| Apr |
| 16 |
Thinking About Teaching
April 16th, 2008About a week ago when I was in Medicine Hat visiting my family I went over to an old Pronghorn teammate’s place to see how he is settling into teaching at my old high school.
He mentioned that the principal couldn’t find anyone qualified to teach the drafting/design class that they used to offer when I went there. It got me (once again) pondering the idea that perhaps I would enjoy teaching New Media at the high school level. I really enjoyed teaching the New Media Movie Making Camps a couple of years ago. I would be a very good teacher and I’d really enjoy it. I figured that since I already have B.F.A. getting the B.ED wouldn’t take THAT much more time. So, I looked into it.
What I learned irks me, but it does explain why there are so few qualified New Media people going into education. The Faculty of Education at the U of L only gives it’s B.F.A. students three choices for a combined degree:
- B.F.A. (Art)/B.Ed.
- B.F.A. (Dramatic Arts)/B.Ed.
- B.Mus./B.Ed.
Notice the conspicuous absence of B.F.A. (New Media). The U of C and U of A seem to have similar options. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t think it’s entirely absurd that they don’t offer it, after all New Media is still pretty new—however, I hope that the principals of schools within the region make it known to the ATA and local universities about the need for such a program. It would be nice to know they are at least thinking about it.
As for me, without drastically changing the world first, in order to be able to teach New Media I’ve got to go back and take at least two more semesters of “Art” before I could even start on the year and a half of classes and practicums that I would need for the B.Ed. It seems like a long haul with a giant debt attached to it.
I haven’t yet decided if it’s completely out of the question.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Don’t get me started on how much their credit transfer programme sucks for multimedia production students from LCC.
April 17th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Do it Jeff!
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Hey Jeff,
Just stumbled upon the blog…your comment on teaching New Media — yeah, I’ve tried the same thing; met with advisers, appealed to the Dean of Ed, etc. but to no avail. The high school here in Cardston has asked me to allow work experience kids learn from me; and I get questions from the New Media teachers at the High School pretty regularly. It’s lame that they want us to go back and take “art” courses — I majored in Art before new Media, and I’m now dumber for having done it at all…although Greg Styles, who now teaches in the New Media dept. taught a drawing class I took that was excellent. But to take “art” classes in order to get a job teaching New Media doesn’t make much sense to me either.
Well, enough venting. Hope all is well.
Cheers,
Mike
April 26th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Jeff,
Slow down here…you are almost cursing yourself when you call on the demons of the teaching underworld. Think about all of the teachers that you know or who have taught at one point before going insane and changing professions. Then go one by one and try to see which ones ever told you that they loved their job. Ok, remember that a teacher has a job. They get curriculumn shoved down tehir neck, work long hours, and get underpaid, and usually disrespected by kids. Do not worry about if they like teaching people things…I mean we all do right but this “teacher” is a job with many strings attached. This may give you some perspective. Really, the idea of teaching and sharing ideas is fine but the classromm management and behavoir issues can dampen it. Now, I am not a teacher of course. However, I honestly look back at least once a week and think how grateful I am that I decided against it after one year in University. If you truly believe taht you will love it then go for it. But if you do be passionate and make yourself a great teacher.
Steve