I FINALLY got my teaching assignment official on Monday. I'll be TAing Molecular Genetics lab- two sections that meet for 5 hours once a week (I meet with them for 10). I'll be prepping and assisting mostly, this sounds light on the lectures, and about my speed of science actually. The instructor, we'll call him Twombles, seems like a reasonable guy if chatty. A lot of the undergrads in our lab are in it, and there are only 12 students per section, which is a pretty good deal.
I have a couple qualms about the class- it is to be moved back into a newly renovated space that is only going to be available to us at most a week before class starts. One week to move in all the glassware and chemicals, fill the drawers, and get the room organized. And let the dust settle so it can be "sterile." Since other classes are taught in the space I expect that this week will be crazy, but then it will pretty much have to be fixed (and not by me) very quickly. The other is that the course was designed by my least favorite faculty of all. In typical old faculty style, the entire course is outlined in great detail, in his head. He has been moved to a more administrative position, so he is no longer teaching the course, but - the instructor assures me- no other changes are being made to the course design. So I am a little fuzzy on whether there are assignments, and how the experiments are meant to be done, but Twombles is confident we can work through these things. I am confident it is not my responsibility to design course work, so this should work.
I mentioned Twombles is a reasonable guy- he practically insisted I take the time to go to Noel and Jessie's wedding (I was worried when I heard it was a Friday lab), and the Thanksgiving trip won't overlap at all. Teaching starts at the end of August, so you can expect to hear much more about this in the coming months.
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