Doing Your Homework

After choosing to leave the academic track behind, I had to begin focusing on my new career as a high school biology teacher.  

I realized that I knew nothing about teaching teenagers, or understanding the complex world that science is.  

So I did what any good scientist would do, I began to research my new career path.  PubMed searches, trips to Barnes and Noble, discussions with other teaching professionals–all of the sources that science had taught me to use before I set off on a new research track, I used to prepare myself to teach.  I cannot say how much it helped to calm my fears and prepare me to begin writing lessons for my classes.  

These searches also reminded me that I had a wealth of knowledge and skills to draw from, as I taught these children to (hopefully) love science.

The buzzwords “Transferable Skills” are discussed all of the time when you are in science.  However, it is hard to understand what the words mean until you begin to explore them.  As scientists, we are all multi-taskers, researchers, public speakers, graphic designers, artists, statisticians, writers, and even teachers.  

I cannot believe how much I still use the skills that I learned in my graduate school days as a teacher.  I still try to tell a story with every PowerPoint. I still make it a priority to discuss the latest research with my colleagues. I still track the data and run statistical analysis on my class performance.  

The things I learned in graduate school gave me a skill set that I will always use, regardless of how far away from the bench I travel.