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Teach at a Community College

timozander.de

51–60 of 155 posts

Re: Teach at a Community College

#51
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…

CCs aren't charging kids much.

In comparison to other higher ed institutions, you're right.

This one in particular (I grew up in the region) has still seen its in-state tuition grow by 300%+ in the past 20 years. Where's the money going?

Re: Teach at a Community College

#52
post #26

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 g…

For comparison, going to school at a large research university will mean many of your classes are taught by TAs who are themselves PhD students right out of undergrad who may not have taught before or have any interest in teaching. They may also grade most of your work and provide most of your feedback, at least until the highest level classes. Someone who at least has industry experience with mentoring and giving feedback might be preferable.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#53
post #37

There's sometimes a stigma, which we should get rid of. First, I had great instructors at Portland Community College. Also, in addition to what I learned there, an area company (Tektronix spinoff) happened to put a job post there for a co-op student, and it turned out to be a great company, doing big things, which launched my career. After later working and then going to fancy-pants schools, one day a professor disse…

Agreed. Community college probably lifts up & allows people to better themselves more than most 4 year universities.

My dad put himself through community college then did 2 years at a university with some work in between. He was the first of his family / only one of his generation to go to college.

These days given cost & competition, most people going to a 4 year university come from a family that has already done the same and is following the prescribed path.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#54
post #37

There's sometimes a stigma, which we should get rid of. First, I had great instructors at Portland Community College. Also, in addition to what I learned there, an area company (Tektronix spinoff) happened to put a job post there for a co-op student, and it turned out to be a great company, doing big things, which launched my career. After later working and then going to fancy-pants schools, one day a professor disse…

Community College is for people who are busy getting things done. The stigma around community college is that "You weren't good enough for 4-year, let alone Ivy League" when simply that's not true and a stereotype.

I started at a community college. This was a long time ago now but I remember having to dance a precarious line between explaining where I went to school and explaining what I know. To this day when people ask me where I went to school, I riddle off a long explanation on why that kind of thinking isn't helpful and instead should be asking yourself, "What don't I know?". I've been to a 4 year college. I've been to an Ivy League school. The humbleness and "Let's do this" attitude of community college is still the best education I got. Don't feel bad for having these things on your resume, show them with pride. If YOU see someone applying for your positions and they are proudly showing their community college, I'd definitely want to talk to them over someone spoon fed from Harvard. Show me the people who take initiative. Regardless of where they went to school. I'm hiring for aptitude and attitude, everything else can be taught.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#55

I'm on an advisory board for the CS department at the local CC. They have a real problem hiring teachers, because their students end up making more than them at an entry level. And not just a little more, a lot more. So anyone they hire to teach the material is poached almost immediately, or quits due to despair at the situation. Not sure how to fix this, but it's a terrible situation for an educational institution.

Does your CC require a PhD to teach basic COP classes?

No, it's a Master's or Bachelor's + experience that's required.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#56
post #12

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…

>>librarian job I would jump on if it paid more than 21/hr. Fuck that

hmm I wonder if you also protest the high cost of education?

>> God knows they're charging the kids enough.

looky there you do... how ironic. Community Collages do not charge high rates, they are purposely designed not to, and in many states are statutory limited on what they can charge

Many of the Adjuncts I know do it not as primary income, but as secondary income, and they do not do it for financial gain they fine other value in it like the original story./

Re: Teach at a Community College

#57
A lot depends on your local educational system. Community colleges in California, for example, have suffered large budget cuts and many teachers have been laid off over the past few years so it's not a very attractive career. A program with few offerings is not attractive to students, either, so budget cuts tend to lead to enrollment drops:

https://www.communitycollegereview.com/blog/california-commu...

A main issue, at least in the USA, is that college is extremely expensive so smart students who don't want massive debt or who can't tap parental wealth can do two years of work at a community college (with smaller classes) before transferring to a four-year school, saving tens of thousands of dollars along the way. Some community colleges have reoriented around this goal to attract students, but the tradeoff is that continuing education for adults and other vocational programs often get cut.

Another problem is that public high schools do such an atrocious job at instruction that community colleges have to pick up the slack, so you have schools teaching basic algebra and simple reading/writing skills (i.e. 9th grade level etc.) to young adults whose primary education was a disaster. It's a pretty sad state of affairs, at least in the USA.

Note that teaching at a CC tends to require at least a Master's degreee in the field, and of course if you have large student loans the pay is to low to make any headway in paying them down. Incidentally, if you are planning to teach, LLMs have huge potential for new teachers to design a course with modern material. Of course grading students is going to be an issue and in-class testing is the only plausible alternative as LLMs can also write code and solve problems for students.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#58

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).

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).

She left the college about 10 years ago. At the time all she used was a smart whiteboard - the 2 different colleges she worked at had different brands with different software interfaces on her PC and this was a real pain she said - just as she got used to one she had to change to another one.

Apart from that she just made her lesson plans in Word based on a basic template that the college provided.

Re: Teach at a Community College

#59

This is a dream of mine. I'd love to do it and help teach people. How does someone with a normal BS + industry experience get into this?

AFAICT, you don't.

I reached out to the local CC years ago, with a resume of 20+ yoe in industry; a list of educational clients including NASA, IBM; local clients, industry certs; etc.

The response was "Impressive resume! Come back when you have a Master's degree."

So, screw them...

Re: Teach at a Community College

#60
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…

>>librarian job I would jump on if it paid more than 21/hr. Fuck that hmm I wonder if you also protest the high cost of education? >> God knows they're charging the kids enough. looky there you do... how ironic. Community Collages do not charge high rates, they are purposely designed not to, and in many states are statutory limited on what they can charge Many of the Adjuncts I know do it not as primary income, but a…

They're cheap comparatively. They also cost over 3x what they did 20 years ago and pay non teaching staff well. If it were truly about not having any money, I'd expect support and admin staff to also be low paid, but they're not. I don't want a lot of money, but I need enough to be secure and therefore able to devote my attention to my work.

> Many of the Adjuncts I know do it not as primary income, but as secondary income, and they do not do it for financial gain they fine other value in it like the original story.

Where do they adjunct? You see more of this at grad level or higher-level undergrad course adjuncting.

I also have major problems with the exploitation of vocational awe that happens in higher ed. If they don't need the money why accept pay at all? Why not make it a volunteer position? Surely there are enough retirees that adjuncts could be replaced with volunteers if the money is not a concern?

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