Like all the Fellows, the pandemic impacted my best laid teaching plans including delaying the teaching of my course by a year. This meant that the last time I taught my foundational inorganic course was four years ago. And COVID made me more sensitive to wanting to provide my students with the most amazing course.  I made my plans and prepped the class and Canvas site. By the end of January, I realized that the plan wasn’t working. It was time to frantically switch gears. And by the end of May I was so relieved it was over but felt as if I had failed my students in ways that I never want to: Did I cover enough content? Are they better equipped to read the literature? Can they appreciate how inorganic chemistry is so applicable to research in energy, climate change, and healthcare?

The workshop reminded me that we are always our harshest critic and while there is ample room for improvement, I did better than I thought as seen in my data. I have concrete tools and direction thanks to the sessions and many conversations with other Fellows. Everyone in the room is here because they are a great teacher and working towards becoming even better. I have so many ideas for changes and know that I don’t have to make them all at once because the Fellows and IONIC community are here to support me with the guilt free no and the permission to ….