Changing perspectives

Laat alstublieft een berichtje achter als u graag een Nederlandse vertaling wilt ontvangen.

Never! I always said. I will never become a teacher!

That has changed since the start of this semester.

I am no longer a listening, order following graduate student. Since the start of this semester, I changed my perspective from being taught to teaching. I now am responsible for 40 undergrad students that follow a course in General Biology. Of course I’m no professor, but they call it a teaching assistant, which is a much cheaper version of a teacher ;-) 

One of the amazing parts of this new experience is that since the day that I started teaching, I am also on strike. The Teacher Support Staff Union (TSSU) has been bargaining for better work conditions since 2010. This semester they got seriously engaged. Fortunately, until so far there haven't been any serious strike actions. I'll see how it goes!

Fall leaf colours on the frontier of Stanley Park, Vancouver (Sept 23, 2012)

View from my office (Oct 9th 2012)

 In this general biology course, students learn about the different life cycles of fungi, plants and animals, and learn to unravel Earth’s history by examining fossils and living organisms, from protists, ferns and starfish until whole forests. My tasks exist of giving tutorials and assisting labs.

Canadian forests are great for teaching students about ecological interactions! (Oct 6th 2012)

It’s exciting to go through lecture material that I had to learn myself during my undergrad in Utrecht. The same life cycles, the same protists, but on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Soon the students and I will venture into the world of genetics. I remember it as a challenge to understand pedigree trees with cat fur colour on their branches, inheritance of human diseases, and dancing alleles.

Seal in Vancouver harbour, waiting for salmon chops (Sept 23th 2012)

Besides this teaching experience (which takes only 3 days of my week) I continue to find my path through the maze of goose and eagle literature. As a nice break, I spent the Kermis Weekend (early September) on Hornby Island with most of my colleagues. The aim of the trip was to catch harlequin ducks (Histrionicus histrionicus) for one of my colleague’s  Ph. D. research (Emily Missyabit McAuley). This ecological research project focuses on the interaction between harlequin ducks and reintroduced fish. For more information about this project, you can read this blog here, written by another colleague (Jay Brogan): http://wetcoastscience.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/here-ducky-ducky-ducky/

My creative interpretation of my Ph. D. project

Going even further back in time (mid August), I also went to the North American Ornithological Conference at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver. This four day conference was packed with interesting bird talks, cool people (e.g. researchers from New Zealand!) and fun festivities like a banquet and a Bird Band Jam.

There is not much else going on at the moment. Building up teaching skills takes a lot of time, and in weekends Johan and I mostly go hiking, shopping (we bought a new Sony camera in September), or car hunting. Until so far, we have fallen in love with affordable cars, but then we discovered that the insurance was less payable. This hunting episode continues!

September flew by and October is on its way. I am eager to hear about your adventures, honoured reader! 

Laat alstublieft een berichtje achter als u graag een Nederlandse vertaling wilt ontvangen.

Johan catching dragonflies at Rice Lake (Aug 12th 2012)

One of the captured dragonflies (Aug 12th 2012)