teaching is cool, right?
So it looks like I may finally have a job, but not as a librarian. I’m in talks with the fine folks at my local community college to fill in some teaching gaps. They’re reporting an enrollment increase of 35% compared to 2008-2009, that is HUGE! Most of this enrollment falls into the aged 25-50 category, mostly people who have been unemployed over the past year and a half. My county has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state (20%) due to a high proportion of timber and other blue-collar type jobs. So basically, they’re willing to hire anybody with a pulse and an unused masters degree laying around. Awesome!
I’m really excited about this opportunity, it means a few things: I can make some money, I can get some teaching experience, my life gains some purpose, no more spinning of wheels. In the library, you do bibliographic instruction, but I don’t really feel it’s the same as teaching a term-long class from start to finish. I think a few terms of doing this could really push my teaching skills to a new level and make my library teaching sessions that much more impactful.
There is a bit of hesitation on my part. While my first college experience was at a community college, I’ve become pretty far-removed from this population. Do I really have what it takes to teach disgruntled adults who could be my parents? I learned that there is some bitterness and resentment in being in school again, not to mention having to take some ‘prep’ classes before they can get to the ‘real stuff.’ I can relate to this, they have families to raise, mortgages to pay, and now they’re in school again with no guarantee that it’s going to improve their situation.
In the meantime, I’m going to have to break out my grammar textbooks and brush up on ye olde English language. It’s highly likely I’ll get at least one developmental writing class, which means teaching sentence structure, parts of speech, writing organization, formatting, all of those things that are at this point instinctive for me.
So, I’m delighted at the prospect of a job that will give me some amazing experience until a career position comes along. However, a bit anxious at diving in head first as a full-time instructor.
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