Oh my goodness I sooo want this mug. I feel it fits my personality perfectly sometimes! Or maybe my personality when I was younger 
. I took great satisfaction in correcting my sister on many occasions whether it was school work or socially (despite being a social retard). I felt I knew everything and it was my duty to tell everyone all about it.
Of course I got older and realised that wasn’t true…or I ended up working in an area where I can revel in my ‘insufferableness’.
Knowing everything all the time can get a bit overwhelming so lately I have not been as rigorous as I normally am when doing things. Lately this has manifested itself as students sometimes correcting me during tutorials while we are solving calculation type problems.
Now rather than getting embarrassed or annoyed I am actually really proud of them, because it shows they are actually following what is going on, understand what is going on and know how to recognise mistakes. Lately when looking for more full-time work I have put my two main goals for teaching tertiary students as training them to have the following abilities:
- The ability to think analytically and independently about technical problems.
- The ability to develop independent investigations into the effects of process or material modification on product or process behaviour
This makes sense in my areas of chemical/process engineering but now I am in effect teaching fundamental chemistry, which is a slightly different ballgame but has some commonalities. Those specifically are the abilities to be analytical and independent, which is of course what most university educators hope their students can become by the time they graduate.
My new gig is a real eye-opener – in my previous teaching escapades I have encountered most students in the middle or the end of their degree. My current position entails teaching students right at the beginning of the tertiary journey and from many different backgrounds and I must say I really wish I was a better teacher.
A lot of the students are sort of in the position of making the transition from high school to uni or from life to uni (mature students) so in essence some need handholding while some are pros and can do it on their own. I know there is a reason why it really needs to be the GREAT lecturers teaching first year classes and I hope to one day be one of those – when I grow up!
Things I know today:
* I am insufferable
* I am also a Know-It-All
* I am a Know-It-All who doesn’t know enough
* The fact that I know that I don’t know enough is cause for celebration as I can always learn and therefore know more in time (WTF?!)
