Damped and Driven

I went to a workshop/coaches training on a program called Science Olympiad at the UC Colorado Springs a couple of weeks ago. It was interesting as it was both a reminder of college and a step forward in the future of my teaching career.

I was surprised at the emotional impact being back on a college campus, even one i never attended, had on me. College was such a blissful time in retrospect. You are your own master; you direct what you want to do and you main concern is class, learning, its glorious! Now everything i do has connections to the success of other people, affects the education of my students. Responsibility!, i think thats the biggest change. In college, you can sleep in and miss class, and it’s not a huge deal- you’re only affecting your own education. Now though, if i was to sleep in and miss class, that would be bad, for my students, bad for me. The excrement would hit the air conditioning, as Vonnegut would say.

It was an interesting, positive, experience though because i got to interact with other teachers, and although i felt young, i did feel like i was a teacher. I talked about teaching, got ideas of stuff to use in my classroom. It was fun, but also a good reality check, because i was rubbing shoulders with some of the top teachers in CO, and the expectations they held their students to are high. Its a good check and i have a better idea of what i can expect from my students, what they deserve me to expect from them.

It was also the first time i think that i’ve interacted with people, older people, professionally. It struck me as an interesting turning point towards being an adult, a teacher rather than a student. For as long as i can remember, i’ve always thought of myself as a student. This trip helped me to see a bit better what it would be like to be on the other side of things and it was sort of scary, strange, and good.