This month marks my 20th consecutive year of teaching design courses at the college level. I only started to reflect on my academic journey a few days ago, with the completion of our college’s Spring semester.
I fell into teaching backwards. It was never my goal. I started my career as an electrical engineer, working in the field of chip design. And even that was never my true ambition.
From a young age, my biggest dream was to be an artist. My second love was computers. On paper, these two items seemed worlds apart. But over the years, technology and art have become very much intertwined. For me, digital media represents a perfect combination of technology and design; I get to play with computers and make art.
Learning new things is fun, sharing what I’ve learned with others brings about true satisfaction. While I never took any formal courses in teaching, I had a good idea of how I wanted to position myself as an educator.
Here are a few tenets that have served me well:
1) Be organized. Have a structure to each class. For each meeting, I have a clear, written agenda that I follow. Lesson plans are created in advance. Organization and competency go hand in hand.
2) Be timely. Arrive and set up before class starts. I’m usually in the classroom at least 30 minutes before class starts. I check the classroom tech, have handouts at the ready and greet each student as they arrive. In my view, there’s nothing worse than entering a class full of waiting students.
3) Be impartial. This one’s tough, but I make it a point to let students know that I can’t bend the rules for them. Life happens, and I do have to make exceptions, but I insist on having the students provide me with written documentation should there be any mitigating issues that come up.
4) Be available. I keep office hours on campus but I’m also available to my students via e-mail. Students often write with questions, and I make it a point to be timely with my responses. I also have set boundaries, when I don’t check my email. This gives me a healthy balance between work and home life.
5) Be flexible. The best laid plans sometimes go out the window, whether it’s a classroom technology issue, a problem during a demo, or school closure during a hurricane event. I’ve learned the importance of how to pivot and adjust.
6) Be authentic. I’m human. I make mistakes. Sometimes I’ll get tripped up during a demo. It’s OK. Nobody’s perfect. I think it’s important for students to know that their teachers can make mistakes. But what’s even more important is how the teacher can carefully think through the issue and get back on track.
These are just a few of the things I’ve learned in my 20 years of teaching. It’s been a struggle at times, but also been immensely satisfying. I’m glad I fell into teaching.
-Krishna