firm and set the rules from day one, you’ll be fine … All the best”

Me - “Thank you” (fake smile on)

First day - Walks into class (looking as grumpy as possible)… Opens the power point slide with the rules written on it:

Rule 1  No coming late to my class
Rule 2  No talking when I am talking
Rule 3  No extension on assignments

Did they follow my rules?... Absolutely Not!... Every single rule of mine was broken right from day one...."Ma'am chill, rules are meant to be broken"....Yupp! that was their response (they were lovely)... :) 

Sooo....What were the different types of students I encountered?

• The ones that suffered from verbal diarrhea

• The ones who were mute

• The ones that paid attention in class, made frequent visits to my office, wrote notes, which would then be photocopied by their friends and circulated during exams.

• The ones that barely showed up for class, but would end up with an A

• The ones who studied day and night, but sadly would end up with a B

• The ones whose main aim was to just get a degree on paper, they cared less about grades

                   This was a common sight to see!

Did I enjoy teaching? I loved every tiny whiny bit of it, except for - supervising exams (brain dead exercise), grading (120 assignments and 120 final exam papers… exhausting) and staff meetings (time to write my grocery list)... On the whole, it was an incredible experience... Quitting my job and saying goodbye was extremely hard …. I can’t wait to finish my PhD and get back to teaching  :) .