Just a Few Words About Me...
And WHY I created my handwritten video lecture notes :-)
ABOUT ME
I Had to Learn Chemistry in a Specific Way 🤷♂️
Growing up as a kid, sports came easy to me. I was a natural at football, soccer, and baseball. I guess you could say, it was pre-defined that "out-of-the-box," I was going to be good at sports.
Well, for every positive there's a negative, right? (Think "cations" vs. "anions", haha).
What I mean is -- while I was a natural at sports, I most certainly was NOT a natural at academics. School was difficult for me. I had to work very hard to understand subjects that my fellow classmates had an easy time learning.
My academic struggles were most evident in Math and Science. Don't get me wrong. I liked Math and Science. I just didn't "get it."
You see, I had to learn these subjects in a specific way. And I didn't KNOW what this "specific way" was, until I walked into my 1st Chemistry class as a freshman in college...
I Cover Everything in YOUR General Chemistry Course!
YES. I NEED THIS 〉
I was 1 of 400+ students in my Freshman Chemistry class. 😢
Yup. I was totally screwed. I couldn't even find a seat, let alone dream of surviving General Chemistry.
How was I going to be able to get help or stand out in this sea of 400+ Chemistry students??
Then my Professor walked in. No computer slides, no overhead projector, no url's. No handouts. Just several stapled pages of his handwritten lecture notes, and a few sticks of those giant thick pieces of chalk (I'm 46yo now - back then, it was chalkboards 👨🏫)...
ME (cont...)
My Professor wrote until he was drenched in sweat. 🥵
For 50 minutes, 3 days per week, my Chemistry Professor hand wrote his lecture notes all across both chalkboards until his dress-shirt was drenched in sweat.
As he wrote, he turned around and lectured about what he was writing...
THIS. This is how I learn best. And this is also, the exact way in which I teach.
Yes, it's tough to write out all of my lectures in front of my students -- It would be much easier (for me) to toss them a textbook and some pre-made PowerPoint slides.
BUT, in the last 20 years of teaching Chemistry, I've realized that students learn best via my unique method of handwritten Chemistry lessons. I hope you will enjoy my handwritten Chemistry lectures and lessons as well.
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I LOVE strawberry ice cream
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I PREFER rainy days
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I WAS BORN in California
