Sanguine, Sardonic and Separable Servants,

With the snow on the ground and the emptying car park, a foreboding hollowness of finality was felt. I arrived at yooni on noon, having chosen to work at home whilst other cars paved my way through the snow during the morning. The snow lay an inch deep at home and I knew from my journey home the previous evening that crossing Largo Law was treacherous.

I spent some time in the office before my final shift as a demonstrator in the teaching labs. The task is one that I’ve enjoyed doing throughout the years, it’s a period of respite from everyday work that allows me to do something different, to keep in touch with some areas of chemistry that I don’t get to visit much more and to learn at the same time as the stewdents. I think I’d have done the job if it wasn’t paid, although in recent years, having marking added to my workload has arguably made the wage more deserved.

Although I’ve had a good bunch of stewdents, this term was a little difficult at first, it turned out that I was not really a demonstrator, I was in charge but once I came to terms with this and the class’ independence and confidence grew, we managed splendidly. Some people are naturally more confident, some have more experience than others depending on the schools they came from. Some have to be supervised carefully at first and some will ask all manners of non-question. The most rewarding part is to see people progress week by week; during the last afternoon, the stewdents barely required my aid, I suppose the afternoon was characterised by light-hearted chatter and everyone finishing up well before the end of the session.

I had an uncertain view of demonstrators as a stewdent. I would want them to be there immediately if I was in doubt but out of sight otherwise. I thought some were lazy, some were meddlesome, some were incompetent and some were unclear so I always had that in my mind and I think I was the kind of demonstrator that I would have liked to have; relaxed, helpful, approachable and most importantly, patient. I think my patience surpassed what was expected by some. The toughest part of the job was marking reports and explaining to the stewdents why certain things were wrong. In general, they acted upon my advice. Being sympathetic helps but it is difficult when a stewdent is disappointed with a mark such as 14/20 and in extreme cases, 19/20.

Hopefully, the teaching experience helps in the future. I have more people skills than I care to admit, my highlight of the experience came during a session off. I agreed to swap a shift with a colleague but I had to visit the lab in order to give the class their reports. On this visit, members of the class greeted me and also complained about my replacement and called them ‘grumpy and unwilling to help’, knowing this person quite well, I was surprised but only too happy to take this as a feather in the cap.

The picture is from Your Pictures, there is some wonderful photographs in there that I like to gaze wistfully upon from time to time.