After wrestling for a long time with what I want to do, I discovered a goal I didn’t know I had.
I want to teach.
Actually, it’s something Hubby has been suggesting for some time now, but it’s taken a long time for me to realize (1) that I’d be good at it and (2) that I’d enjoy it.
I guess it all started when I was training sign designers at work. I could tell that they all understood my explanations quickly, and a couple of them thanked me for clearing up the “why”s and not just the “how”s. And now that I reflect on it, I really enjoyed those days. Especially when they came up with brilliant new designs or performed complex signmaking procedures with precision and ease.
I’d like to teach graphic design classes, especially illustration and prepress. I would really enjoy teaching online because that would let me teach anytime, anywhere I wanted to. As an artist, that really appeals because I find my energy and enthusiasm come and go in spurts. As an online teacher, that would mean that if I felt inspired to post the week’s discussion questions at 11:30 p.m. on a Tuesday, I could.
But since teaching online requires a masters degree, I tried to enroll in the M.A. program at the Savannah College of Art & Design. The first indication that I shouldn’t attend their online program was when I drove 80 miles to an informational day.
The professor who tried to give me a portfolio critique, who looked more like a sloppy student than a teacher due to his wrinkled shirt and unkempt hair, couldn’t read my mini-CD (thanks to Apple’s brilliant slot-loading CD drive, which I despise). “No problem,” I said; “I put it online last night just in case.”
The professor then proceeded to tell me, with a straight face, that the Austin Marriott Airport Hotel did not provide internet service.
Faced with such a blatant, obvious lie, I decided that I did not need to funnel tens of thousands of dollars into an education online… to support a college whose representative would lie to me about a basic thing like a hotel’s internet service.
I stormed home without sitting through their presentation.
(I gave him the benefit of the doubt by calling the hotel. Maybe they were installing new wiring and access was temporarily down. But when asked, “Do you have free wireless internet?” the receptionist sneered, “Of course we do!” at me. He couldn’t hide a snotty laugh before I hung up.)
However, since there are very few masters degrees in graphic design available online, I decided to give Savannah another shot almost a year later. This time, they proceeded to toy with me over application deadlines. I asked them to switch my file to fall instead of spring, at which point my admissions counselor informed me that the fall deadline was indeed that very day. She had not even bothered to tell me that the spring deadline was long past.
And so, after a few fitful days of consideration, I asked to be considered for the winter term instead.
Then they lost my entire file. Transcripts, letters of recommendation I’d worked very hard to collect, everything apparently except my name and email address.
Suddenly, though, a week and a half later, the counselor found my file. She said there was still time to be admitted to fall classes. Wait a minute. That deadline passed ages ago. Figuring I had little to lose, I applied and considered it Savannah’s last chance.
And of course I was turned down because they didn’t have enough spots open by then.
So for now I’ve put off the pursuit of a masters degree. I can teach without one. Right now I’m waiting to hear back from a community college about a web design adjunct position. I think I have a pretty good chance, if I can give a good teaching demonstration.
Which is why that book you saw in the Girl’s-Eye View pictures was called “What the Best College Teachers Do.”
Posted in: The Girl's Life by thegirl
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