For the past ten days, i’ve been bouncing between teaching two sections of general biology at brooklyn college, and assisting my boss in teaching the Xenopus Course at Cold Spring Harbor Labs.  Its been very rewarding, though admittedly little disconcerting to be plinking away at my laptop preparing my lecture, and to look up and make eye contact with a nobel laureate.  However, all this running around is draining, and really helped with the sense of what it must be like as a professor, balancing between teaching, research, and larger community expectations.  I couldn’t spend an entire day preparing for the next day’s lecture, so I was forced to make more efficient use of my time.  As opposed to spending hours creating or even tracking down the perfect image or figure while working on the talk, I put limited myself to creating first a workable lecture as quickly as possible.  Then I could obsess on that perfect figure or addition, and I think it even helps see whats important.   Anyway, now that I’m done with CSHL and just teaching, I hope this even means I can get back in the lab for a bit… once I finish my paper, reviewing coworkers papers, and working on that next grant.  Well, it’s a step closer…