Gear Up!

After six months of looking for another possible adjunct teaching job, I am happy to announce that I will be teaching for Hudson Link and SUNY Ulster.

The course that I will be leading is CSC 101, which is the Basics of Computers along with Microsoft Office. I am super excited to use their brand new computer lab with their students. Because of no internet, I will be challenged to use old school learning method of paper handouts.

Pray for me, as I ’Gear Up!’ by completing the required application forms, preparing class syllabuses, and developing lesson plans. Besides this new job, I will be teaching three more CISC 120 Introduction to Computers and Application Software classes at Mercy College.

Most of all, I ’Thank God’ for the provision of work and the necessary skills He has given me to teach others. I really do enjoy guiding students to learn technology. Education is my way of giving back what was graciously given to me by others.

”To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” -Anatole France

Let the new semester begin…

Where do I go from here?

Yes, I survived my first semester of teaching. I enjoyed it so much I will be teaching again in the Spring. My students taught me many things, but the biggest things were how to be a better teacher and to always be prepared ahead of time.

I tried several different types of interactive learning activities, such as 1-minute essay for an icebreaker to a 10-minute essay to see what the students learned from the content covered. Two others that I used for student engagement were Think/Write/Pair/Share to discuss technology topics and small group exercises to develop their critical thinking skills together.

Things I would change for next semester:

• Teach MS-Word, next MS-Publisher, and then MS-Excel to work in coordination with exam timing.

• Incorporate a required assignment for an outline and 3 scholarly sources for their term research project.

• Update my lesson plan to fit the semester calendar.

I am very thankful for Mercy College with helping me get my adjunct teaching career started. The teacher training and classroom experience I gained is amazing, just like the faculty, staff, and students there. Because of this opportunity, I discovered that I especially like Education Instructional Design, so I am considering a possible Ph.D. in it one day.

Finalitis

Next week is the last week of the Fall semester, which means only means one thing Final Exams. Many students struggle with test taking, budgeting time to study and finishing up any missed assignments. Otherwise, known as Finalitis.

It can actually cause high anxiety for some in class, even the teacher. Professors are faced with ensuring all of the material has been covered in class so that students will be well prepared for the big exam.

As a Professor, I offer students a chance to do extra credit during the semester should they want to challenge themselves for a better grade.

Some colleges bring in therapy dogs to help college students relax. I saw a couple of adorable dogs and cute puppies being very spoiled by students, as they were visiting the campus this week.

Besides cramming for exams at the last minute, here are some ways to prepare for finals week.

Ask the teacher if a test is going to be open book or if there is a certain content to focus on a week or two before the actual test.

Seek out a study buddy to pair up with to compare notes and test each other, as this can help with memorization of course material.

Knock it out of the park, knowing that you have the courage and confidence that you did your best during the entire semester.

Teaching Philosophy

This semester I attended an adjunct teacher seminar at Mercy College’s Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning.

We covered several ways to create interactive learning activities to engage students in the class. Our Professor shared how to use Instructional Design, as a way by doing backward lesson planning to ensure the outcome of content is complete. We were asked to create an e-portfolio, which included our teaching philosophy.

Let’s define what a teaching philosophy is:

A teaching philosophy is an explanation of your values and beliefs as they relate to teaching. Your philosophy is often a combination of methods you studied in college or graduate school and lessons learned during any professional experience since then (Source: TheBalancedCareer.com).

Tips to use when creating your teaching philosophy.

My Teaching Philosophy motto is to teach students to embrace technology, not to fear it.

Overall, this semester my students taught me how to be a better teacher. Here is a bit of teacher humor…

Operating Systems

In week 5, the class is studying different operating systems that are required for a computer to work, such as MS-Windows, Linux, or Mac OS 10.

They’re also being taught about how to protect a computer using various utility programs like antivirus software, as well as, how to use Microsoft Windows’s built-in features that are used to maintain a computer’s hard drive to run properly.

The links below include videos to learn more about different kinds of operating systems and how to run disk cleanup and disk defrag features.

Operating Systems Video

Computer Maintenance Video