This morning I gave my first lecture ever as a university instructor. I am teaching Political Economy of Development. Today's topic was "What is political economy?" I wrote it yesterday.
Was I nervous? Yes. Nervous, but not anxious I would say. I was not worried about flubbing, or it going extremely poorly. I did not practice it, and felt like it would go just fine. I have always been a decent public speaker, so there was nothing to be afraid of. The nervousness was more about the question of whether I would like it.
The results are in. The lecture went as well as I imagined it would, and I found it quite likable. Even though I am using a lecture format, the students (or at least some of them) seemed very engaged. Also, the lecture I wrote was nearly the perfect length. I really had no idea how long it would be since I did not practice it and have no experience, so I am lucky how spot on it was (I let them out at 10:05am, 13 minutes before class ended, meaning if I write lectures this length I can give them a ten minute break in the middle of class).
In other news, you all will have noticed my new theme, again. I will call it winter dragon. Much less glitzy then the ice dragon theme, more my style I think. let me know what you think!
7 comments:
i like the new dragon and blue - more relaxing to sit and read your journal ;-)
-lk
I'm happy you liked lecturing. hating it would have been a dark harbinger of things to come.
hooray for giving your students breaks as well ;)
I liked the glitzy dragon, however non-glitzy is more you.
Gratz! The first lecture is a big milestone.
What are your upcoming topics, then?
The topics are pretty tame for a while -
(2) What is development and how do we measure it?
(3) Economics of Trade
(4) Economics of Trade (cont)
(5) Rise of the West
Then things get more interesting -
(6,7) How does democracy effect development
(8) What are institutions and why to they matter
(9) What is globalization
(10) Has globalization gone too far
then the midterm, after which we move into specific cases (south east asia, then africa).
glad I don't have to take a midterm on all those topics! sounds like a nightmare to study for... and I suppose it's essay too :-)
-lk
...glad i never took an economics class. it did take prob and stats because i thought it would be easier than trig. boy was i wrong. of course i never did take trig, so really i don't know.
anyway, glad all went well!
ohhh i do like the new layout, very nice
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