I got through the Door!

Today was my first wee bit of teaching*, since retiring from the library and becoming solely a part-time research fellow.  Sporting my new ID card (it now says I’m a member of the Research team), I got there in good time and strode up to the classroom door. I have never before been able to get through a classroom door without a student letting me in, so this was the moment of truth! I was in. Hooray! I eyed the digital whiteboard set-up with some suspicion, but I got the powerpoint working with no difficulty. All went well, and we had a good session. Hopefully, I’ve also navigated Moodle successfully – another new venture for me.

It’s not as though I hadn’t given lectures about my research specialism before. I’ve given research papers galore, but this was the first time of teaching, when I wasn’t speaking as a librarian. But, guess what? Despite my best intentions, it was unavoidable to mention the library, the songbooks on the shelves, the library donations … hardly surprising, because I wouldn’t have written my second monograph without being prompted by some of the old music in all those carrier bags and boxes we took in over the years. I even caught myself saying ‘we have ….’ and ‘we did …’. Old habits die hard.

I’ve achieved my ambition – I’m a research fellow – but I can’t pretend I don’t have a library background!

*For clarification, this was a guest lecture. I’ve a few more temporary teaching dates lined up. It’s nice to use my PGCert in this way.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay