Adding Teaching to the Mix

So you may or may not remember me mentioning this, but along with my new job in research I am also going to start doing a little teaching here at the University.   I am sure one day soon that will seem normal, but currently I am still a little surprised that I have enough knowledge on a topic to actually teach it to other people.  Going into this semester I was not at all confident in that fact.  Do I actually KNOW things about Public Health?  Like, enough to  fill hours and hours of class time telling people about it?

Turns out I totally do.  Which... good to know! 

I am not officially teaching this semester, I am doing more of a student teaching stent where I work with the current professor to become comfortable in front of the students while learning the ins and outs of grading, writing exams, and communicating with students outside of class.  I also get the opportunity to watch him teach the material I will be teaching next semester.  It's been extremely helpful and I feel infinitely more prepared for taking charge of my own class that I would have without this experience.  In the coming weeks I am taking on a few full class period lectures, so we will see how that goes, but I am happy to report that my fear of public speaking seems to mainly be under control, and I am confident enough to not be terrified.  A little afraid, sure.  I mean, it's an hour and fifteen minutes of me standing in front of a class talking.  But I feel confident that I can do this.  And as I sit through the class each week I think more and more about next semester, about when I am the professor, and rather than being nervous and dreading it, I am getting more and more excited.

So... turns out I might actually like this teaching thing.  Who would have thought?

(Apparently the faculty here thought it, which is why they hired me for this.  Because they saw something in me I wasn't at all sure was there.  So... you know... thanks for that!)