The Model Kit

I’ve been teaching organic chemistry for about 10 years now, and introductory physical chemistry for maybe half as long. In that time I’ve had to explain certain concepts what feels like hunderds of times, and I’ve gotten pretty efficient at it. Any long time teacher of any subject will develop their own way of breaking down, organizing and repackaging their subject for their students. And eventually we all move on or retire, and the next generation of instructors comes along and starts the process over from scratch. This has its benefits. A fresh pair of eyes will confront the same old problems in slightly new ways. Plus, teachers must grow and develop in their subjects just like students. The learning is never done. Still, it seems a shame that so much of the work of advanced teachers, the culmination of long careers, gets lost like tears in rain.

I encourage every teacher to save and refine their best material like they’re planning to write a book on teaching their subject. Not a standard textbook, more like a teaching manual. A handbook for new instructors in that subject. I started collecting my own material in a moleskin notebook. Now that my ‘grail diary’ has been filled up cover to cover, I’m expanding on my material and saving it in a folder on my computer. I’m working on a framework to bring my teaching material together into a coherent system, and I do intend to write the book. In some ways, this blog is meant as a preparatory exercise for that writing project.

Below are a few snapshots of my collected lecture notes.