Category: teaching

News about my teaching at University – Analytical Chemistry for the most part

Lecture preparations

Although I have not started my new job at Concordia University yet, I am already busy preparing the lectures I will be teaching in the fall term (and balancing the whole thing with my paternity leave). I will be teaching 2 sections of an introductory analytical chemistry course and 1 section of intermediate analytical chemistry.Fortunately, I have lots of material available thanks to the generosity of previous instructors, who have provided me with a good framework including problems. That is a great help, now that I conceptually lay out the courses myself and prepare the individual lectures.

Got the job!

Today I have received the (good!) news that I will start teaching at Concordia University in mid-August. I was very happy to hear that the search committee has selected me and submitted a recommendation to the Dean’s office. Pending approval, the university will make me an offer to teach full-time (3 courses each) for 2 semesters with a potential renewal opportunity, should there be a need. There are a few details to be worked out, but I am looking forward to new challenges ahead.

Done with exam corrections

I am done with marking exams and I am glad that it is over 😉 Thankfully, I was well prepared with a completed sample exam and points to be awarded for each single line of a correct answer. This helped me enormously (also in the past) to ensure a consistent quality of the marking. I have put the marks online (I use Moodle as a course software, which I have grown rather fond of, although I mostly use it as a file repository) and announced additional office hours. There was a steady stream of students today, though it was not too busy. Most went through their exams on there own and had a question here and there and a few tried to negotiate a better mark. I try to be as transparent as possible with my marking scheme, so everybody who had a look was usually satisfied with the way I marked the exams. Should I get the position that I have applied for, there will be even more marking to do, because I will teach more courses, but I am getting more and more efficient at it.

Interview at Concordia University

The day before my departure to Europe I had an interview at Concordia University at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry for a teaching position. I am very much interested in doing some more teaching, because after 3 years of research I would like to build and improve my teaching portfolio. Moreover, I have enjoyed teaching at a university level very much in the past (at McGill in spring 2006 and this spring at Concordia). The interview went well and was conducted in a very pleasant manner. After lunch with faculty members, I gave a teaching lecture to faculty, PhD and Master students, which was very well received. It was followed by an interview with the search committee and individual faculty members. I had the possibility to ask questions and bring in my own views and ideas. I have also received feedback on the teaching lecture; very instructive. I was quite tired afterwards – after a 6 hour visit and questions (and a lot of preparation time before – for the course, the interview and my trip). I am definitely ready to go to Europe, although not much of a holiday waits there – my first talk is on Friday.

Midterms

Onehundredandtwelve exams are not a small thing to correct – so I was locked up for a full weekend and spent a couple more days during the week with marking. The goal: To get the results out before the course drop date (the last day, when students can drop the course without getting a “failed” mark). I was quite a bit faster than last year, when it took me 3 weeks to correct 40 midterms of the McGill Chemistry course that I taught, so that definitely is an improvement. However, it still is a lot of work. And it was not easy for me, to keep the marking level for all exams (although I was doing question after question rather than marking a whole exam at a time), so I went over the exams another time to make sure that marking was fair. It also turned out that the exam was quite a bit too long, so I had to factor that in as well. Anyway – it’s done and it was a good test run for the final; and the average was just right as well.

Reading week …

… no lectures! But still tons of work. The midterm is coming up and I need to finalise my exam drafts. Furthermore, I have to finish my calculations & slides for the remaining lectures, also because a colleague and friend is going to give the last 2 lectures as I will be away. I also hold office hours during the break, although I expect the rush to start after – just before the exam. But with a little less load I have time to review progress so far and finish the schedule for the remaining lectures. With some additional electroanalysis material that I have covered (mostly applications,which I consider to be useful for biochemistry students) things are going to be tight at the end.

Teaching Week 3

… and it is going well. Both sections – day and evening – are fun to teach with slightly different challenges. The day class is quite full with 60+ students and interaction is more limited compared to the evening section, although I try keeping students involved. The evening class with < 30 students feels more cozy and it is easier to ask somebody out to the board to present in class assignment results.About 80% of the time I work on calculations on the board or explain fundamental equations with examples and exercises. That is quite new to me and I am more and more comfortable writing on the board, although I still have trouble sometimes in locating an orthographic error, especially if a student’s comment was rather vague.I now use the slides as a framework with the most important information presented in condensed form. After this initial presentation I go into the details with sample calculations and examples. A parallel presentation as initially planned does not work, because the canvas covers most of the board and I cannot switch between the two without turning off the projector and removing the canvas. The solution that I use now works fine anyway and slides play a minor role anyway, mostly reducing the number of complex drawings.The first graded assignment is out and due next Wednesday – a lot of work ahead with 110 corrections to do.

Teaching has started …

… and I am utterly enjoying it!Day and evening classes are usually quite full (60 students during the day, 30 in the evening class), but teaching is enjoyable and not too strenuous (now that I have a cold a bit more, but still ok). I try to keep students involved and switch frequently between projector, board and in-class assignments as a help to keep them awake and interested – depending on the content to be taught. E.g. I do all calculations step-by-step on the board in order to be not too fast: I am quite a slow writer on the board, but picking up speed and using the board more efficiently with every new class. Things also got livelier and questions are being asked.I have settled nicely into my schedule, spending Wednesdays and a half-day Friday at Concordia. Getting there is not too bad, although the Metro and the bus are always full. I have finally obtained my key and access to the network/web so that I can be productive during the break between my lectures.

CHEM-218 Teaching Preparations

After a short break, Jan 3 is drawing closer and so is my start date for “Analytical Chemistry II” at Concordia University. I have been quite busy preparing – things are going well and also on the administrative side, it has been going surprisingly smooth with a lot of help from a lot of friendly Concordia staff.The only thing missing is access to my Moodle course website, which I hope to set-up in the first days of January. Otherwise I am ready for the first chapters and I am in for a first long day on Jan 3 with lectures in the morning (1hr 15min) and the evening (2hrs).Titrations are first with a look behind the scences (theory) as well as lots of calculations to prepare students for the lab course starting a week after. I would also like to link things to current applications to illustrate to importance of the classical, but not outdated methods. Things that will follow are electrochemistry and spectroscopic methods.A midterm and final exams as well as assignments are also part of the deal and I will be busy with approximately 120 students attending. Most of all, though – I am looking forward to teaching in a really friendly environment!