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I'm going to be taking on a bunch of teaching roles soon. Specifically university students 21+. I'm actually terrified. Every time I've been given that responsibility so far, I've been extremely stand-offish and laissez-faire in my approach, resulting in the student being taken off my hands because I wasn't doing anything anyway. Other people are super good at dealing with students, I just don't understand where they get their drive from, to me it feels like a chore. It's been tolerated because I've had a huge work load, and taking students has always been a favour rather than an obligation, but I get the feeling in a more formal role, my general approach of not actually doing anything won't go down well. 

 

This sounds bad, even in my head, but how do you make yourself care about a student's progress? I never signed up to be a teacher, it's just a responsibility that comes with my field that I don't really want to do, but have to. So I feel like I need to change my mind set so I can actually do ok at the job.

 

I usually go into things with the attitude of "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to put 100% into it and try to be the best." I just don't feel that way about helping students. Especially as anything they do is entirely inconsequential. If I can't make myself care, what do I do? 

 

The thing is, I love helping my coworkers and PhD students. It's more like giving advice, rather than teaching. Closer to two peers aiding each other, rather than a teacher-student relationship which I find really weird anyway. I can never seem to have friendly relationships with any student I've had. I just say: "do X,Y & Z, ask me if you're stuck and I'll figure out what you did wrong."

So I have no idea your position, or role, but helping students is easy: all you have to do is make the world a better place by making your students better people. See? Easy.

 

But seriously. I don't know what field you're in (I'm a writer/lit person, so make of that what you will), but the role of a teacher is twofold. For classes, you're expected to bring students from level x to level y in whatever specific topic you're teaching, and the varying degrees of levels have some explanations as to why they exist. Find a way to make that matter to you. As for the individual students: aside from fulfilling random obligations, just try to help them get where they want to go. It's really simply in theory. As for caring: don't worry about it. Some people care a fuckton, some people less so. Some are friends with their students, others not. Me, I get super awkward when I accidentally see my students in the gym or whatever. In the end, you're just trying to use your knowledge to help them get smarter. That's it. You'll figure it out. 

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I'm going to be taking on a bunch of teaching roles soon. Specifically university students 21+. I'm actually terrified. Every time I've been given that responsibility so far, I've been extremely stand-offish and laissez-faire in my approach, resulting in the student being taken off my hands because I wasn't doing anything anyway. Other people are super good at dealing with students, I just don't understand where they get their drive from, to me it feels like a chore. It's been tolerated because I've had a huge work load, and taking students has always been a favour rather than an obligation, but I get the feeling in a more formal role, my general approach of not actually doing anything won't go down well. 

 

This sounds bad, even in my head, but how do you make yourself care about a student's progress? I never signed up to be a teacher, it's just a responsibility that comes with my field that I don't really want to do, but have to. So I feel like I need to change my mind set so I can actually do ok at the job.

 

I usually go into things with the attitude of "If I'm going to do this, I'm going to put 100% into it and try to be the best." I just don't feel that way about helping students. Especially as anything they do is entirely inconsequential. If I can't make myself care, what do I do? 

 

The thing is, I love helping my coworkers and PhD students. It's more like giving advice, rather than teaching. Closer to two peers aiding each other, rather than a teacher-student relationship which I find really weird anyway. I can never seem to have friendly relationships with any student I've had. I just say: "do X,Y & Z, ask me if you're stuck and I'll figure out what you did wrong."

 

I feel like the best professors I had would do a few key things. Tell me what we are going to learn, tell me how we are going to do it, and finally, give me room and encouragement to engage with the course material beyond what was outlined in the first 2 points. 

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Apparently, because I haven't had a drink in 3 weeks I'm ineligible for substance abuse programs, despite being diagnosed with one and seeking help for it.

 

What kind of bunk ass healthcare system do we even have in America

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Metabolizing alcohol causes your body to produce a certain enzyme or protein structure that's in your blood for up to 3 days or something like that. There's also the hair test that I'll be subjected to prove to my insurance that I have a need for treatment, which is a good indicator of abuse patterns.

 

It's just absurd to me that because I've managed for a few weeks (one of which was spent hospitalized), it's declared not medically necessary by my insurance. At least I can appeal, and my case manager is helping me with that process.

