Teach a class

“Last week marked 29 years since I taught my first class. I was, like you, a young graduate student. The class I was assigned was usually reserved for adjuncts or more advanced TAs who had some teaching experience already, but the department was running short and they figured I could handle it. I couldn’t. I was terrible in every measurable and several unmeasurable ways. My students knew from the moment I walked into the classroom that I was in way over my head and like sharks smelling blood, they went for me. After a week I drafted a letter saying I was going to drop out of the program, but I never sent it. I almost did later, after I read the student evaluations, but I held off.”

“I was sweating bullets when I had to teach my first course as fresh grad student many moons ago and I can still recall the feeling like I was flushed red in the face when standing in front of the classroom and just wanted the class to be over.”