Shaping young lives.

I'm a "teacha" now! How very odd to be on this side of the classroom dynamic.

A little about how I got here...
For a few years now, I've been thinking about teaching, and when we moved to Columbus, an opportunity arose. I was convinced that I needed my Masters, but apparently that's not the case for every school... especially schools that are desperate for adjunct instructors. So, I've picked up a class each quarter, not because I need the money, but because I want to feel like I'm making some sort of impact.

So what do I teach?
Well, this is my third quarter, and each time I've been given a brand new (to me) class. All classes are part of a Digital Media Design Associate degree program. My first quarter, I taught Fundamentals of Drawing. Man, I had to go back to the drawing board (bahaha.. sorry, awful, awful pun) to remember my 4 semesters of drawing class & figure out what the heck I was supposed to be teaching them. Last quarter I taught Design Fundamentals, which is much more comfortable for me. This quarter, I'm teaching Typography.

I feel like I'm learning just as much as I'm teaching.
Education is a funny thing. Having no training on how to teach, I'm sort of... wingin' it. As I go, I'm learning what works and what doesn't, what sticks and what doesn't. It boggles my mind how I can say something like "There is some visual tension here," which turns into everything having some sort of tension, somewhere. Or I can say "Papyrus is not your friend," and the next 4 projects I get from that person use Papyrus. Why? I have no idea.

My theory on students and authority figures.
It seems the first couple weeks of each quarter are slightly painful. Some students fight me on every direction... "This isn't my process." "I don't think like that." Basically... "I wanna do it my way, not yours." To which I say, "Too bad."... with some further explanation, of course. My theory is that for many students, teacher/authority figure = the enemy, until proven otherwise. Until they figure out that I do what I do in their best interest, they pretty much think I'm full of shit. Until something clicks (in other words, they learn something), they believe I'm just there to torture them. What is this about?! Do I really have to say, on the first day of class, that I am here because I want to be, because I want to help them succeed, because I want to share my knowledge and experience? Maybe I should. I haven't figured this out yet.

The rewards.
When my drawing student tells their classmate, "Wow, you have improved SO much! I can't believe it!" When a student tells me, "Your class makes me feel like I can talk confidently in front of a client." Or, "Looking back at our first project, I can see I've come such a long way in just one quarter." Great stuff. Makes my heart happy. Many of my students are older and looking to change careers, better their lives. If I can help them feel confident in their abilities and like they can tackle this job, that's what I want to do. It transforms this career in design, that sometimes feels so trivial, into something that I can actually use to help people improve their situation, hopefully by doing something they love. Pretty fantastic.