Most liked posts in thread: Career - Right Turn

I think it is great News.!!

I have some friends that are skilled tradesmen and I think it is sad that we are losing out on that ability with the "follow the flowchart" mentality of repair.

Teach them how to use that tool between their ears.

 

Hey "Professor Minidave", good luck!

I've been a professional instructor a good many years, even when my title had things like "Supply Chain Director" or "Lead Consultant" or Project Manager" in it. If you can bear a few words of advice...

- Organization is key, especially when instructing in a lab-type environment
- You can almost never spend enough time prioritizing the basics of keeping "things" clean, organized, and especially SAFE. Your first class should focus on that - I've even used that as a kind of a topic when teaching people about Inventory Management! And by "things", that includes not only personal protective equipment and safe practices, but includes things like mindsets, and priorities (What are we doing here? What's our ultimate goal? In an auto repair business, that's for every employee to be uninjured at the end of the day, and for every car (and OWNER) that enters the building to leave in better shape than they were when they came in.)
- I've had professors who took the first 5 minutes of class to play an obscure pieve of music, and discuss its history and composer, before teaching, say, Physics. What does one have to do with the other? WEll, yeah, you can draw some obscure connections, but the fact was that those 5 minutes allowed the Class to get our heads out of the commute, our relationships, and everything else that was going on and focus on the class, AND it formed a bond of interest between us and the prof, made him "human" without having to get all personal.
- Breaking things (and practices/procedures) down to their component parts works GREAT. Start with a high level overview of everything, then break each task down to subtasks.
- You will spend 2-3x your "class time" on preparation. If you do this, your class time will be more productive, and your follow-up and administrative time will be far more effective, and shorter.
- "Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, then tell 'em, then tell 'em what you told 'em". There's your lesson plan for EVERY class. Now just fill in the topic.
- Always keep in mind where their heads are, and map a path to get them from where they are to where you need them to be. View your world from their perspective...

...and importantly, it doesn't mean CRAP if your students like you or don't like you. Spend exactly zero effort trying to be "liked". It does, however, mean EVERYTHING that your students RESPECT you. I'm not saying to be mean, or cruel, but to provide the best education they can get, as best you can, and as kindly as possible. Be a great human, but recognize that it's a TON easier to be firm and then get lenient, than it is to start lenient and get out of control.

You sound like you've got it going on and didn't need any of that, but believe me if someone had taken me aside and told me a few of those things beforehand, I'd have had an easier time on the way up!

Do let us know how it goes!

 

Congrats Dave and good luck with it...

 

It is nice that the shop has good equipment. You & your students should learn a lot. Happy things are working well for you.

 

:cornut: Me too Minidave! I've been a Physician Assistant for 31yrs world wide in multiple specialties. The clinic that I was at closed and at 60yo(next month) physicians only want to hire a PA that can stay for 20yrs. Going back to my PA school to teach is not possible as PA schools now graduate their students with a masters degree(I only have an AA and BS) and that school is in downtown Dallas(yuk). Sooooooooooooo............... Texas has a law called the Hazelwood Act which pays tuition and fees(150 semester hours) at UT system schools for Veterans whose benefits have run out. I have applied to UNT(University of North Texas in small town Denton,Tx) Toulouse Graduate School for an MS in Biology such that I may teach at a Junior College in Rural/Suburban Texas. When I was in Army SF, I taught many many students who couldn't speak English so this shouldn't be too hard. I'll be able to teach Anatomy&Physiology, Microbiology, Biology, and Marine Biology(Good Lord willing and the creeks don't rise). I've been accepted by UNT and preliminarily accepted by Toulouse Grad School but the Dean has to sign off first and then I'm FINALLY fully accepted. On the application they wanted to know what I could do for the UNT community(yep, blatant huh?). So I said that since UNT has a Health Science Center School which trains Physicians and Physician Assistants; I would be very qualified to determine which of my students should be referred on to UNT Health Science Center and who would not make a good candidate( I almost wrote: well if you don't want me in your Masters Program then I'll refer all the students to UT Southwestern Med Center where I went to PA School but fortunately cooler heads[my wife] prevailed and I left this part out)...........................

Well 2 old duffers get another crack at life. My prayers are with you Minidave and Good Luck!

Jason

 

:cornut: Passed my first test in human neural cell differentiation. Next week is first test in Oceanography/Vertebrate Marine Biology. All okay so far. I am the oldest person in all of my classes including the professors, it's great.

Jason