It was a tough year. My fall Inorganic Chemistry class had a whopping four students, only two of which showed up with any consistency. We spent enormous amounts of time reviewing General Chemistry concepts, and only scratched the surface of “Gen Chem on PEDs”. The lab didn’t fare any better, but we won’t talk about that.

In the spring, my Advanced Inorganic Chemistry course was canceled due to enrollment. This was probably for the better given the students’ performance in the fall semester; however, this was the third year running that the course didn’t have any students enrolled (it’s required for our ACS-certified majors). This was also the first spring in my 10 years that we didn’t graduate a Chemistry major.

I had thought I had put this all behind me, until I had to watch myself teach. This was definitely a traumatic experience, yet it was everything I expected it to be: lecturing, asking questions, and waiting. I can’t say the COPUS or affective data was much of a surprise.

Attending the Fellows Workshop in-person was a surprise and helped ease the pain of the last year. I was able to collaborate, share, learn from, and commiserate with my Cohort 2 Fellows. I explored the VIPEr website more, and got to know the fantastic individuals that make this community amazing. I could feel the excitement build thinking about how I would change my course.

It was all the harder attending such a wonderful workshop knowing that I might not be teaching in the coming fall – hell, I wouldn’t even be a tenured professor anymore. Prior to the workshop, I interviewed at another institution to be closer to family and possibly get ahead of the impending downsizing I was seeing on the horizon within my current institution. I am hopeful that the professor teaching the inorganic course won't mind if I guest lecture, so I can continue to hone my teaching skills.

I am confident that this new opportunity will not close the door on my IONiC VIPEr contributions, but afford me a new perspective on how to contribute and continue to be an active member of the community. Hopefully, a lot of literature discussion LOs will spring from this bittersweet transition.