In graduate school, I volunteered to be a teaching assistant multiple semesters because I greatly enjoyed the work. For several years, I wanted to be a lecturer after graduating. I had the opportunity to try my hand at teaching a class myself in the Spring of 2024. I had primarily taught General Chemistry in graduate school, but I was offered a position teaching Organic Chemistry for my first class.
I taught in a team with two tenured professors at Smith College, each of us with our own section of the course. I used their lecture notes to make my own and developed my homework from their sets. We wrote exams together and decided on the pace of the class together. I was able to debrief about how my students were doing in weekly meetings.
My class was comprised of 52 mostly first-year students and was structured as a combined lecture/discussion class. Each class, I would lecture on a new topic, and we would do in-class problems to reinforce the concepts. Students had three problem sets a week as well as 2 quizzes, 3 exams, and a final in the course. I held office hours twice a week and often stayed overtime mentoring students with learning strategies and providing moral support.
I greatly enjoyed teaching and working with students. I find fulfillment in helping others understand complex topics and finding the best ways to communicate my knowledge to assist in this process. However, I found the amount of time I wanted to spend on one class was greater than the compensation allowed. I am interested in finding my teaching fulfillment in a research position instead and potentially acting as a guest lecturer every few years.
Katz Lab Buck Lab Cosgriff-Hernandez Lab Hewitt Lab