Thursday, February 07, 2008
Guest Teaching
Last week, I guest taught for David Moran. The course was Evidence and the session was on conditional relevance. I have taught Evidence before, but the particular topic is complicated and not intuitive.
I approached the evening with guilt, fear, and the anticipation of pleasure. Guilt because I know that by asking David to be Associate Dean, I had taken him out of the classroom (not wholly, but partially), and he enjoys teaching. Fear because I also know that David is among the best teachers on a faculty that values teaching. The anticipation of pleasure because I have missed teaching, and I had found the preparation to be challenging, which meant that the discussion would be even more so.
It was terrific to have had the opportunity, albeit brief, to work with my friend and colleague David in an altogether different context than our usual tasks in the Dean’s Suite. It was even better to have interacted with the students who obviously are learning a tremendous amount.
