July 16, 2024 • 20 mins
Meet poet and professor, bridgette bianca. In this episode, bridgette shares how a chance encounter with E. Ethelbert Miller led to a deeper reflection on her future, leading her to get an MFA instead of pursuing a doctorate in English. For bridgette, landing a tenure track position at a community college opened her up to be able to draft her debut collection, be/trouble. If the educational path calls to you, listen for bridgette's essential questions to ask yourself if you’ve gone (or are thinking about going) the MFA route and what to do if you want to teach.
Visit thepoetrylab.com to find the Show Notes for this episode. The Poetry Lab Podcast is produced by Lori Walker and Danielle Mitchell. Hosted by Danielle Mitchell, Lori Walker, and bridgette bianca.
Theme song: "Simply Upbeat" by Christian Telford, Kenneth Edward Belcher, and Saki Furuya.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
(00:00):
hey everybody i'm bridget bianca and i'm a
poety professor from south central los
angeles and you know what i have always
introduced myself the same way always poet
first and then professor which is
technically the order of things but
you know i became a poet in middle school
like most people and the professor thing
(00:20):
didn't happen until way later but thanks to
the influence of my grandmother who taught
for 30 years
i have always known that i was destined to
be a teacher so today i'll switch things up
in her honor
hi i'm bridget bianca and i'm a 10 year
professor and a poet from south central los
(00:41):
angeles
okay
feels better
this fall marks the beginning of my 15th
year in the profession and
i find myself doing a lot of reflecting but
before we get into my advice to you on this
episode about life after the mfa especially
if you plan on being a professor let me
(01:02):
share a bit of my story
welcome to the poetry lab podcast
the poetry lab started 11 years ago to help
dedicated self taught and formally trained
writers find a place in their community to
(01:22):
write read
learn
and collaborate
we help writers tap into their craft with
radical self compassion unlike anything
you've ever seen in a creative writing
classroom before if you're a creative
person trying to establish a writing
practice in the real world
this podcast is designed to help you carve
(01:44):
out the time
the courage and the inspiration to keep
writing your new shit
are you ready poet
let's get into it
a very prestigious historically black
(02:04):
college for undergrad the illustrious
howard university the mecca the hilltop the real
hu and yes
that's the full name you have to say the
full thing just like a tribe called quest
or a pimp name slip back
but anyway during my time at howard i felt
the field in so many ways but i also met my
(02:26):
first taste of
inadequacy namely when people would ask me
what the heck i plan to do with a degree in
english which i always found so puzzling
when the legacy of howard was bursting with
alumni like zora nil hurston and toni
morrison and mary baraka surely an english
major like me was destined for greatness i
(02:48):
mean i said so in my personal statement
when i applied to the school
oh to have the confidence of a 17 year old
bb but there at the mecca of black
excellence i was surrounded by the future
captains of industry doctors lawyers ceos
and future presidents most of the other
english majors had their site set on law school
(03:09):
my dreams of being a professor at a
community college felt small
so i kind of kept it to myself senior year
i found myself elbow deep in applications
to assorted doctoral programs with hopes of
coming out on the other side of the
requisite
five to seven years with a degree that
would allow me to be a professor
(03:30):
and then i stumbled upon e ethelbert miller
a famed poet and self proclaimed literary actor
well actually he kind of stumbled upon me
you see i was sitting on the floor of the
historical founders library texting while
waiting for a professor legs outstretched i
almost tripped mr miller as he came down
(03:51):
the hallway i apologize and he asked me if
i want to have a seat in a chair
inside of the office he was on his way to open up
apologetic i gathered my things and rushed
in sight of what i now know was a cultural
center at howard
i'd never been in there despite wandering
all over campus for years and i didn't know
who the man was either at the time but the
(04:13):
room and the man showed up when i needed them
he sat with me for a bit and we chatted i
asked him all kinds of questions about the
center and he asked me about my major and
then he asked me my plans for the future
you know the usual stuff and as usual i
delivered my usual answer i don't know
teach with a little shrug
(04:33):
but unlike most people i encountered he
asked follow up questions he asked me if i
was a writer and i said yes a poet again
dear listener i didn't know i was speaking
to a poet that i'd read and studied on that
very campus which is good because i would
have fangirled and missed what came next
after telling him i was applying to
(04:54):
doctoral program so i could be a professor
he asked me why i didn't go for an mfa in
