Guest instructor

Partway through the last quarter, I signed up as a guest instructor in Medical Terminology. Our senior instructor, “CW”, graciously allowed me into his course to see how it all works and take the quizzes and tests just like the students. It’s been a real eye opener! The testing is challenging and forces me to keep up with the material that I’ll eventually teach. I’ve also been keeping up with the discussion board where the students send posts to ask questions of the instructor and each other. The course seems to run smoothly enough. Occasionally, a student will miss a deadline due to procrastination or a hardware malfunction so needs to have a test or assignment reset by the teacher. Some tests have 2 right answers in the multiple choice and only one of them is officially correct. The biggest job of the teacher is to make sure that the students get all the credit they’ve earned. The second biggest job is to present the material in chronological order so that it opens on the right day and closes when it’s finished. This ensures that nobody runs ahead of the rest of the class…a real aggravation for the instructor! I’m gaining new confidence every week and should be able to run my own class when the time comes; it might be as early as this fall. I’m a guest in the same class for spring quarter so I’ll have taken the whole enchilada when it’s over.