Reconnecting with my Inner Student

My second course of the summer forced me to remember what it is like to be a student, and the first week I didn't like it one bit. All of you know, I'm a fairly laid-back teacher in terms of planning and flexibility. I'd always have a plan, but I might or might not adhere to it, and I liked letting the course unfold naturally (for lack of a better term). My professor in the second course was exactly the opposite of that. He planned classes to the minute, and he became bothered if the class deviated from his schedule by one minute. The first week of class, I felt stifled, a little bewildered. I'm so used to doing it my way, I really hated being forced into a rigid structure. This guy seemed too strict to me, too intent on keeping his lesson plan perfect. I called some friends, complained about it, all that stuff.

By the second week I settled down. I had to be the student again, grant this professor his authority to run the class as he thought best. That marked a real transition for me. I'm not the teacher anymore. No authority. No real say in how the class unfolds. Once I made that adjustment, the course went along fine, I did very well, and I actually started to like the professor.

It is so easy, once you get on the other side of the fence, to forget what life was like before. If anything, I think teachers need to be well-aware of what it was like to be a student. They should work hard to remember that. It helps them be more effective teachers, I think.