I have been teaching this recitation class for juniors in ECE Dept. this semester which has been quite an expereince so far. Going to teach in front of a class of about 75 students was intimidating at first, but soon I found that I can teach if I am well prepared for it. In fact, I came to discover that you are as good as you are prepared. An advance preparation of subject matter, an interest in what students want & listening to them and giving them recognition make it easier to handle a class. But I have made my part of mistakes too. Sometimes, things didn't go exactly the way I wanted, & then I told something wrong. The reason, I realized, was still a bit of slack in my part of prepation. I assumed certain things certain way from my old-faded memory without checking it. Good news is that I realize I can teach a class, but the bad news is that it takes so much of my time to get ready for it that I hardly have time for my research. I can only hope that it gets better in balancing both the teaching and research in future. Two things I would like to note here, from my expereince so far, are 1.) You don't understand the material unless you teach 2.) It gives immense satisfaction to answer students' questions.
Any expereince or observation you have to share?
Lalit it was so hard my first semester teaching too! I would say some things wrong or just not say some of the important stuff!!! Yikes! But it got better and I love it! Preparation definitely is key--- reading and rereading materials that the students have to read; working problems; and finding new stuff on the internet that help students. I also found that when I typed up my written notes it helped to streamline and organizae my thoughts. Also, each day I make an outline of what I am teaching to keep me focused for the day!
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