Freeway Flyer

• Improving as an Instructor: Enhancing Your Own Educational Experience

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  16 May 2010 /  Uncategorized, organization, students, teaching, technology, time management
  This is it. This is the summer you will brush up on your teaching skills or your organization techniques. You know it will make your life easier and will improve the learning experiences of your students. But, where to start? If you prefer to go it alone with a good book or two on teaching, there are a myriad of books available. For example, the Adjunct Book Store web site http://www.adjunctprofessoronline.com/amazon_store?Keywords=adjunct%20faculty&SearchIndex=Books has handbooks for adjuncts and part-time instructors, books on teaching strategies and techniques, and guides for adjuncts who teach online. This web site has eight pages of books such as these.

  Perhaps, you would like to participate in an online seminar or course. A web site called Adjunctopia has many training opportunities http://www.adjunctopia.com/training/ Offerings in the near future have such titles as “Approaches to Managing Communications Effectively in an Online course” and “Creating a Syllabus and Beyond,” with prices ranging from $45 to $99.

  As a freeway flyer, you may have access to professional development offered through your different colleges. During the school year, you might have been too busy to pay much attention to this, let alone actually attend the classes or workshops, but you might have an easier schedule now. I have been tempted this week by some upcoming software classes in Dreamweaver and Moodle. There is a workshop called “Becoming a Champion of Change;” I don’t know exactly what that means in this case, but it sounds intriguing! Also, a couple of the colleges have fitness classes. This might be my chance, finally, to learn how to “Zumba.” Another college has everything from “Twitter Basics” to “Sexual Harassment Awareness Training.” If I have Saturdays free, I can attend classes at yet another college on “The Adult Learner,” “Active Teaching,” or “Plagiarism.” The nice part about using the facilities and opportunities offered by the schools at which you teach is that the price is usually right: free. Free is good, especially is you are in the process of paying for and squeezing in an occasional graduate course toward that terminal degree. Those classes are not cheap.

  And, speaking of cheap, be wary of spending a lot on money on teaching manuals and seminars about which you know nothing other than what you have read online. You owe it to yourself (and your wallet) to check into them before you lay out that very hard earned cash.

  Lastly, there are some excellent programs sponsored by colleges other than the ones where you are employed. Honolulu Community College has a list in their “Teaching Tips Index” that has dozens of interesting links: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/teachtip.htm It is a delight. Then, there is Lower Columbia College with another impressive list called “Tips to Improve Your Teaching: http://lowercolumbia.edu/internal/faculty-resources/professional-development/tips_to_improve.htm This seems to demonstrate that there is a multitude of riches available for anyone with the desire to improve. It’s all there for you; you just need to take the time to check it out.

  Tags: Adjunctopia, Carol Weatherford, professional development, teaching

• Having the Dream Office (Or the Dream of Having an Office)

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  29 Apr 2010 /  Uncategorized, community college, employment, students, teaching, technology
  Offices are important. An office is the college instructor’s home away from home; in fact, the instructor often spends more time at the office than at home. Offices can indicate the status of the owner, in terms of size, location, windows, and amenities. The adjunct faculty dream office has windows which open onto a calming, attractive view. There is a desk large enough to spread out the papers, materials, and books for one entire class at a time. The office is well-lit and the temperature is neither too warm nor too chilly. There are shelves and file cabinets for storage, and a bulletin board for posting important notices. There is a door which locks and keeps the instructor’s belongings safe. Someone empties the garbage and recycling bins on a regular basis and the office itself is clean looking and fresh smelling. There is a speedy computer with internet access, the latest software, a printer, and a phone for use. The room itself is large enough to meet with a small group of students or with other faculty members.

  I have not seen this office; bu remember, this is the adjunct faculty dream office. As the Freeway Flyer, I have had or have shared quite a few offices. All of them have had some of the features listed here; none of them have had everything. Most of them have been memorable in one way or another:

  1. My office at a large state university was a modular cubicle which had six foot walls but no door. The cubicle opened onto a hallway which was open during the day. There was a phone and a computer hook-up for a lap top computer. It was fine for my office hours and for general purposes, but when I left at night, I had to put everything into locked cabinets, including the phone.
  2. My office at a private university consists of a slot for mail and a file cabinet drawer. There is a computer in the room which is shared by aa part-time faculty, and a few desks which are claimed by the regular adjuncts, those who teach there each semester.
  3. At a community college, the adjunct office is a nine foot by ten foot room with no windows. It is taken up by a large mail box system and two desks. There is no phone or computer. It does have a large shelving system packed with supplies, saving the instructor the problem of tracking down file folders or dry erase markers.
  4. At another community college, I share a medium office with nine other instructors. There are four desks and two computers. So far this semester, I have shared this office with no more than two other instructors at once. If we all showed up at the same time, it would be comical. This is an interior office so it has no windows, but there is a door which locks.
  5. Another, larger community college where I teach has, appropriately, a very large adjunct faculty office. This office has multiple telephones, file cabinets which are claimed a drawer at a time by instructors, several computers, and some tables and chairs in the middle with which to meet students and others. This office does feel spacious and although it is an interior office, there are windows which open onto the floor’s hallways. The only slight drawback this office has is that there are no printers to go with the computers, mainly in an effort to restrict the amount of printing that goes on in an effort to control costs.

