At the Faculty of Science and Technology the period from mid-August to end of October is called Period 1. It is the first half of the autumn semester, and for me this year it’s been an exhausting period full of teaching. Today was the last day of physical interaction with students – the only thing left now is the correct the exams!
As part of my researcher position I am expected to teach a certain number of hours per year. I noticed last spring how disruptive teaching is for doing research, so I asked our teaching coordinator to concentrate the teaching time as much as possible. The result? Four courses in one period, at different levels and in different subjects. Take that!
Although I enjoy teaching, and I asked for this to happen, this period has been really crazy. I taught classes in basic chemistry, held lectures and seminars in protein engineering and biophysics, and helped develop and teach a course in computational chemistry. With such a broad spectrum of topics, at different levels and in different languages, preparation for and delivering classes has taken up most of my time. It is a relief to be done with this period, but I’m also curious to know how the students performed on the exams. Has all the time I put into it been worth it?