creative writing
it was a terminal degree he explained and i
could teach with it particularly at
community colleges i had never heard of an
mfa in creative writing before in my life
it never even crossed my mind as an option
(05:15):
it was like the sun breaking through the
clouds by the end of the day i was back in
my dorm shoving those doctoral applications
into a drawer and on the phone telling my
mama i'd be home for a gap year while i
prepared for the mfa
what's an mfa they asked me i don't know but
i'm gonna figure it out
(05:36):
so i became a college level instructor at
23 years old while still in my mfa program
at a private art school
by 30 i was the youngest tenure track
professor in the english department at a
local community college which believe it or
not was my dream really i'd taken community
college classes here and there while in
high school and undergrad and i knew that
ccs were where i could stand in the equity
(05:58):
gap that threatened to gobble up the dreams
of so many kids that look like me and i am
so proud of the work i get to do there the
pay and the health insurance aren't too bad either
for what it's worth i mentioned being a
poet when i interviewed to get this job the
disinterest was thick enough to scoop the spoon
unlike major universities i didn't need to
(06:19):
publish anything academic or otherwise to
beef up a tenured portfolio i just needed
to teach and teach well
remain involved in department affairs and
maintain an active presence on campus
to my students i was just professor b one
of the few black professors in the
department the one with the cool blue hair
or pink or purple depending on the season
(06:39):
being a poet didn't seem to matter much in
my ivory tower
but it mattered to me by the end of my
first school year as a full time professor
i had a manuscript of my own to shop around
this was big dear listener
huge i spent the early years of my career
laser focused on becoming the best
professor so i could land an elusive full
(07:01):
time position and say bye bye to freeway
flying between three colleges
this determination plus a healthy bit of
mfa workshop trauma which i'll say for
maybe a different episode meant that i
hadn't really written anything in years so
it was no surprise that word started
tumbling out of me the moment i was free to
think and focus on just
(07:21):
one job
that manuscript became my first collection
of poetry b trouble which is now on its
second edition released the same year
coincidentally that i received tenure
shift from me and shift to you ah no no you
let's talk about you don't click away from
me now it's your turn in the hot seat dear
(07:43):
listener
let's talk about your dreams especially if
you have gone or planned to go the mfa route
we'll start with some questions to ask
yourself
one
the first one is a remix of a song you've
heard before if you're like me you've
likely been asked some variation of what
(08:04):
are you going to do with your life your
degree your career
maybe you've asked yourself that while
staring into a computer screen as the
blinking cursor mocked you or to your
blurry reflection while crying out another
publication rejection or across the table
from your bestie at achilles while drowning
your sorrows in buffalo dip
(08:24):
okay those were oddly
specific but you get me
and while this is a valid question i don't
think it should be the first question the
first question should be who do you want to
be yes i'm arguing semantics your poet so
you know words
mean things
who do you want to be sounds a lot more
(08:45):
sincere than what are you going to do the
latter feels accusatory
instead let's go with something that
invites you to imagine to dream
who do you want to be
me i wanted to be a teacher
and a writer i wanted to help people with
both things and during those dark times
(09:05):
before obamacare i also wanted to be a
person with health insurance again i cannot
stress that enough so instead of answering
the what answer the who
embody it
own it
consider it
daily revise the image speak in metaphors
and similese if you have too dear poet
(09:26):
2 the second question takes us from
dreaming to living
it's the how question how will you sustain
yourself along the way we leave graduate
school with dreams of writing full time and
striking it big with an agent and a six
figure publishing deal oh and a movie or tv option
(09:47):
and last that is you are a poet in which
case you know our trajectory differs from
our contemporaries in the pros and fiction
side of things
there are likely no agents no six figure
deals and no tv movie adaptations in our
immediate futures so our dreams will look a
(10:07):
bit different replace agents with a
community of writer homies six figure deals
with featured poets spots workshops and
podcast appearances motion picture screens
with mic stands and stages
okay sometimes there's no mic stand and
sometimes the stage is just a cleared out
spot up front either way
(10:28):
we're there and so is poetry
but there are also bills rent child care
and a designer purse habit to support we
need money a stable income that doesn't
require us to sacrifice so much that we
don't have time to write that's something i
