Teacher
So, the job hunt has been going pretty horribly since I lost my job ages back – I’ve had three interviews with accounting firms (after applying to around 40 firms) and I got turned down by two and never heard back from one. So being that that approach seems to be going nowhere, when I caught a local newspaper ad for a part-time accounting instructor at a technical college I figured it was worth a shot.
So, I had the “interview” for the teaching job today, which I put in quotations because it was really less an interview and more of a celebration of the fact that I was willing to teach the class. It was definitely quite a turnaround from the interviews I did with the accounting firms – it felt pretty awesome to actually know that I was wanted for the job and appreciated instead of feeling like I was begging for work. It’s pretty hard to find willing accounting instructors since it’s just a part-time job and it’s especially hard this time of year since it’s busy season for accountants. Anyway, the interviewer/boss told me that she was sure that she could get me one course (Office Accounting) and that she may be able to get me approved for another (Accounting Spreadsheet Fundamentals). I’m hoping to get both, but there’s some question of my ability to teach a class on spreadsheets since I don’t have any real credentials for that. I’m sure I could manage it, though I’d probably have to teach a lot of the stuff to myself before I taught it to the class.
The pay actually isn’t that bad ($18 per hour taught plus 20% preparation time), but because I’ll only be teaching two classes at the most it doesn’t add up to a lot. Since it’s local I’d still be living at home, which does make up for some of the monetary difference. And at least I’ll have some income and I also won’t have near the amount stress of my old job, nor the long hours of work. And if I actually like the teaching then it might be worthwhile to consider pursuing doing more of it. At the very least I won’t have a boss breathing down my neck and that in itself is a wonderful thing.
On another note, both of the classes I might teach are in a computer lab with internet access, which means that my students are going to be writing on facebook walls the entire time as opposed to actually listening to me attempt to lecture. Any advice on how to handle that?
give them lots of tests and make them super hard. call on kids. see if you can get facebook blocked?
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randomly walk behind their computers. *shurgs* I dont know. At least you got something though!
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Tell them up front…if you get through your planned lecture with their attention, they can spend the rest of the time on facebook/myspace.
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I thought seriously about teaching for a long time. Good luck and I hope you get it! It’ll be interesting to hear stories of all of your students because you’ll surely have some weird ones. 🙂
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Congratulations on the job!You should ask someone else who teaches a class in the lab what he or she does to keep the students on task.Also, ask questions and walk around throughout the class, even when lecturing.Or you could have in class assignments they do for half the class or whatever that is graded so they have to pay attention to the first half of class to be able to apply it to the work.
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ryn: well, I don’t know if beatrice really counts. The job sounds good! Though I still harbour all these fantasies about you having some place of your own in a proper city and seeing what happens.
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One thing my college teachers always did was to give participation points. If you answer or ask questions during/about the lecture then you get your participation points for the day. It might inspire some students to pay attention. If they’re typing and mousing during the lecture then you’ll know that they’re doing something thay’re not supposed to do and can embarrass them. love, Lidia
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Teach from the back of the room. They won’t be on FB if you can see their screens. One of my journalism profs completely humiliated the girl next to me who was texting a girl on the other side of the computer lab during his lecture. After screaming at her in front of everyone for being disrespectful, he confiscated her phone for the rest of the class. Embarrassment seems to work well.
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In Highschool we had those sites blocked so we couldn’t get on them if we wanted to. But this isn’t highschool so I don’t know if they do that. Be creative! 🙂
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i suggest you treat them with trust and dignity, and have high expectations of them. after all, they are paying the school money in order to learn something. make it as interesting as possible. smile. try not to lecture too much. we rarely remember what others tell us but will often remember tasks we have to do. keep them busy with interesting assignments. that is all.
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Seriously, I’ve given a degree of thought to this, and one possibility is to divide the time between “listen time” and “do your work time”, if you’re willing to let them facebook when they’re supposed to be working.
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Matt, First, congratulations on your job! I am excited for you! Two, don’t get highly anxietal about teaching. I am going to forewarn you, as you know, you’ve been an undergraduate and so have I. From an experienced college instructor to a new one, DON’T TRUST ANY OF YOUR STUDENTS! Make sure that you are ALWAYS on top of the game! Some of these students are highly manipulativeand will try to do anything that they can to get what you want. If you haven’t read my entries on the two students who tried to get my fired because I am first YEAR teaching mistakes that all TEACHERS make in the teaching profession, YOU NEED TO READ THEM! If you want me to give additional information, please or please let me know! I will write the detail entry for you, My Friend! Next thing, make sure that you get grades, assignments, and everything FAST. These students are a new kind of breed. As I have said, keep on top of your game so they will not have any mistakes–INNOCENT or not on you! Other than that, appreciate the few who are extremely great students and have your reseverations on the ones who don’t give a rat’s ass! ~Sophia
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