I Love Teaching

I am writing this at 10 p.m. and feel exhausted. Just taught a three-hour off-campus graduate class for Aurora University and District U-46 as an adjunct instructor. Ninety percent of my graduate students, all K-12 teachers, in this class had me in other courses before. One benefit of having returning students is that they know what to expect from one of my courses:
--- investigation of the research dealing with the theoretical focus of the course (in this particular course investigating WebQuests);
--- discussions of the participants professional concerns and needs and the use of technology to assist in addressing them;
--- creating teaching units or lessons for their classrooms incorporating the foundations / theories learned in the graduate class.

Another benefit is that they understand how to use the blog we use to facilitate communicating reflections and concerns.

Using an off-campus site is always not without its challenges. I’ve taught in this school and computer lab before. I had emailed the school’s support tech with a list of applications I would be using and web sites to be accessed (filter and network concerns) and even addressed logging-in issues. I knew this room did not have a projector and brought mine. And there was the housekeeping duties associated with adjunct teaching such as registration and assorted paperwork.

Still, as teachers know, things just don’t always go as planned, especially when using technology. The door was locked and we had to track down someone with a key. Some graduate students couldn’t log in to their home school servers (I prefer my graduate students to have access to their work at their home school where they will be using the products developed in this course) for a variety of reasons, but they did get access eventually with a phone call to the district’s Help Desk (a resource dedicated to provide immediate assistance in solving network tech problems). Some students couldn’t log onto our blog and those issues had to be addressed. Half way through class we even received a message over the network informing us that our computers would power down in five minutes. My students told that this was a new energy-saving program the district had built into the network and that I shouldn’t be concerned as long as we kept using the keyboard and moving the mouse.

As a matter of fact, distractions like these are to be expected by teachers. I realize that some people want everything neatly flowing on course, but teachers understand this rarely happens because we are dealing with people and with devices. So we learn to take diversions in stride while continuing to focus on the important stuff and, in the end, the class went well.

Through it all, I was exhilarated, perhaps from the rush of adrenalin that comes from teaching. I draw energy from the interaction / interplay / relationship with people, goals and process that is teaching. One of the greatest feelings in the world is when you help someone “get it”. Because I had not taught since last summer, I realized that I missed the act of teaching. Working as consultant is wonderful, and I get a great deal of satisfaction from it. Yet, in the end, I love teaching.