10 Things You Should Know About Your Lecturer

1.  I want you to succeed.
Yes, I really do.  I want you to succeed because I actually like the subject I am teaching and I want you to like it too.  Your success is also flattering to my perception of my teaching abilities.  If I wanted you to fail it would be very easy to achieve.  Enabling you to succeed is a lot harder.
2. I don't know everything.
Sometimes I may not even know as much as you!  Lecturers are often asked to teach outside their area and they have to do readings and learn new things, too.  Sometimes I even make mistakes.
3. I probably know something you don't know.
I see my job as primarily figuring out how to structure material and present it coherently.  This is something that (judging from reading essays) most students have yet to learn.
4. I always liked school.
And I was usually good at it.  I find your ability to ignore me during lecture and fiddle with your mobile phone both puzzling and annoying.  I never would have done that in class even if I had had a mobile phone in college.  That's right, I was not (am not) cool and I am ok with that.
5.  I put hours and hours of work into a lecture.
I'd say it takes at least 6 to 8 hours to write a lecture for the first time.  This includes reading and taking notes, organizing the material, finding images, creating slides and running through the lecture to make sure it flows.  Sometimes I am rewarded for the time I invest and sometimes the lecture doesn't live up to expectations.
6.  I can see you.
Sleeping.  Texting.  Watching videos.  Updating Facebook.  Giving me a puzzled look.  Rolling your eyes.  Just because you are one of 100 people (or more) in a lecture hall does not mean that you are invisible.
7.  I am a pretty good lie-detector.
But even if I wasn't, I would be fairly sure that your granny's cousin's best friend's sudden death was not the reason you failed to finish your assignment on time.
8.  I leave things to the last minute.
Sometimes I am still finishing a lecture only 10 minutes before I have to deliver it.  This is not ideal, but sometimes I am just too tired to stay awake all night.  When you are still writing your essay in the wee hours of the morning you can consider yourself in good company: I regularly stay up most of the night finishing a particularly troublesome lecture.
9. I use Wikipedia.
That's right.  I said it.  I look up things that I don't know on Wikipedia.  What I DON'T do is rely on it as a final and authoritative source on a matter involving interpretation.  Need to know the birthday of Henry VIII?  Wikipedia is fast and handy. Want to know why the Turks lost the battle of Lepanto? Go ahead and look at Wikipedia but be sure to check your textbook, too.
10. I am human too.
They do not yet hire robots to deliver lectures.  I have a life outside of college with a family and friends and sometimes these things interfere with my ability to be the best lecturer I can be.  And other times trying to be a good lecturer interferes with my ability to be a good human to my family and friends.

Starting not quite at the start

This blog is the story of my first academic teaching job and my efforts at the common juggling act of kids+husband+job (+life?).  I should have started it about three months ago when I started the job but I was too busy writing lectures on the Habsburgs.  I'm really keeping this blog for myself but if anyone else finds it helpful, so much the better.  I suspect my experiences are common if not universal to the world of academia: crappy office in remote building (featuring mold), many hours of lecturing, many more hours of prep, no time for research and a lurking feeling that one is doing only an adequate job.

I wanted to call it 'ass lecturer' since that's what my job title was abbreviated to on the application form I filled in.  I was a bit worried that might attract the wrong kind of readers, though.