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Teach at a Community College

timozander.de

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Re: Teach at a Community College

#21

Post by Mezzie »

fn-mote wrote: post #18
porknubbins wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This, basically.

I would happily teach at a CC for ~40-50k. I consider having my basic economic needs taken care of a necessity to being a good teacher - there is a correlation between poverty/economic stress and agitation, irritability, etc. Being in constant stress is not going to be conducive towards teaching well. If I have to work 2 jobs, I'm going to not spend my time grading thoroughly, I will choose the quick and easy route to curriculum development instead of tailoring the curriculum, etc. Oh and forget time for office hours or student emails; have to go deliver groceries or work at a car wash so I can make rent.

I'm not going to take a job where I'm not given what I need to be good at the job - it's terrible for me and it's terrible for the students. The only 'winner' is the institution.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#22

Post by 2b3a51 »

gbuk2013 wrote: post #13
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).

The formal lesson planning has been cut back a bit these days (last 3 years or so). One of my employers went over to the 'five minute lesson plan' [1]. With a solid scheme of work (plan of the whole course) that works OK.

I taught maths (basic level) and we had a team of something like 20 tutors so materials got produced and a common scheme of work got adapted as needed. All that cuts the work down, along with some amazing Web sites [2]. If you are the only teacher of a specialist subject, yes I admit the planning could be heavy the first time you run the course. Local management can be a factor sadly.

Recent sad events in the UK news [3] I think will result in a change in approach from OFSTED. This will I think happen when the new OFSTED head is in post.

[1] https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/5minplan/ [ I don't think we paid anything! And the differentiation bit is different for adult education]

[3] e.g. https://www.skillsworkshop.org/ and https://corbettmaths.com/

[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-65207784

Re: Teach at a Community College

#23

Post by james-revisoai »

gbuk2013 wrote: post #13
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).

Can I speak to your mom? Apologies for the directness but I work with tech for UK colleges and would love to hear her view (and see if there has been change since).

Re: Teach at a Community College

#24

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Teach at a Community College

#25

Post by Mezzie »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #19
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’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).

That's the ideal/stated desire (and historically this was more likely to be true and it does hold true in some cases: graduate school adjuncting is more likely to be of this sort), but the economic incentives and overproduction of graduate degrees relative to the jobs requiring them have functionally made adjuncting the service class of academia.

And just because the hours are flexible doesn't mean the pay isn't an issue: Employment perks are relative and flexible hours are way more common than they used to be. For most people who qualify to be adjuncts, they could also freelance (which I do do) and get both payment and flexibility.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#26

Post by fn-mote »

Paraphrase: teaching a few classes at a community college can be great for you, in the begining, but probably not long term, and it is probably not great for your students.

You are doing something new, learning to communicate, potentially even learning some new material or a new perspective on something you know. At the very least, you get inspiration to create new materials (for teaching).

This experience is not great for your students. You are being trained on the job. They are looking for training. You are learning from the mistakes you make teaching them.

This isn't necessarily horrible. You teaching the class could still be better than the next best alternative. But the fact that CC (in the US, in STEM, IME) are not paying enough for this to be a viable career means that you will never stay long enough to be an experienced teacher who has figured out a solid approach to teaching the classes and students that you teach.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#27

Post by ZachSaucier »

You can do this sort of thing on a smaller scale but with similar results by volunteering for mentoring organizations like Underdog Devs, Vets Who Code, Operation Code, or another organization that helps underprivileged people try to get programming jobs.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#28

Post by Mezzie »

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.

I genuinely would like to teach - K-12 or higher ed.

I will not work somewhere where I am expected to put in extra hours for no extra pay, allow people to physically and verbally abuse me, and doesn't pay enough for me to make rent and bills.

I don't expect a CC to pay amazingly, but if they want good people they should at least make sure that they offer a better deal than jobs who only want a GED and right now they aren't. Plus the salaries are skewed: I could get a good paying job at my local CC... in the development or 'business' side of things. But not to actually teach. If you can pay data analysts 70k there's no reason to stiff your educational staff. It says a lot about the values of that institution.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#29

Post by gbuk2013 »

2b3a51 wrote: post #22
gbuk2013 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

The formal lesson planning has been cut back a bit these days (last 3 years or so). One of my employers went over to the 'five minute lesson plan' [1]. With a solid scheme of work (plan of the whole course) that works OK. I taught maths (basic level) and we had a team of something like 20 tutors so materials got produced and a common scheme of work got adapted as needed. All that cuts the work down, along with some a…

She used to teach a foreign language, so there was only one other teacher and yes management really was a problem. :(

Good to hear that things have improved - it’s been about 10 years since she moved on to teaching privately.

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