Somewhat stressful day with two 'new' bits of teaching to do.

First thing I had my first fill-in for a colleague who was off at the dentist. Not just an hour but 90 minutes with some 20 odd geography students. Sorry, that's 'about 20' rather than 'peculiar students'. Might have been a bit more daunting if I hadn't spent four a bit years working in a geographical library. As it was they seemed fine despite the inadequacies of the room (not a proper teaching room but just a portable projector brought in a bit late attached to one of the student computers facing the front). I guess I've been spoiled by the excellence of facilities so far.

At one stage I had them creating mindmaps of the topics they were interested in but in a first for me couldn't persuade anyone to share theirs with the group. Are they braver students at TheOldPlace or am I just losing my powers of persuasion?

Next up was an induction for some mature distance learners doing health and safety. I had worked hard on learning what facilities (or not) distance learners could access but it was still a bit new for me. I was also using material passed on to me by the colleague who formerly dealt with this. I decided to use it because a) I liked it; and b) thought it would be a change from what I typically do. But it possibly led to the session being a little less polished. Still, I have a repeat engagement with the other half of them on Wednesday, so a chance to improve.

If I don't look for and relish such 'new' opportunities, I fear that I'm going to quickly find that not enough has changed from TheOldPlace to here to be sufficiently stimulating.