Teaching: Make a Difference Lives

The Skills Lab was relatively quiet today a few days before the Labor Day weekend, so I had the chance to review student folders and my attendance book from the past year. As I looked at the names of students who signed up with me a year ago, when I first began work at the Shawano and Oconto Falls Regional Learning Centers, I was struck by the fact that many of the students I worked with have moved out of the lab. They have either received their GED certificate or achieved academic skills benchmarks that have led to a college program. Unlike other teachers, I am successful when I no longer see my students.

I have worked in a lot of careers and thought that I made a difference in each one.

When I worked for a weekly Catholic newspaper, my words and photos were seen by about 25,000 readers. I thought that was important. When I worked in a college marketing department, my promotions were placed in the hands of thousands of recruits, students, faculty and staff members. I thought that was important. When I worked in hospitality, I routinely hosted over 1500 guests each year. I thought that was important. When I worked in landscape design, I created and installed hundreds of creative functional landscapes. I thought these were all important.

But none of these were as important as teaching.

When you are a teacher, you not only work with students, but with their families, their friends, their coworkers and the community. The dreams that you see come to life, change lives in ways more honestly and more completely than any other career I have had the privilege to work in. I have a front row seat as students realize, often to their surprise, that they are able to succeed in a college classroom. Empowerment is a cliche, but describes the central impact of the Basic Skills Lab.

Community advocates promote Make a Difference Days. Teachers live Make a Difference Lives.

Welcome to College and Life

Today was one of a series of "Welcome Days" scheduled at the school. New students find a parking spot nearest the door, receive a printout of their schedule, get the latest information about financial aid and student services, and are given quick tour of the maze we call the college.

I volunteered to be one of two Welcomers in the General Studies section of the school. Students came up the hallway alone, in groups, with a tour guide dressed in a nifty blue NWTC shirt, or with their mom and rest of the family. My job was to welcome them (thus the name), locate the General Studies courses on their schedule, and show them the classrooms they will populate beginning next Thursday, Aug. 16, the first day of our fall term.

Most of our General Studies classrooms are straightforward: largely square in shape, functional beige, tables and chairs facing a SmartClassroom consul in the front of the room framed by whiteboards on either side. When the subject is writing, math, psychology, sociology, or ethics and diversity, we don't need a lot of extra equipment. Some of the classrooms are computer labs primed with software ready for the writing, math, and other courses. Our science classrooms are more impressive because they have more toys. Chemistry, physics, and microbiology labs look like a well-endowed high school science lab without the hand-painted homecoming posters hanging from poster tape.

The students say they are coming to see a classroom, but I doubt that is real reason. Most of them have seen plenty of classrooms and ours, while bright and shiny, are really no different than tens of others. The real reason they come is to quell their doubts about enrolling in a college in general and at NWTC in particular. One week before school starts, they are understandably nervous by this bold step. So my job today was not only to show them classrooms, but to assure them they made the right choice by in investing in their future. My job was to welcome them to the rest of their life.

Moving quickly from A to A

I didn't realize that my last blog was at the end of April of the last school year. What could I have been doing in May? Grading, prepping, correcting tests, crawling out from under my desk?

But now it's the other "A" month, August, and scheduled preparation for the 2012-13 school year begins. Actually unscheduled preparation has been ongoing since the 2011-2012 school year officially ended at the college on June 30. Summer is time for preparation, clearing and cleaning out files, writing new curriculum, and getting reacquainted with significant family members. I did work at the Shawano Regional Learning Center of the college during the summer and was introduced to WIDS (Worldwide Instructional Design System) when I wrote two Basic Education supplemental courses for our Organic Agriculture program. I also had a chance to schedule vacation time and home improvement projects.

But now it's back to work, doing what I love to do. Today has been the midday of a three-day IPA (Instructor Preparation Academy) course on Course Construction -- WIDS upon WIDS. My project has been converting a successful pilot program into competencies, objectives and assessments, so that it can be taught by other instructors. That's not as easy as it might sound. What content seems obvious to one teacher and teaching style, can be difficult to reconstruct for others. Teaching is as much a performing art as a quantifiably planned presentation.

After the IPA sessions, the school has scheduled Welcome Sessions for students at the end of this week. Monday I reconnect with the good people in Oconto Falls. The All-School In-Service is Tuesday, departmental in-services on Wednesday, and classes begin on Thursday, Aug. 16. Bang, we are back in business once again. Life moves quickly from April to August, but that is the way I like it.