My summer is still as busy as ever. My research is going well, so my advisor told me to set it aside for a couple weeks to focus on making the lecture notes for the new class he’s teaching next year. He says it’s easier to write notes than do research, which is somewhat true, but writing notes can be equally time consuming, especially since I just learned the material I’m writing about! I also have to find/create data sets for examples and write homework problems, all without an official textbook (since my advisor and his colleague are creating the class themselves).
When I taught calculus in math graduate school, I had a strict syllabus and a single textbook, and I still spent many hours writing my lecture notes. Now I’m dealing with topics I barely know and writing notes for someone else. I’m only one step ahead of the students and am expected to write like an expert. It’s definitely an interesting and demanding task. I keep telling myself that this is a great learning experience, but I’m really stressed out.
August 1, 2011 at 8:51 am
Good luck!
September 18, 2011 at 10:34 am
This experience sounds familiar. When you get Ph.D., people will be often expecting you to speak with expert-like attitude on any topic, even if it only remotely pertains to your discipline. How is the Ph.D. ambition going?
Monte