So...my last post...waaayy too long.

My last post was way too long, so I'm gonna keep this one short; there are currently 3 awesome webcomics in the whole world, these provide students like myself with countless hours of entertainment. These are, as follows:

1. P.H.D. - what grad school, and by that I mean all of college, is really like.
2. XKCD - Math, Romance, Sarcasm; What could be better?
3. Questionable Content- Just a good story... with lots of episodes, and funny.

~J.Smith

Teaching Chemistry

This year, I got an email from my department's admin assistant asking me to be a teaching assistant for the chemistry department. I was like, 'score, this is gonna be awesome', thinking that it would be great for the ol' resume. I've been here the past 3 weeks now, learning first how to teach, and then in the last week, actually being out in the class. My feelings about teaching are mixed; on one hand, I love being able to pass on the knowledge that I learned a few years ago about chemistry, and I get better at it while preparing for class. On the other hand, it's heartbreaking when you have to give a quiz on the material you covered in class just two days before and half the class misses the exact thing that you told them to be careful about when solving problems. It also is hard when you can't give partial credit on a problem, and a student is so close to having the answer, but has missed just one part of a multistep problem. I try to be a good teacher; I write worksheets for the class that should be almost exactly what will be on the quiz. So the question is, how do I get the students, who are mostly in majors like aerospace or electrical engineering to have the same level of respect and love, no scratch that... the same level of appreciation for the subject of chemistry that I've learned over the years? I know that most of them aren't likely to use the subject much in their working careers, but a few will be working closely with people with majors like mine. The other isssue is in just the basic engineering math, I want them to understand that the skills that they learn in my class are the SAME math skills that they will be using throughout their entire careers. I don't want to let a civil engineer who can't do unit conversion pass my class and go on to not be able to do them their entire career, just as much as I don't want a biology student who won't take the time to learn how the heart works go on to med school to be a surgeon. I guess what I really want, most of all, is for them not to make the same mistakes that I did in my first year of school, going to class and being bored, thinking "I won't ever use this stuff", sleeping through class and just putting in the bare minimum effort to get somewhere between an A and a B.... well whoops, I'm not a EE anymore, I changed and became a ChE... and let me tell you, every single thing that was taught in those basic classes, be it physics, chem, bio, even intro programming, I have used somewhere in another class. Life isn't just about putting in the bare minimum; It's about putting in everything you have, and then some; its about running till you bleed, studying until your body makes you sleep, and then getting coffe and doing it again, wanting to rise above this stupid effed up world where we all think we can get by with just the minimum, because thats what everyone else does. You know, I have people who think I'm crazy for even trying a major like ChE in the first place, let alone wanting to just use that as a stepping stool to go onto greater things, like med school and then to be a thoracic surgeon, or grad school to be a phd engineer working on solving the energy crisis that is enveloping the world as I type. Well to those of you who are willing to work with every fiber that you have, I say forget that first group of people, they are the ones who are the hangers on of society, the ones who will be working for those of you who are willing to put in the work when it counts, that is, all the time. Life is not supposed to be easy, its supposed to be challenging. I love the poem by Frost...Take the road less traveled; I don't care if I have to use a chainsaw or even one of those big logging machines to get through the brush, I don't care if the road has a chasm in the middle with a 2000 foot drop, I will build a bridge and if I can't build a bridge to get across, I will climb down with my bare hands and feet and cross the raging river at the bottom. I will perservere, I will get ahead... the only question is, will you?

There's a lot to say... just not right now

So... about me...yes, I suppose that would be the place to start. I'm a Chemical Engineering student at a midwestern university who also happens to be in the marching band and a chemistry TA. I'm a big fan of biking, running, and swimming. I also have a lot of things that I think about, and a lot to say, just not right now; right now I've got to get some new parts put onto my bike and get ready for tonight...