Sunday, October 21, 2007

friday afternoon I led my first tutorial. it wasn't quite as painful as I'd imagined - though that doesn't say much. I can imagine a lot.


there is a big difference, I discovered, between teaching a pile of 11 year olds how to start a fire and teaching a room of first year undergrads neuroscience. while the 11 year olds jump over each other to ask questions, answer questions, ask more questions, tell stories about uncle joe who uses kerosene to start his fires and can't we use kerosene too, sunshine? the undergrads stared at their papers with such silent intensity whenever I asked a question that, by the end of the hour, I suspected jesus christ himself was appearing on the page.


I was a little suprised at how little basic biology and human anatomy they knew. it didn't take psy100 to teach me what the cerebrum was or that an example of negative feedback is the hunger/feeding mechanism. and unlike when I used to help geoffrey study for history tests, I can't call them tools or chuck pillows at them when they answer questions wrong. unfortunately. if I made up ridiculous stories to help them remember the answers they would probably think I was crazy. alas, there is likely to be little hysterical laughter at these sessions. at least the get-to-know-you games a la sparrow lake camp worked alright. and the leftover bribes taste great!

1 comment:

T.W said...

Wow, your blog is so informative yet artsy! Kind of like you! Long time no, uhh, type. I'm glad you got your first tutorial over with, I'm sure the surley first years will warm to you eventually. I enjoyed your anecdote about the singing british sheep. It's true, British sheep are very vocal compared to Canadian sheep. I think it's because they're too polite and the Canadian sheep don't want to disturb anyone.