Teaching

Teaching here is different from teaching in the US in many ways. My classroom was scheduled the week before classes started and I didn't actually teach until the second week. Nobody knew how many students I might have until they showed up for class. Estonians are definitely not tied to a schedule like we are in Rolla. It's OK, just different.

I teach a 4 hour class. In the US, that would mean four hours of teaching, although since an "hour" of class is 50 minutes, it really means 200 minutes per week. If a lab is included, that's 3 hours of lab per one credit, so you might have a 3 hour lab plus 3 of the 50 minute lectures.

Here in Estonia a 4 hour class is different. We meet once a week for 2 hours. The hours are 45 minutes, so I lecture for 90 minutes. After that, we have another 45 minutes of something like recitation. I can give them a quiz, or we can have a discussion, or I can just let them go. In addition to the lecture and recitation I have "contact hours." Contact hours are when I am available in my office. I have 4 hours of that per week associated with this class. Again, it's OK, just different.