I was a little sad to see them go, honestly. I know I was supposed to be the instructor, but I learned a fuck ton from them this semester. It’s a remedial math class, so many of the students in my class have had awful, awful experiences with math class in the past. I was determined to not be just the next traumatic math teacher in their lives, and it seems I’ve succeeded for some! I’ve gotten 3 emails and 1 in person conversation telling me that this was the best math class they’ve ever had and they actually feel prepared going into their next math class.

And I mean, it’s my first semester. I’m sure I was ass at a lot of stuff. But that’s where the learning from my students came in to play. I gave them lots of ways to talk to me about what was working and what wasn’t (even anonymously if they wanted) and ended up with something I’m really proud of, and I’m sure is just going to grow as I get more experience.

On top of this, my office mate and I have been developing a huge overhaul to the way we run the grade book in the course that we think will be more conducive to learning and growing than grade chasing (I hate traditional grading with every fiber of my being) and I just got permission from my bosses to test drive it over the summer class I’m teaching. I’m absurdly excited for it, but I’m also quite nervous, since it’s something I’ve never been on the student end of, and no one in my department has any experience doing it. So I’ll be treading new territory, and nervous I won’t be able to solve some of the challenges that will inevitably come up. Would hate to screw over my students by trying something crazy too fast.

At ant rate, I’ve officially decided I love teaching.