Teaching is very personal; we’re all very invested in the work we do for students and for TAs, so this coalescing work is important, occasionally challenging, and satisfying.
Meet Stephen Block! Stephen earned his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry with the Wright group in 2012. While he came from a family of teachers and enjoyed teaching, he had every intention to pursue a career in industry. As he geared his efforts in grad school toward industry, after graduation, the door that opened was a “teaching post-doc” position in the department. As Stephen explains, it “quickly just became the role and place I wanted to be.” The role has evolved as the department’s needs have shifted, and he has been grateful for the shifting responsibilities and hours as he became a dad. He says, “As with most positions in the department, I wear a few hats.” He works mostly as a general chemistry lecturer and general chemistry lab director. As a lecturer, he leads class time for a few hundred students, holds office hours, keeps up on course forum posts, listens to his TAs, helps assemble exams, and assigns grades. As lab director, he creates new experiments for gen chem students, trains TAs before the start of each semester and throughout the semester, and visits labs to assist with troubleshooting and make sure safety protocols are being followed. As Stephen notes, “In both main roles, there is a lot of coordination work–talking with the other people involved in teaching general chemistry to make sure our plans are thought-out well, shared with as much agreement as possible, implemented well, and revised after we see how each round of instruction goes.” He enjoys developing a relationship with a class. With a few hundred students, he says he doesn’t get to know more than the handful who come to office hours or who always sit at the front of the class, but each class has its own personality, and he enjoys seeing what each iteration will be. “Watching TAs progress from talented rookies to colleagues is edifying, too,” he says. Outside of UW, Stephen’s life revolves around family, friends, and involvement with his church. Stephen holds JRR Tolkien’s work and world in highest affection and will gladly dwell in Middle Earth thought or conversation at any time and for excessive duration. He enjoys games–board games, PC games, trading card games… games. He says his wife also enjoys games, and it’s fun to watch their son (who is six) grow into playing increasingly high-quality games, too.