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as The TEACHER!
(insert *maniacal laughter* here)
(keep *laughing*, *cackling*, *gibbering*, and throw in the occasionaly *howl* for good measure)
Aaaaaand.... that's good.
Well, no complaints (from me) so far. I believe my final numbers are set at a whopping 11 students, so I have a nice, small course to work with. I'm covering material, that while I may be a little rusty, has never been terribly far removed from the rest of my work.
I am teaching Micro 332 at EMU, which is sort of the entry class to the (certified, accredited) medical technologist program run by the School of Health Services. What is a medical technologist, you ask? Well, whenever you're in the doctor's office and they go "Hang on, I want to take a sample and run some lab tests," the medical technologists are those who actually run the lab tests.
What's in Micro 332, AKA Clinical Microbiology 1? I'm teaching an introduction to the wild & wooly world of microbiology, or at least the medically-relevant portions thereof. The program director (and prior instructor) selected a pretty darn good textbook to use (of which I used the 2nd or 3rd edition, it's now in the 10th edition...), and while I am teaching mostly within the parameters of the book, there is enough room for me to teach with my own style and quirks.
The first day of class was generally brief, where I was introduced by the program director, went over the syllabus, so on and so forth. But then I threw up a bunch of slides wherein I asked some very broad questions (nothing like shocking your students, on their first day back from summer break, with the teacher going "So... you there... right, wossyername, can you think of any environments on our planet where bacteria do not live?" to really wake them up), to two ends. 1) I so loathe the standard "I am a lecture drone, you are note-taking drones" format of larger classes--this is a 300-level course after all. 2) If my students are paying attention and are capable of talking back to me, whether or not they have a 'correct' answer, then they're more likely learning than not.
Plus, I got to impress upon them just how wild and wooly, how strange and varied, and how downright bizarre the world of microbiology can be, all in the first day of class. (A perennial favorite microbiologist's poser: "So, if you had to pick a number, what do you think is the ratio of microorganisms on and in your body to the actual number of cells in your body that are recognizably you?" "Answer: on average, 10. Yes, 10:1, them-to-you. Now go wash your hands.")
As for today, the second day of class, well, I apologized (in my generally bemused fashion) to them that this week's sessions were likely to be the most boring of the whole term, as I wanted to make sure that all of the students shared equivalent chemistry and biology foundations. Today's lecture I even went so far as to cheat and use the pre-made slides that come with the instructor's DVD in the textbook (wow, publishers are adding many bells and whistles, these days). However, I tore out about a 3rd of the given slides, reordered them to my satisfaction, and then while actually presenting them, frequently laid out the importance of given chemistries and biochemistries to microorganisms. Relevance before recall, please.
Next week, however, things get interesting. *evil grin*
Me, having fun so far?
Yeah, pretty much.
(insert *maniacal laughter* here)
(keep *laughing*, *cackling*, *gibbering*, and throw in the occasionaly *howl* for good measure)
Aaaaaand.... that's good.
Well, no complaints (from me) so far. I believe my final numbers are set at a whopping 11 students, so I have a nice, small course to work with. I'm covering material, that while I may be a little rusty, has never been terribly far removed from the rest of my work.
I am teaching Micro 332 at EMU, which is sort of the entry class to the (certified, accredited) medical technologist program run by the School of Health Services. What is a medical technologist, you ask? Well, whenever you're in the doctor's office and they go "Hang on, I want to take a sample and run some lab tests," the medical technologists are those who actually run the lab tests.
What's in Micro 332, AKA Clinical Microbiology 1? I'm teaching an introduction to the wild & wooly world of microbiology, or at least the medically-relevant portions thereof. The program director (and prior instructor) selected a pretty darn good textbook to use (of which I used the 2nd or 3rd edition, it's now in the 10th edition...), and while I am teaching mostly within the parameters of the book, there is enough room for me to teach with my own style and quirks.
The first day of class was generally brief, where I was introduced by the program director, went over the syllabus, so on and so forth. But then I threw up a bunch of slides wherein I asked some very broad questions (nothing like shocking your students, on their first day back from summer break, with the teacher going "So... you there... right, wossyername, can you think of any environments on our planet where bacteria do not live?" to really wake them up), to two ends. 1) I so loathe the standard "I am a lecture drone, you are note-taking drones" format of larger classes--this is a 300-level course after all. 2) If my students are paying attention and are capable of talking back to me, whether or not they have a 'correct' answer, then they're more likely learning than not.
Plus, I got to impress upon them just how wild and wooly, how strange and varied, and how downright bizarre the world of microbiology can be, all in the first day of class. (A perennial favorite microbiologist's poser: "So, if you had to pick a number, what do you think is the ratio of microorganisms on and in your body to the actual number of cells in your body that are recognizably you?" "Answer: on average, 10. Yes, 10:1, them-to-you. Now go wash your hands.")
As for today, the second day of class, well, I apologized (in my generally bemused fashion) to them that this week's sessions were likely to be the most boring of the whole term, as I wanted to make sure that all of the students shared equivalent chemistry and biology foundations. Today's lecture I even went so far as to cheat and use the pre-made slides that come with the instructor's DVD in the textbook (wow, publishers are adding many bells and whistles, these days). However, I tore out about a 3rd of the given slides, reordered them to my satisfaction, and then while actually presenting them, frequently laid out the importance of given chemistries and biochemistries to microorganisms. Relevance before recall, please.
Next week, however, things get interesting. *evil grin*
Me, having fun so far?
Yeah, pretty much.
