Professor...Not Quite

Yesterday was my first day as a teaching assistant for an Intro Bio Course. Two whole lab sections to myself that the department somehow thinks I'm qualified to teach. But it wasn't as scary as I expected. In some ways, it is better than teaching 5th graders because I can actually explain things to the level that I understand them rather than a simplified version that is still beyond the elementary student level.

This week in lab was an introduction to cell structure and function plus protist diversity, so it meant they spent most of the time looking through the microscope at different slides, some of which they prepared. Admittedly, I'm not that great at looking through microscopes, but some of the students needed much more assistance than I would have expected. For example they couldn't find anything at all, or they focused on a bubble instead of their cheek cell. And one pre-med type kept calling me professor despite my attempts to correct him.

Regardless, I think it will be a fun semester, and it is going to force me to re-learn a lot of the concepts and information I have forgotten but should know.