did anyone teach this academic year? how did you all get on with your teaching and research? any exciting /nightmare experiences? lessons learnt? Would you do it again? Why/Why not?

Teaching is fun but takes up lots of time if you want to do it properly. Wont take any teaching next time.

i have struggled to get any teaching opps in the last year :(

first term was fun, second term was hell...i might take it again, but am not agreeing to teach any strange subjects again! last term i had to learn a module and then teach it. heck no!!!

Haven't started yet, but been told I will hate all the students by the end of it!

I loved the first term teaching I did this year (undergrads) - it was great and they bought me a bunch of roses to say thanks! Second term - Masters students - not so good. They were a big group which is not really conducive to teaching at masters level in my area...also although I had some positive feedback from some of them there were a few who really seemed to resent the fact that they were being taught by someone who does not yet have a PhD, and they said as much...I then began to resent them for saying that because I thought well - if I wasn't preparing all these lectures for you and actually making an effort to give you some helpful feedback on your essays I might have finished my PhD by now!!!

I'd love to do some teaching as a PhD student, but I had thought it would be really difficult to get. Is it still possible being in the Humanities and (most probably) self-funded?

Yes it's possible, depending on what your department need, ask your supervisor and they may be able to point you in the right direction. I started teaching in my third year and now (in my fourth) I have a full time lectureship. Teaching is a worthwhile experience and it can help with finding a job in academia (in conjunction with publications etc), but as other people have said it can take up a lot of time so be careful not to take on too much as it could really slow down the PhD research.