http://www.aabschools.com/blogs/faculty/feed Virtual Forum for AABS facullty members en-us /blog/faculty/My_Most_Exciting_Teaching_Moment <p>My most exciting teaching moment can be traced back to 1980 when I was working as a Tutorial Assistant under one Dr. Kadumula Khan who was teaching a course &ldquo;Financial Management&rdquo; to third year finalist Bachelor of Commerce students at the University of Dar es Salam.<br /> <br /> It was mandatory for me, as a Tutorial Assistant, to attend all classes conducted by Dr. Khan and help him with cleaning the blackboard (by then there were no power point projectors and no white boards) and I had to conduct tutorials and seminars.<br /> <br /> One day the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Ken Edwards asked Dr. Khan to give me opportunity to give a lecturer on any one of my chosen topic from the syllabus. I found this to be quite challenging since I had never in my life time faced an audience of about 150 people, leave alone presenting an academic lecture. I chose a topic which was close to the last topics on the course outline so that I could have enough time to prepare myself.<br /> <br /> When the great day came, my biggest surprise was that not only Dr. Khan, my mentor, was in the lecture hall, but also the Dean of the faculty. It had been widely publicized that I was the one presenting a lecture that day, hence the lecture hall was fully packed with students.<br /> <br /> Although I had over-prepared myself for the lecture but as the lecture day came closer I felt less and less confident and nervous. At the beginning of my lecture students were unusually attentive and as I began introducing the topic the whole lecture hall was dead-silent such that even a drop of a pin could have been heard. This made me feel even more nervous. I started sweating, but fortunately I immediately gathered confidence and started the lecture.<br /> <br /> I had prepared my lecturer to last one hour and I had rehearsed three times to test my self on the timing. To my big surprise at the end of the lecture, I got such a big applaud of appreciation from students which I never expected, particularly because students at University of Dar es Salam had a culture of booing at any presenter who sounded boring to them. I had made it!!<br /> <br /> When we left the lecture room students surrounded me expressing their appreciation of my presentation, something that left sweat dripping all over my body. The Dean immediately invited me to his office and poured a lot of praises on me. He even offered me a cup of coffee - something a Tutorial Assistant could never expect from the Dean. I had to take the coffee, much as I was still sweating profusely.<br /> <br /> After all this that is when I realized that I could also be a lecturer. The secret was that I had prepared myself adequately. Since that time I have always believed, and I think it is true, that good teaching is mostly a function of adequate preparation.</p> <p>What is your most exciting teaching moment?<br /> &nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> teaching Erasmus