As I walked into the classroom on my first day, I couldn’t help but feel that all eyes were on me. I could feel their gaze studying every precise movement: on how I pulled out my materials for that day’s class, how I walked, how I waited to begin the lecture. For the first time, I experienced this “new kid” feeling from a completely different perspective. I wasn’t just a student no one had ever seen before.
I was their new instructor.
This opportunity came to be after being offered the TA position by Dr. Elizabeth Dayton, a Linguistics professor of the English Department. After doing pretty well in her class and talking to her about my experience taking her course, she offered me the position. I was more than happy to accept; work like this doesn’t come along often. My first day in the position was one I happily awaited, until the eventual “first day of work” paranoia set in. Were they going to hate me? Would I instantly screw up my gig as an instructor? Was my group going to overpower me, tie me to a chair and exit the room, leaving me to be found by one of the janitors hours later? These all seemed like absolutely real and feasible opportunities at the time.
This wasn’t helped by the fact that my first duty as their substitute instructor was to give them a quiz. They had the entire class period to do it, and I thought “Hey, maybe it would be a good idea to try and break the ice!” I think it’s safe to say my group is a hard crowd to please, seeing as I tossed my best material out there and got zilch in return. After about the third or fourth bad joke I got some laughs, and I immediately realized how regular professors feel when they don’t get the laughs they were hoping for from their lame jokes. Let’s just say I will never not laugh at a professor’s bad jokes ever again.
Thankfully, they didn’t absolutely destroy me, and I managed to get to day two. That day was way less stressful, since they just had to work on some exercises from their book. This time around they laughed a bit more at my jokes and I could feel the appreciation for helping them out. This was probably my favorite part of the whole experience. At the end of the day, I felt that I didn’t just sit there and recite things to a group of students, I felt as though they actually learned something. That feeling was… strange, but good. Some of these kids were older than me, and I certainly felt a bit intimidated, but I left that room with a newfound confidence in both myself and my teaching skills.
Before scoring this gig, I always asked myself why teachers put up with the sometimes childish behavior we students can exhibit. I realize now that it’s a job you need to love from the center of your very being, and I can honestly say that this experience has opened my eyes in many more ways than I imagined it would.