Keep On Keeping On

These two guys help me keep going when the days are rough, and they have been rough. I am subbing for a night class, which, while not masses of extra work, does cause extra anxiety. Teaching is a tricky profession. I had a talk with the dean the other day and he reminded me that as an academic, I am used to doing well, but teaching is hard work and it takes practice to do it really well. Why was I talking to the dean? Well, he observed my class - the day before Spring Break, mind you, and HALF of the class decided not to show up. This caused me to flub around at the beginning of class, wondering where all my students were, and so, in a sort of out-of-body experience, I started class late, neglected to ask very many follow-up questions, said 'okay' and 'right' about 100 times, and did not transition well between topics. And to top it off, my slide show did not have the right animation, and so when I wanted to ask the students to interpret the evidence (the lesson was on Neandertals), the slide was already displaying the answer. But, at the end of the class, I felt I had mostly recovered and the lesson went okay and I had an activity planned that reinforced the lecture material - until I read the dean's review. He gave me a pretty low score - and it seemed to stem from 2 facts - a. not all the students were there and b. i said okay and right too often rather than asking follow-up questions. (As if I thought that those two questions reviewed the material.) However, when I spoke to him, I think he realized that he caught me on an off-day, and he was pretty nice. I do feel that I am a better teacher than he saw. I observed another teacher (who has won several awards), and her techniques are very similar to mine. In any case, I got the review last week and it was very depressing. Not because I feel he inaccurately described that particular class period, but because that one snapshot was terribly inaccurate of my teaching abilities and the amount of effort I put into the class. I have accepted the review and enjoyed talking to the dean, so: nowhere to go but up!
(P.S. I happened to watch part of undercover boss the other day and the chancellor of UC Riverside posed as an assistant to a professor - and in the minute or so of the professor's class that was shown, she said okay and right three times. SO TAKE THAT, Mr. Dean!)
(P.S.S. Actually, I HATE it when I say right or okay and normally notice that I am doing it, take a breath and remind myself NOT to say either one. It usually helps just to slow down.)