Hi again!
Last year, I wrote about my feelings as to starting my first live theory class. I just finished re-reading that and caught myself smiling and shaking my head. It is amazing how one grows over the course of one year. I will be beginning my third year of teaching now and thus entering my third year of IPA. Reflecting back over the time since I began as a full-time instructor, I can say that IPA has proven to be beneficial to my development as an educator. I will admit that there were times I would think “Oh no, I have IPA again”, but there were many others that I thought “I have IPA again”. My cohort is great and we all seem to be very receptive and supportive to one another. I have collaborated with several individuals to make my teaching/clinicals better or to even run ideas past one another thus getting an unbiased opinion. As I progress along in my time at NWTC, I am picking up more and more responsibilities. This coming semester, I have another new class—Pharmacology. While it scares the heck out of me and conjures up “bad” memories from my pharmacology course, I am excited. My mind continually thinks, “how can I take this course and make it fun”, “how can I take this course and get my students engaged”, “how can I help my students be successful”, and how can I make it better than my pharmacology class was? I am fortunate to have some colleagues who are great and willing to assist me or let me bounce ideas off of them! I can’t help but ask though…..will this ever get “easy”?! Maybe, maybe not….only time will tell!
One challenge to it getting easier and that I will admit too, is that I still struggle with saying “no” and it is something I hope to work on this year. It is ok to say no to some things, I do not want to be overwhelmed and I want to be on the top of my game. We shall see how this goes! 😉
Anyway, I am still excited to be teaching; I know I have found my true calling in life—-I LOVE THIS! Still smiling since I started, so that is a good thing! Best of luck to every one this year and I hope your year is successful!