forgot about when i first started teaching
but bebe went through that so you wouldn't have to
(10:52):
how will you sustain yourself
as a writer
career counselors bless their hearts will
tell you to pick something you are
passionate about we know though that it
isn't always that easy for us writers we
have a passion writing that doesn't always
equal the kind of work that promises a w2
in january so my advice instead is to
(11:12):
choose career that allows you to pursue
your passions choose a job that leaves you
room to think and create and if you are
lucky pick a profession that encourages you
to be creative in how you approach the
tasks that feel your days
ultimately for me that was teaching but
before it was teaching it was working
(11:32):
retail i know that doesn't sound glamorous
but i told you before my dream was to be
someone who helps people and i did that
every day when i worked in plus size retail
stores for a while doing that full time
made me more money than being an adjunct
professor
so i did both until i made the decision to
focus wholly on the classroom
i would never tell someone to settle for a
(11:54):
career just to pay the bills especially not
teaching but i will always recommend
pursuing whatever you choose with either
passion or good reason preferably both
so you want to teach huh
okay well this next part is for my folks
(12:14):
who dream of clamoring up into the ivory tower
if that's not you still give this a listen
because things may apply for you too i'm no
expert in being a professor but i've
mentored and trained a few and my advice
seems to pan out
first thing you need is to think about
experience if you are still in or about to
(12:37):
enter an mfa program look for opportunities
to be a teaching or graduate assistant
a tutor a classroom aid or something along
those lines i purposely chose my mfa
program because they advertised two tracks
for work study
if you wanted it
teaching or publishing
if you chose the teaching track you could
(12:58):
possibly parlay being a ta into teaching
your own class at the end i also signed up
to be a writing tutor on campus and did a
short stint as a literacy tutor with my
local public library
some people go into teaching k 12 first as
a full time teacher or a substitute others
become private tutors or even volunteer
their time leading workshops and offering
(13:20):
homework help within community spaces
experience proves to you that this is
something you want and can do and it lets
schools know that you can handle the work
but let's say you don't have traditional
experience in a classroom setting or even
one on one with students this is where your
poetry brain kicks in it is time to see
your experiences as metaphors and similes friend
(13:44):
what skills do professors need to have
things like leadership patience routine
discipline attention to detail innovative
thinking and a growth mindset surely you
can look at the work you've done and
compare using like or as right
isn't a professor a manager leading their
students through the shift now if corporate
was your first calling can't a professor
(14:06):
examine and assess data and come with a
plan to address the needs of their students
yeah you see you got the skills already now
that you know you want to teach here's
number two the question is teach
what
if you have the experience we talked about
earlier think about the subjects and
lessons you took part in as well as what
(14:27):
you wish you had the opportunity to cover
what about the classes you took in
undergrad in graduate school could you see
yourself teaching those classes do you have
the content knowledge or expertise
before we go any further i'll tell you from
an insider's perspective that exclusively
teaching creative writing
it just may not be an option right so what
(14:47):
else can you teach i spent the first 10
years of my career teaching every iteration
of composition from developmental courses
to senior thesis with a few upper division
electives and literature social sciences
and even art history
how did i know i could teach those things and
because i researched which is the next step
number 3
(15:08):
research aka looking things up and then
making them your entire personality for a
few weeks or in this case making them your
career the first thing i want you to
research is less about what you know about
your subject matter and more about what it is
out there in academia right what's
happening out there what's going on the job
market what are people teaching these days
(15:31):
look at class schedules course descriptions
teacher bios and cvs ask your former
professors and professor friends what their
classes look like okay and i know you have
professor friends now because you have an
mfa all right make a list of what you think
you can teach and then look into the
pedagogy behind those subjects if you were
lucky enough to be a ta in grad school
(15:53):
teaching pedagogy may have been part of
your training if not it's up to you now
there are classes you can take but you can
also do your own research because i started
teaching college classes pretty quickly i
trained myself i got very familiar with
scholarly journals through online databases
