This 2018-2019 academic year I celebrate my 25th year of teaching in higher education.
Here’s an overview of what that looks like:
- Years as a sessional instructor: 22
- Years as a full-time faculty member: 2 completed. Entering Year 3
- Number of educational institutions: 2 institutions for credit courses; 4 institutions for non-credit courses
- Number of additional organizations where I have given workshops or individual training sessions: I can’t remember or count
- Levels taught: Undergraduate, graduate, continuing education, non-credit workshops, teacher training, employee training
- Number of students taught: A few thousand, at least, but I haven’t kept track.
- Current position: Assistant Professor (tenure-track)
Like many academics, my career has zig-zagged. My first teaching experience was as a Master’s level graduate teaching assistant. I was a brand-new graduate student. I was given a class list and a textbook and told, “Here. Go teach.”
Even though my official title was “Graduate Teaching Assistant” (“TA” for short), I was also what is called the “Instructor of Record”. That means that I was officially responsible for the entire course, including developing the course outline, all instruction, tests, examinations and grading.
