Lecturing, and Murphys Law...

Murphys Law: "Whatever CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong..."

At the start of the semester, I was assigned a marking TA for the 3rd year Construction Materials course in the departement. While typically, a marker would only be responsible for marking assignments and recording marks, the prof informed me that he would be away for a week during the semester, and inquired as to whether I could take 1-2 of his lectures that week. I thought it would be a good experience, so I said yes.

I was originally scheduled to give my lecture on 'Concrete Durability' on Wednesday, Oct 7, while a Guest Lecturer from the industry was scheduled to come in on Friday Oct 9. On the night of the 6th, it suddenly hit me that I had never actually lectured to such a large audience before (class size was 150, and I had never done anything larger than a Lab Tutorial of not more than 30 students), and that I should probably get a bit of practise on my slides. So I stayed up until 2AM that night, giving mock presentations to my audience of Soda Cans in my lab. The lovely thing about Soda cans is that they always pay attention, and never ask any questions.

Anyway, I promptly arrived at 7:45AM the next morning ready to dazzle the audience with my knowledge of concrete cracks. Standing outside the lecture hall however was an elderly gentleman who clearly wasn't a student. He informed me that he was the guest lecturer, and showed me an Email sent to him by my prof. Apparently, my prof informed him that HE would be lecturing on the 7th, while I was to lecture on the 9th... wonderful. I bored my Soda Cans for no reason. Obviously, since he had taken the day off, and would not be able to come on the 9th, we decided that he should lecture, and I would postpone till Friday.

Fastforward to Friday morning. After another late nite lecturing to my Soda Cans, I arrive at 7:45 again... I decide I would try and be the 'cool lecturer' and would start off with some jokes. When I get to the lectern, something curious popped up on the screen... 'The system has been disabled'. Interesting... I couldn't load up the computer or the projector to actually show the slides I was going to present in class. Well, no worries, I would just go upto the main office and get someone to come down and help me. Of course the office didn't open till 8:30 AM, which wouldn't really be of much help. I came back down, and it was 8AM... damn... no time for my jokes. What to do now? I walk out into the hall, and find the janitor. He offered to come down and take a look, but after noticing his blank look, I realise he would be better at cleaning the console than actually getting it working.

8:10 AM... now I am getting worried... the students are starting to give me dirty looks for getting them to show up to an 8AM lecture... again, I go out into the hall... I walked into the classroom across the hall, and to my delight, it was totally empty! I can shift my class there! Eureka!

I go back into the original lecture theater, apologize, and tell everyone they have to shift to the room across the hall... despite the dirty looks, I am happy, as I will at least get to lecture. Interestingly, my class was for 150 students... and the entire class managed to fit into a lecture hall for 94 students. Point to note... not more than 1/2 of a 3rd Civil Engineering class has the dedication to wake up for an 8AM lecture on concrete.

I boot up the computer in the new lecture hall, and thankfully, everything works fine... until I slip in the USB with my lecture on it. 'Device not readable'. D**N it!!! At this point I am ready to throw a hunk of concrete through the lectern. What to do, what to do?! I decide to give it one last shot... when all else fails, restart the computer... 2 min later, I am back at the main screen... I slip in my USB, and thankfully, for the first time in 3 days, SOMETHING goes right!!! The slides loaded up, and I was ready to go. Only 2 days and 20 min late I suppose!

Turns out I am an okay lecturer... I only put 2 people to sleep during my talk (one of whom I had to wake up after the class ended), and people actually asked a few educated questions. I managed to speed through the slides and finish everything on time, and thankfully, nothing else went wrong. However, I am seriously going to think twice the next time my prof asks me... 'So what are you doing at 8AM next Wednesday?"!!!