It gets better.
Don't get me wrong; it isn't that things get easier. Professors are still overworked and (especially at PUIs) underpaid.
But it does get better.
When I first started teaching, it took me about four hours (sometimes more!) to prepare a one-hour lecture. Now my prep time is a third of that. Sure, the "free" time is now filled with committee work, various meetings, and research.... but that sure beats staring at a textbook, willing everything to fall into place for the morning's lecture.
Today was one of those days where I surprised myself with how efficient I can be. It's nice to have a measure of how far I've come since my first day on the job. How do you measure your progress?
2 comments:
Thanks for this one! I'm brand new at a PUI...and overwhelmed. But it still beats my thankless (yet very publishing productive) postdoc experience...
One thing that struck me some time on the tenure track is how much better I became at assigning small doable projects -- for an MS degree (1-1.5 years) or summer project with undergrads. I distinctly remember having a really hard time with this when I first started, everything seems too large or too hard for these smaller efforts.
Another major difference is the ease and enjoyment of teaching. I was really scared initially and crammed way too much into every course. Now I am much more relaxed, I try to clean the clutter in courses and distill each course to the essence so we would have plenty of time to hammer these points home -- both the students and I enjoy the lectures much more now.
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