THE MIDDLEWESTERNER IS TEACHING ADVANCED COMP AT LAKELAND COLLEGE FOR THE SPRING SEMESTER 2006

I don't have the contract in hand yet,

but I can't wait any longer to tell you. I have been asked to teach Advanced Composition at Lakeland College for the spring semester, 2006. You may remember that, early this month, I was moping about how I missed teaching. Well, I had barely put that post up when I received the call asking if I'd be interested in the Advanced Comp assignment. Seems that Karl Elder, who would otherwise teach the course, will be on sabbatical in the spring; yet there are four students, at least, who require Advanced Composition in order to graduate in May. The class roster, at last count, is up to six.

When I taught Writing Creative Nonfiction in the fall semester of 2004 at Lakeland, I met my class for 50 minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The drive over to Lakeland took an hour and fifteen minutes, I taught for 50 minutes, and then I drove the hour and fifteen minutes back home. This time I will meet students once a week for three periods in a row, which saves me five hours of driving time each week.

I spent much of yesterday starting my class preparation, and I'll continue working on my lesson plans this week and next. The thought of needing to fill a three-period session once a week for 15 weeks strikes fear into my heart: I calm myself by making damn sure I know what I'll be covering in each session.

With the Creative Nonfiction course, though certainly I was paid well enough, I remember calculating that the re-imbursement amounted to about fifteen cents for each hour worked; I expect the same will be true with Advanced Comp. (I swear I don't know how full-time staff find enough hours in the day to teach their several classes. My admiration for those who teach full-time went up immeasurably during my stint with Creative Nonfiction.)  As Mary reminds me, "You know you're not doing it for the money, Tom."

No, I'm not doing it for the money. I'm doing it for the joy of being able to share what I know. I'm doing it for the  dual rewards of being able to learn at least as much as my students learn and being able to soak up the bright enthusiasm and excitement of Lakeland's advanced writing students.

Here we go!

Comments

[qB]

Hurrah!

[maria]

Oh yay! Good news -- not to mention lucky students who'll be taking that class!

[Tom Montag]

Thanks, qB and Maria. After I put up this post yesterday, I got news that the class now has seven students.

The astounding thing for me in all this is that I went for some 58 years without realizing how much I would enjoy teaching. What an opportunity!

[Dave]

Yeah, that was my reaction too: those are some lucky students. (Well, I guess their teacher is lucky, too, but somehow I imagine that his spouse reminds him of that on a semi-regular basis.)

[Tom Montag]

Oh, yeah, Dave, she does remind me somewhat regularly how fortunate I am. Most of the time I remember it myself, but sometimes she has to remind me.

The amazing thing about teaching? How much more I understood by the time I was finished with the course, and I was in the front of the classroom.