  Offices are not the most important things; they are certainly not as important as salary, job security, or even respect, but they are a concern. Recently, the Saint Francis College adjunct faculty voted for an adjunct faculty union for access to health care, regular pay increases, and “other benefits that full-time colleagues enjoy, including office and storage space.” http://www.aftface.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=652 Adjunct faculty are not greedy; they are not driven by status, they would just like to be able to comfortably do their work and to know that if they leave something at the office, it will be there when they return. This seems reasonable, doesn’t it?

  Tags: Carol Weatherford, office space, Saint Francis College, teaching

• The Freeway Flyer and Community Colleges

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  02 Apr 2010 /  community college, students
  The fact that there is a primetime TV show about community colleges is another sign that these institutions are now part of our mainstream life and popular culture. In a way, it seems natural that NBC would base a sitcom in a community college setting. Starring Joel McHale, Chevy Chase, and many other entertaining actors, it has some clever moments and some genuine laughs. What it does not have, though, is an actual resemblance to the community colleges I know. This freeway flyer spends time at three different community colleges this semester, so I do have some perspective.

  In some ways, this show is much like other shows about academic life on television and in movies. From “Welcome Back Kotter” and “The Paper Chase” in the Seventies, to present day renditions, they all seem to have a lot in common. Classes are very short in length, very small in number of students, and all the characters are very clever. The instructors have large offices, teach very few classes, if they have more than one, and they have total free rein.

  NBC’s “Community” has a few other characteristics I have noticed. For example, each week there is a show about a particular group of students beginning a new class together. This college has the shortest semesters of any college I have known. Another aspect of the show is that the students are constantly thrown together, whether it is classes they attend together, study groups, or the many meals and breaks they share. Is this what happens in real life? No. In some university settings, students are often with their dorm mates, and they may have multiple classes with students who share their majors and programs. In most community colleges, people travel to school, attend their classes, and then they travel home. In “Community,” the TV show, it seems those people are always at the college. One wonders if they do have homes.

  These are all of the things that were going through my mind when I watched the show recently. Mildly to moderately amusing, but it was nothing like real life. Except, upon further reflection, I began to consider some of the things that have been happening in real-life community colleges lately. Consider the record breaking (327 pounds before cooking) meatball cooked by Glen Oaks Community College in Centreville, Michigan this month. It had to be moved by forklift because of its size, and 250 pounds of it were donated to Meals on Wheels with the rest being distributed as meatball sandwiches to spectators. Glen Oaks is a small school in Michigan’s St. Joseph County, but now they have appeared in national newspapers, television news, and The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/24/worlds-largest-meatball-d_n_511643.html

  This week, Kalamazoo Valley Community College is sponsoring its seventh annual diversity conference. One of the attractions the students are encouraged to attend is the Human Race Machine, which lets them view themselves as six different races. Students lined up for this event. Then, there is another college, Lake Michigan College which recently banned people convicted of sex crimes against children and those listed on Michigan’s sex offender registry from attending classes on its four campuses. This also resulted in the suspension of three current students who can now only take online courses. http://detnews.com/article/20100304/SCHOOLS/3040414/Lake-Michigan-College-bans-child-sex-crime-offenders

  These stories are from three colleges in Southwestern Michigan, and all have happened within the last month. With over 1,200 community colleges in the United States, think of all the interesting activities and programs available for students. And, although Time Magazine and others have pronounced that community colleges are “deeply unsexy,” http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1909623,00.html there is still a lot going on. They may not have Joel McHale and Chevy Chase, but they have a lot to offer, not even counting giant meatballs.

  Tags: Carol Weatherford, Community, community colleges, NBC

• How to Tell if You are Doing a Good Job as an Adjunct Instructor

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  25 Mar 2010 /  employment, students
  Piss Poor Prof, also known as Burnt-Out Adjunct, describes the adjunct as being “the academic equivalent of a fry cook.” http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2009/06/15/adjunct  Then there is Dr. Burton Fletcher, who calls adjuncts “the burros of academia.” http://www.cpfa.org/burro.html. In a world where adjunct instructors have become the Rodney Dangerfield of higher education, how can you know if you’re appreciated or doing a good job? The freeway flyer needs to pay attention, because positive reinforcement can come from many sources, and often it is from your students.

