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Teach at a Community College

timozander.de

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Re: Teach at a Community College

#11

Post by 2b3a51 »

Some things that occurred to me while reading OA.

I thought the page covered most things carefully and I suspect the students had a good experience.

In the UK sessionally paid teaching can be just one class a week as an extra thing. There will be the dbs check and if you want to do this as a long term thing you will need to take a basic teaching qualification.

Planning a course:

Write down a series of sentences saying what the student should be able to do after the course. In the UK we call these 'learning outcomes'[1]. For something like the OA's example Introduction to HTML, CSS and Javascript you will end up with quite a few!

Those learning outcomes will help you to devise a series of activities, see below. The outcomes can also help you to devise an assessment if the college requires that. Finally you can write a few sentences explaining what skills students should have to benefit from the course.

Estimating time in class:

Devise some practical activities for your students to complete tied closely to the learning outcomes (does not have to be 1 to 1 mapping). Time yourself working through the activities - line by line. Multiply that by 6 or something like that. OA has worked out that instructions need to be fairly full.

Then add time for the 'whole group' explanations (the bit where you stand up and explain stuff).

IT classes:

Your learning outcomes and activities will help you to list all the facilities you need. As OA found out Colleges can have quite locked down systems. Might be an idea to talk to technical support in the College through your contact there while planning.

[1] http://www.bristol.ac.uk/academic-quality/approve/approvalgu...

Above is just one I found doing a quick search. Seems pretty standard if wordy.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#12

Post by Mezzie »

spicyusername wrote: post #9

I looked into this, as I'm starting to burn out of working in the industry. The community colleges in my area require a surprising amount of prerequisites and pay _dismally_. Even with 15 years of industry experience, I'd need at least a year or two of additional schooling (while not being paid) to earn a paltry few hundred dollars per credit hour per semester while teaching. Hard sell to not get paid for a few years…

I'm not in tech but I'm qualified to adjunct/teach some other subjects and this is it. I'm even a good teacher. But why would I do it when I'm making more and I'm treated better working retail?

My local CC just posted a part-time librarian job I would jump on if it paid more than 21/hr. Fuck that - I could do better as a waitress or bartender. If they want to use my experience and education they can pay for it; God knows they're charging the kids enough.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#13

Post by gbuk2013 »

2b3a51 wrote: post #11

Some things that occurred to me while reading OA. I thought the page covered most things carefully and I suspect the students had a good experience. In the UK sessionally paid teaching can be just one class a week as an extra thing. There will be the dbs check and if you want to do this as a long term thing you will need to take a basic teaching qualification. Planning a course: Write down a series of sentences sayin…

Anecdotal experience: my mom used to teach some adult classes in a UK college and while she loved the work she ultimately left because for every hour of teaching she had to do 4+ hours unpaid work (lesson plans etc) and prepare for endless inspections by people who knew a lot less about teaching than she did (she has 20+ years teaching experience).

Re: Teach at a Community College

#14

Post by 300bps »

spicyusername wrote: post #9

I looked into this, as I'm starting to burn out of working in the industry. The community colleges in my area require a surprising amount of prerequisites and pay _dismally_. Even with 15 years of industry experience, I'd need at least a year or two of additional schooling (while not being paid) to earn a paltry few hundred dollars per credit hour per semester while teaching. Hard sell to not get paid for a few years…

I taught a non-credit course on Novell Networking at a local college back when I was a Certified Netware Engineer.

Will never do that again. 10% of the class picked it up quickly. 80% of the class picked it up. 10% of the class would never understand the material and dragged the rest of the class down asking incessant questions.