 

The American healthcare system is so skewed against actually helping people. Argh. At least the company I work for will cover any and all treatment for substance abuse that I receive through them, but it's weird going to your own employer about something so stigmatized.

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The American healthcare system is so skewed against actually helping people. Argh.

 

It's been pointed many times out how perverse the idea of "health insurance" is. For car insurance or homeowner insurance, you're paying money in the hopes that something won't happen and companies are taking that bet. For health insurance, you're paying money in the knowledge that something will happen eventually... but companies are still taking that bet like it's a car accident or a house fire. It's perverse.

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So I have no idea your position, or role, but helping students is easy: all you have to do is make the world a better place by making your students better people. That's it. You'll figure it out. 

 

I feel like the best professors I had would do a few key things. Tell me what we are going to learn, tell me how we are going to do it, and finally, give me room and encouragement to engage with the course material beyond what was outlined in the first 2 points. 

 

Good advice from both of you. I'm sure I'll be ok at it, I just don't want to be the guy that every student avoids because I'm terrible. I also don't want to get so invested that my research suffers. 

 

I wonder if undergrads would react badly to being set homework. Just so I can guage their interest level, like read these 2 papers, and read up on this technique and write a page on what you're going to do. If it's just copy & paste I know not to waste time, if it's well thought out, I know they're worth investing my time in.

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I'm worried about my health lately, and I can tell physically that something has ramped up recently, which makes me panic that I'm dying. That panic only makes the symptoms ramp up (whether it's my brain or actual, not sure) and exacerbates being unable to sleep. Worse on top of that, I am having trouble pinning down an appointment with an actual doctor. 

 

I love having insurance but being unable to get into a doctor's office because they are booked solid for 2 weeks. 

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What teaching role are you going to have Gridde? TA-ing, giving lectures, supervising bachelor projects?

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Man, I've been having a somewhat hard--maybe hard isn't the word I should be using, maybe problematic time with nostalgia. 

 

The reason I'm in California is because of my ex. We met online, we fell in love and I moved from Cincinnati to Vacaville and then we moved together to Sacramento. We were together for almost five years and we lived together for three. We were incredibly close to each other and shared a lot of hobbies and interests. The relationship fell apart hard in '14 and we split and haven't talked to each other since.

 

I moved on since then, but as of recently the thought of wanting her with me has hit me. This is especially true when I'm watching anime or playing a video game that I know she would have enjoyed. Those thoughts and feelings would hit me and I would get sad that she wasn't here enjoying this with me and then it would go away.

 

It's a pain in the ass and I know I'll get past it. But I need to get this off my chest and I wonder why, two years later, it's hitting me. Maybe I haven't fully healed or recovered from it or that such an experience is something you never forget and the feelings of wanting to go back so that things stay the same is just a part of life. Well, it is a part of life, but I don't know.

 

There are moments where I get overwhelmed by it and I cry a bit and I move on and enjoy what I'm doing.

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I'm worried about my health lately, and I can tell physically that something has ramped up recently, which makes me panic that I'm dying. That panic only makes the symptoms ramp up (whether it's my brain or actual, not sure) and exacerbates being unable to sleep. Worse on top of that, I am having trouble pinning down an appointment with an actual doctor.

I love having insurance but being unable to get into a doctor's office because they are booked solid for 2 weeks.

Obviously I don't know your circumstances but something similar happened to me a few years ago during a serious illness (not life threatening but very impactful at the immediate time). It could be very likely that if you have some anxiety related to feelings of sickness/dying that you're hyper aware of every single happening with your body which is causing panic attacks constantly. I'll spare every one the boring details of my story but if you want to talk more on specifics you can PM me.

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Good advice from both of you. I'm sure I'll be ok at it, I just don't want to be the guy that every student avoids because I'm terrible. I also don't want to get so invested that my research suffers. 

 

I wonder if undergrads would react badly to being set homework. Just so I can guage their interest level, like read these 2 papers, and read up on this technique and write a page on what you're going to do. If it's just copy & paste I know not to waste time, if it's well thought out, I know they're worth investing my time in.

If you want to be selfish about it, think of the students as opportunities to better understand the subject :P! I've taught hundreds of undergraduate students and thinking of all the different ways of explaining something til the student gets it really deepens your understanding of the subject.