and books on teaching i signed up for the
(16:13):
chronicle of higher education and read the
latest scuttlebutt about teaching i also
just kind of like saying the word
scuttlebutt because i'm approximately 12
years old you're welcome okay let's go on
scuttlebutt
okay
my last tip here is maybe a little more
practical
find the job posting
then
apply
(16:35):
yes i know that seems really simple but
you gonna do it
okay and i know you don't feel like you're
ready right you haven't transformed into
your favorite professor from undergrad yet
and you are nowhere near as cool as robin
williams in dead poets society but who is
you said you want to be a professor right
well it's time to apply for the job friend
(16:56):
will you get the gig on the first swing i
can't promise that but you will get
practice and experience applying for a
position in higher education which is very
different from any other job application
remember that statement of purpose you
wrote to get into your mfa program
we call that a cover letter now yeah yeah
(17:18):
and i'm not talking about the five line
thing you have hazardly typed up when you
emailed your resume for your desk job i
mean a full narration of your educational
and professional history up to this point
and how it has prepared you for teaching
the classes that the institution you're
applying to offers
yeah it's a bit more involved now but
(17:38):
you're a writer and you know that drafting
revising is more than half the work of
writing so it's time
to get to it
and your resume
it needs a little xuzhin too so it can
become a curriculum vitae or a cv for short
this is more than just a list of where you
worked and when we need some details
(17:58):
right we need to know more about the skills
you utilize and the tasks you completed in
the class you taught whatever the case
but remember you're a poet so make it
beautiful babe
academic postings also need recommendations
at some point so
assemble your avengers give them plenty of
lead time to get the letter submitted so
you're not playing chicken with your
(18:18):
deadlines
also you should dust those transcripts off
as well oh yeah they want to see those
transcripts too they'll likely need an
unofficial copy upload it when you first
apply and then official copies down the line
and let's say you get the call the dean or
the chair whoever wants to meet with you
for an interview
yes
(18:39):
now you get interview experience prepare
for this of course research and talk to
those professor homies one more time go on
the interview and pay very close attention
even if you don't get this job you need to
learn from this experience what kind of
questions did they ask if you fumbled
something why that's just a space that you
(19:01):
know you need to look into and let me
research a bit more about for next time
a lot of interviews require a teaching demo
of some kind this is where you show and
prove that you can do this and believe me
friend you can
actually at least so start applying and
keep applying
(19:22):
well dear listener we have come to the end
of my office hours for today thanks for
listening and dreaming with me and thank
you for welcoming me to the poetry lab
podcast if you enjoyed what you've heard
today check out past episodes and be sure
to like and follow us for more if you
really want a gold star in our hearts share
this with a friend to help us grow our
(19:43):
community here for more information about
the poetry lab podcast check us out at
theportreelab com
slash
podcast
talk to y'all later
(00:00):
hey everybody i'm bridget bianca and i'm a
poety professor from south central los
angeles and you know what i have always
introduced myself the same way always poet
first and then professor which is
technically the order of things but
you know i became a poet in middle school
like most people and the professor thing
(00:20):
didn't happen until way later but thanks to
the influence of my grandmother who taught
for 30 years
i have always known that i was destined to
be a teacher so today i'll switch things up
in her honor
hi i'm bridget bianca and i'm a 10 year
professor and a poet from south central los
(00:41):
angeles
okay
feels better
this fall marks the beginning of my 15th
year in the profession and
i find myself doing a lot of reflecting but
before we get into my advice to you on this
episode about life after the mfa especially
if you plan on being a professor let me
(01:02):
share a bit of my story
welcome to the poetry lab podcast
the poetry lab started 11 years ago to help
dedicated self taught and formally trained
writers find a place in their community to
(01:22):
write read
learn
and collaborate
we help writers tap into their craft with
radical self compassion unlike anything
you've ever seen in a creative writing
classroom before if you're a creative
person trying to establish a writing
practice in the real world
this podcast is designed to help you carve
(01:44):
out the time
the courage and the inspiration to keep
writing your new shit
are you ready poet
let's get into it
a very prestigious historically black
(02:04):
college for undergrad the illustrious
howard university the mecca the hilltop the real
