Some of you know me, but most of you don’t. In 2001 I was in a very bad place. David Burns took great relish in describing his first impression of me at the 2002 SENCER Summer Institute as a “burned–out, dyspeptic, middle- aged professor.” According to him, I was both bewildered and cynical. Unfortunately, he had me pegged. My research career had basically ended because funding priorities had changed. I was resigned to being a permanent Associate Professor. I had little to look forward to except retirement (somewhere in the next 15 to 20 years). I was resigned to being “just a teacher” (in a bad way).

All of this changed after SENCER. You can read about my transformation in a backgrounder that I wrote in 2005. (Reinventing Myself as a Professor: The Catalytic Role of SENCER.  https://ncsce.net/reinventing-myself-as-a-professor-the-catalytic-role-of-sencer/.  That paper ended on a positive note.

Since 2005 I have had a remarkable academic career. Among other accomplishments I became part of the Core SENCER faculty, I participated in many National Science Teaching Efforts, became a Senior Fellow of the National Center for Science & Civic Engagement (NCSCE). At Rutgers University, I was appointed Vice Chair for Undergraduate Instruction, and was promoted to Professor. I eventually became one of twelve Master Teachers at Rutgers University. More importantly, I once again enjoyed being a Professor.

I continued with SENCER until 2015 when I retired. I rejoined SENCER when Eliza and Davida nominated me to be an SENCER Ambassador. Now I would like to share the rest of my story. In 2005 I had no idea how the tiny seeds planted by SENCER and a few changes in my course would snowball into an entirely new and extremely rewarding career. Instead of being “just a teacher” I was extremely proud to be a teacher. In my Backgrounder, I ended with an allusion to the Wizard of OZ. The rest of the story gets a nod to Dr. Seuss.

OH! THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up!

You'll be seeing great sights!

You'll join the high fliers

who soar to high heights.

Any blog is a personal narrative. Sometime I feel like I am wearing no clothes. Other times I feel like I am not even wearing my skin. In this series of blogs, I will describe my adventures (both good and bad) in teaching. Many of the ideas I present were also given as presentations in the SENCER Summer Institutes. These are recollections of things that worked (or did not work) for me. I hope that you can find value in my journey.

Terry R. McGuire - Writing as the Reinvented Professor. (Reinventedprofessor@gmail.com) .

Questions, comments and suggestions welcome.