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If you want to be selfish about it, think of the students as opportunities to better understand the subject :P! I've taught hundreds of undergraduate students and thinking of all the different ways of explaining something til the student gets it really deepens your understanding of the subject.

 

I actually thought of it in a similar way. People do say if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it. Also, that I have my own biases and pet hypotheses that I can, for lack of a better word, impose on other students. Get them thinking about the things I find interesting, and maybe one day they'll work on it. Unlikely, as most undergrads immediately leave science, but it's worth a shot.

 

What teaching role are you going to have Gridde? TA-ing, giving lectures, supervising bachelor projects?

 

Supervising Masters projects and Bachelor projects. Also running a course of undergraduate labs with a PhD student. No lectures, I don't speak German!

 

 

Oh, and I dropped a bunch of tubes at work and spilled something I had spent the week working on. I had to take Friday off and play video games all day because I was so distraught about it. Felt weird to sit at home in my underpants all day eating pizza and ice cream.

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There are moments where I get overwhelmed by it and I cry a bit and I move on and enjoy what I'm doing.

 

I hope that helps. Sometimes your body needs a good cathartic break; I understand the desire of wanting to share something with someone -- I guess you just gotta hope that there'll be someone new with whom you can share such things and more in the near enough future :)

 

PS: If you want a real tear-jerker, I always cry at the end of It's A Wonderful Life.

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Obviously I don't know your circumstances but something similar happened to me a few years ago during a serious illness (not life threatening but very impactful at the immediate time). It could be very likely that if you have some anxiety related to feelings of sickness/dying that you're hyper aware of every single happening with your body which is causing panic attacks constantly. I'll spare every one the boring details of my story but if you want to talk more on specifics you can PM me.

 

Thank you! And yeah, I have a lot of anxiety tied up in my health and one thing I catastrophize about is illness or chronic body stuff turning into life-threatening immediately (I once went from having a decaying tooth to being frightened of dying of a jaw infection). However I did get a doctor's appointment, thankfully. I just gotta make it until then. I have a chronic illness that sets up some pre-conditions for serious stuff if I don't get it taken care of, so I'm looking to do that. I just always jump to the conclusion that no matter what, I'm sick, it's permanent, I'm dying, it's unfixable. This is what not having insurance for 10 years does to a person, I guess! Good thing I have it now.

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Funnily enough I have had insurance for past 5 or 6 years but never go to the doctor. I did go to ER when I got sick which was a waste of time and my portion of the copay was $1500. Never again. They can just let me die next time... :D

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I think I got an undeclared promotion? My boss's boss gave me a new project that's all kinds of secret (I'm assisting with the logistics of an institutional reorganization -- really minor role, but still privy to a lot of very private discussions) and told me that I am now reporting directly to her on all matters, and that I'm not to discuss any of my new responsibilities with my (former?) direct report.

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So I've got some news that's going to be a surprise to... well probably everyone here.  I've been married for about 3 years now and today we had an ultrasound and I've learned that in a few months I'm going to have a little baby girl.  This will be my first kid and I have to say I'm pretty excited.  Also scared and nervous and all those other things I'm sure most people are when they're about to be a parent for the first time.  It likely means I'll be around less in the coming months/years.  Before that happens I'd like to get sappy for a minute and say that this forum and it's community have been one of the most positive things in my life for the past couple years.  I've made some good friends and had some good times.  I can't wait to introduce the next generation to it.  Hopefully some of you will still be around when that happens.

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So I've got some news that's going to be a surprise to... well probably everyone here.  I've been married for about 3 years now and today we had an ultrasound and I've learned that in a few months I'm going to have a little baby girl.  This will be my first kid and I have to say I'm pretty excited.  Also scared and nervous and all those other things I'm sure most people are when they're about to be a parent for the first time.  It likely means I'll be around less in the coming months/years.  Before that happens I'd like to get sappy for a minute and say that this forum and it's community have been one of the most positive things in my life for the past couple years.  I've made some good friends and had some good times.  I can't wait to introduce the next generation to it.  Hopefully some of you will still be around when that happens.

 

Congratulations, SAM!

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Congrats SAM (you should name your kid MAX)!

 

PS. Does this seem weird, who is this SpeedyDesiato, it seems like someone I vaguely remember:

 

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