  • You overhear someone. I heard a student describe a conversation with another student who took the same class with a different instructor. He evidently had commented on some of the assignments being done in this class. “He said they didn’t have to do a lot of these assignments. I told him that’s why they say this instructor’s so good.” This came at the end of a very long day which made it even nicer to hear.
  • Your student evaluations are good. For example, if my numbers are consistently as good or better than the course mean, i.e., my numbers compared to everyone else’s who teach the same class, I know I am doing well.
  • You get good “word of mouth.” Students advise their friends to sign up for your sections. I figured this out one year when it seemed I was getting a disproportionately large number of hockey players in my classes.
  • You get repeat customers. Students who begin with your remedial class sign up for sections of your subsequent classes. They say, “I was dreading this class, but I knew you would get me through it.”
  • They remember you after the fact. You might get an email one or more semesters later, asking you how you are doing or thanking you for the class.
  • Your work becomes part of the course. Some assignments you developed are put onto a drive accessible to other instructors who will teach the course. By the way, remember to add these to your personal portfolio.
  • You witness success stories. I’m thinking of a student who dreaded taking the required composition class so much, he waited to take it until the last semester before he was to graduate. That semester he was surprised to discover he liked the weekly journal writing and the essay writing; in fact, an essay of his received an honorable mention in the college’s annual essay contest.

  These small instances of success may not translate to increased income or even accolades (at least not immediately), but they can increase personal satisfaction. You are good at what you do and what you do matters. Realizing this is the beginning of receiving the respect you are due and will help you to continue to teach with the confidence you should have.

  Leave a comment and tell me of some of your “small successes.” I would welcome hearing about them.

  Tags: Burnt-Out Adjunct, Carol Weatherford, Dr. Burton Fletcher

• Identifying Student Populations: A Guide for the Non Sociologist Freeway Flyer

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  04 Feb 2010 /  students, teaching
  Working at multiple colleges and campuses provides opportunities to teach students of many different backgrounds, needs, and interests. Here are some of the student population types you may encounter:

  • The Dual Enrollment Students. These students are easy to identify because they travel in packs; in fact, you can often hear them coming before you see them. It is almost unheard of for a high school student to go anywhere alone. This population often makes a complete turnaround: by the following fall when they are officially new college students, they enter the room timidly, quietly, and alone.
  • The New College Students. These students are harder to spot than they used to be, although they may still look shiny and new. They may be the traditional recent high school graduates, high school graduates who took some time off after graduation, or high school graduates who took a lot of time off after graduation.
  • The Viet Nam Era Veterans. If your class is held in a computer lab, these students will be the only ones who do not turn on the computer the minute they sit down. The last time they typed was on an IBM Selectric. Not only will you have to show them how to use Word 2007, you will have to teach them keyboarding. They are not afraid to ask questions, though, and are excited about new accomplishments.
  • The Auditing Students. Be careful: they may know as much as you do. The best way to handle these students is to use their expertise. However, if they raise their hands at every question, say something like, “Good, let’s hear what (insert Genius’s name here) has to say, then we’ll take comments from some other students.
  • The Husband and Wife Team, or Boyfriend and Girlfriend Team. The couple that studies together, stays together (and leaves together and misses class together). After all, they are a package deal.
  • The Overbooked Students. These students are carrying 18 or more credit hours and are working one or more jobs. They may have families of their own, or even two families. Be glad this student shows up at all, and be prepared for a lot of communication by email.
  • The Pretty Princesses. There will be  pink, jeweled cell phones lying within their reach on the table in the classroom. The surprise is that even after the discussion of classroom rules on the first day, the phone will still appear on the table each class. If you ask them to put the phones away, they will look at you as though you had requested that they remove their thumbs. You may need to warn student that any phone that rings during class will be answered by you; and, then if one rings, you need to actually do it. A department chair of mine does this; obviously, she is my idol.
  • The Laptop Kings. Under the guise of taking notes in class, these students are actually trying to make big bucks in online poker. Once when I was “working the room” during a class, I casually closed a student’s laptop computer as I went by his table. I hope he didn’t have a full house. On second thought, that would make an even bigger impression, wouldn’t it?
  • The Nontraditional Students. These students often work days and come to class at night. Be careful: these students are usually tired and hungry. These students are hard workers and will appreciate it if you get right to the content with no messing around. You may hear grumbling from these students if you ask the class to work in small groups or with partners. Just the facts, please.

  These students are what define a class and make one section of a class memorable against the dozens of other sections you teach over the semesters. Enjoy the many mixes of personalities, levels of abilities, and types of students. They are all unique and make the classes unique rather than all blended together.

  Tags: Carol Weatherford, students, teaching

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