By Kristen Mudrack

Sometimes my students drive me batty.  Absolutely batty.

And then they go and do things like show me that they actually learned something.  That they actually were paying attention.  That they actually do care.

I’ve always loved seeing them get it – understand a concept that they’d been struggling with, get a question right after trying five times, finally make a connection between things we had talked about.

I’m the professor that constantly has students in her office – usually more than one – which either makes me the worst teacher in the world, or my students feel comfortable enough with me to come ask me questions and work through problems in my office.  I’m going to choose to believe the latter.

Sometimes they drive me nuts with all of their questions and constant requests for more practice problems (you have a textbook!).  But most of all, I’m grateful that they are trying to learn and not just memorize answers.  I’m grateful that they do come and ask me questions instead of just pretend like they understand.

It drives me absolutely crazy when they turn in assignments late, when they procrastinate on things that they’ve been assigned since the beginning of the semester, or when they don’t show up for a meeting when they scheduled one with me.  I want to deck them when they try to pull one over on me or plagiarize.  But instead, I try to help them learn from their mistakes.  I give them grace and mercy, tough love, and a shoulder to cry on when they need it.

Then I see them get it – really get it – and I am so proud of them.  My Chemistry and Society (nonmajors) class just gave their final presentations on how they see chemistry in their life that they didn’t before.  And they blew me away with what they learned this year.

My goal in that class is to rock their worlds and show them that what they see in the media isn’t always the actual science.  To teach them to think critically about the world around them and to appreciate God’s creation all around them, in every minute detail.  To help them not hate chemistry and connect it to their everyday lives.

And they did.  They saw things differently than they did before.  They learned.  They analyzed.  And they don’t hate chemistry (which is a huge win in my book!).