Juat wanted to share how I got some teaching experience during my
scientific training.
I got my PhD from Cornell Univ. in the animal science dept which had a
teaching requirement of all its graduate students. I was a teaching
assistant every other semester while I was there. The amount of time
this consumed varied by the course and only one semester did I ever feel
like the amount of time I was putting into teaching really interfere
with my ability to move ahead with my research. Cornell seems to
put a pretty high priority on providing some training to grad ta's.
There was a two day workshop held at the begining of each semester for
grad ta's. I took the workshop and subsequently was one of the people
giving some training in a workshop. One very useful part was
a video tape section. We were all asked to prepare 10-15 minutes of lecture
including board use, overheads whatever. We were then broken into groups
and gave our lectures to the other group members and were videotaped.
The tapes were then reviewed. Pretty eye-opening.
I was also involved with a group that explored multicultural issues in
the classrooms at Cornell and how they impact learning. We met once a
month and each worked on a specific project. I co-developed a workshop
for undergraduate ta's which had a good turn out and good response.
Although all the above may not be viewed as direct teaching experience I
think it helped to demonstrate that I take teaching very seriously. And
people who are interested in a teaching career may consider trying to get
some of these activities going where they are.
I was fortunate to be asked while I was doing a postdoc if I wanted to
be an instructor for a course and so I had that experience as I was applying
for jobs. It was not always easy to be postdocing full time and teaching.
There were some weeks when I had to tell myself "ok, I will put 40 hrs into
my post doc and thats its this week" but it worked out. I was also
on the verge of contacting community colleges to see if I could teach
a course before the opportunity above opened up for me.
My husband, who now has faculty position with 70% teaching repsonsibilities,
landed his position in part to teaching work he did as a post doc. Mostly
out of financial necessity he looked for tutoring positions and wound up
tutoring at a nursing school. This experience was looked upon favorably
at the medical school he is now at which has a nurse anesthetist program.
Finally, at Cornell you are required to have a major subject and two minor
subjects for your PhD. I know a woman in my dept there who got her minor
in education and got certified to teach HS during this time. She wound up
in a teaching position at the college level. This might
be an option for people who are seeking a teaching career.
Anita