The money was a joke and I hated it.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#15

Post by porknubbins »

Mezzie wrote: post #12
spicyusername wrote: post #9

I looked into this, as I'm starting to burn out of working in the industry. The community colleges in my area require a surprising amount of prerequisites and pay _dismally_. Even with 15 years of industry experience, I'd need at least a year or two of additional schooling (while not being paid) to earn a paltry few hundred dollars per credit hour per semester while teaching. Hard sell to not get paid for a few years…

I'm not in tech but I'm qualified to adjunct/teach some other subjects and this is it. I'm even a good teacher. But why would I do it when I'm making more and I'm treated better working retail ? My local CC just posted a part-time librarian job I would jump on if it paid more than 21/hr. Fuck that - I could do better as a waitress or bartender. If they want to use my experience and education they can pay for it; God…

I thought community colleges were just a fraction of the cost of 4 year colleges? In my state at least CC are free to local HS grads. I think in a lot of cases you would have to do it out of a desire to teach rather than as an profit maximizer.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#16

Post by ramraj07 »

spicyusername wrote: post #9

I looked into this, as I'm starting to burn out of working in the industry. The community colleges in my area require a surprising amount of prerequisites and pay _dismally_. Even with 15 years of industry experience, I'd need at least a year or two of additional schooling (while not being paid) to earn a paltry few hundred dollars per credit hour per semester while teaching. Hard sell to not get paid for a few years…

The irony being I know lecturers who teach at actually prestigious universities and make decent money and have none of the useless requirements satisfied.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#18

Post by fn-mote »

porknubbins wrote: post #15
Mezzie wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not in tech but I'm qualified to adjunct/teach some other subjects and this is it. I'm even a good teacher. But why would I do it when I'm making more and I'm treated better working retail ? My local CC just posted a part-time librarian job I would jump on if it paid more than 21/hr. Fuck that - I could do better as a waitress or bartender. If they want to use my experience and education they can pay for it; God…

I thought community colleges were just a fraction of the cost of 4 year colleges? In my state at least CC are free to local HS grads. I think in a lot of cases you would have to do it out of a desire to teach rather than as an profit maximizer.

> rather than as an profit maximizer

We're not talking about profit MAXIMIZING, this is planning your own exploitation.

You would have to be supported by someone else or be independently wealthy to take typical CC jobs.

In the US in my area, I'm pretty sure you'd be better teaching K-12 because the unions are bigger / stronger and hence the benefits and job security are greater.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#19

Post by SamuelAdams »

Mezzie wrote: post #12
spicyusername wrote: post #9

I looked into this, as I'm starting to burn out of working in the industry. The community colleges in my area require a surprising amount of prerequisites and pay _dismally_. Even with 15 years of industry experience, I'd need at least a year or two of additional schooling (while not being paid) to earn a paltry few hundred dollars per credit hour per semester while teaching. Hard sell to not get paid for a few years…

I'm not in tech but I'm qualified to adjunct/teach some other subjects and this is it. I'm even a good teacher. But why would I do it when I'm making more and I'm treated better working retail ? My local CC just posted a part-time librarian job I would jump on if it paid more than 21/hr. Fuck that - I could do better as a waitress or bartender. If they want to use my experience and education they can pay for it; God…

I’ve always seen these jobs as targeting people who could be retired but want something to do. Pay isn’t great, but they offer very flexible hours for straightforward work. It engages you mentally (which the older you get, the more you’ll appreciate).

Re: Teach at a Community College

#20

Post by prosaic-hacker »

routerl wrote: post #8
ssttoo wrote: post #6

While I wholeheartedly agree with “learning by teaching”, one question I have is whether one could teach in community college. May be just my CC experience of study field (music) combined with locale (talent-attracting city of Los Angeles) but I hear one needs to be a PhD these days to compete for a CC professor spot.

Yeah, you got it. This is the real answer. The glut of PhD's is at such a level that the last teaching jobs available to industry professionals have all gone to boomers who will stay at those jobs until they die.

I teach at a Vocational college the teaches entry level system administration. I am one of those boomers (1959) but I have no degrees above a Bachelors. I could not get out of the teaching because of ageism and assumed if-you-cant-do-teachism.

I took this job 15 years ago because prospective employers looked at my then 30 year career and repeatedly said you cannot adapt to new tech and are too expensive. So I took my sysadmin, programming, and management skills and taught them to younger people who did get the jobs I was rejected for. Hopefully some of my work ethic will have rubbed off on them and when they hire they will do it with less "ism".

Now I get to play with the newest tech and teach it.

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