hu and yes
that's the full name you have to say the
full thing just like a tribe called quest
or a pimp name slip back
but anyway during my time at howard i felt
the field in so many ways but i also met my
(02:26):
first taste of
inadequacy namely when people would ask me
what the heck i plan to do with a degree in
english which i always found so puzzling
when the legacy of howard was bursting with
alumni like zora nil hurston and toni
morrison and mary baraka surely an english
major like me was destined for greatness i
(02:48):
mean i said so in my personal statement
when i applied to the school
oh to have the confidence of a 17 year old
bb but there at the mecca of black
excellence i was surrounded by the future
captains of industry doctors lawyers ceos
and future presidents most of the other
english majors had their site set on law school
(03:09):
my dreams of being a professor at a
community college felt small
so i kind of kept it to myself senior year
i found myself elbow deep in applications
to assorted doctoral programs with hopes of
coming out on the other side of the
requisite
five to seven years with a degree that
would allow me to be a professor
(03:30):
and then i stumbled upon e ethelbert miller
a famed poet and self proclaimed literary actor
well actually he kind of stumbled upon me
you see i was sitting on the floor of the
historical founders library texting while
waiting for a professor legs outstretched i
almost tripped mr miller as he came down
(03:51):
the hallway i apologize and he asked me if
i want to have a seat in a chair
inside of the office he was on his way to open up
apologetic i gathered my things and rushed
in sight of what i now know was a cultural
center at howard
i'd never been in there despite wandering
all over campus for years and i didn't know
who the man was either at the time but the
(04:13):
room and the man showed up when i needed them
he sat with me for a bit and we chatted i
asked him all kinds of questions about the
center and he asked me about my major and
then he asked me my plans for the future
you know the usual stuff and as usual i
delivered my usual answer i don't know
teach with a little shrug
(04:33):
but unlike most people i encountered he
asked follow up questions he asked me if i
was a writer and i said yes a poet again
dear listener i didn't know i was speaking
to a poet that i'd read and studied on that
very campus which is good because i would
have fangirled and missed what came next
after telling him i was applying to
(04:54):
doctoral program so i could be a professor
he asked me why i didn't go for an mfa in
creative writing
it was a terminal degree he explained and i
could teach with it particularly at
community colleges i had never heard of an
mfa in creative writing before in my life
it never even crossed my mind as an option
(05:15):
it was like the sun breaking through the
clouds by the end of the day i was back in
my dorm shoving those doctoral applications
into a drawer and on the phone telling my
mama i'd be home for a gap year while i
prepared for the mfa
what's an mfa they asked me i don't know but
i'm gonna figure it out
(05:36):
so i became a college level instructor at
23 years old while still in my mfa program
at a private art school
by 30 i was the youngest tenure track
professor in the english department at a
local community college which believe it or
not was my dream really i'd taken community
college classes here and there while in
high school and undergrad and i knew that
ccs were where i could stand in the equity
(05:58):
gap that threatened to gobble up the dreams
of so many kids that look like me and i am
so proud of the work i get to do there the
pay and the health insurance aren't too bad either
for what it's worth i mentioned being a
poet when i interviewed to get this job the
disinterest was thick enough to scoop the spoon
unlike major universities i didn't need to
(06:19):
publish anything academic or otherwise to
beef up a tenured portfolio i just needed
to teach and teach well
remain involved in department affairs and
maintain an active presence on campus
to my students i was just professor b one
of the few black professors in the
department the one with the cool blue hair
or pink or purple depending on the season
(06:39):
being a poet didn't seem to matter much in
my ivory tower
but it mattered to me by the end of my
first school year as a full time professor
i had a manuscript of my own to shop around
this was big dear listener
huge i spent the early years of my career
laser focused on becoming the best
professor so i could land an elusive full
(07:01):
time position and say bye bye to freeway
flying between three colleges
this determination plus a healthy bit of
mfa workshop trauma which i'll say for
maybe a different episode meant that i
hadn't really written anything in years so
it was no surprise that word started
tumbling out of me the moment i was free to
think and focus on just
(07:21):
one job
that manuscript became my first collection
of poetry b trouble which is now on its
second edition released the same year
coincidentally that i received tenure
shift from me and shift to you ah no no you
let's talk about you don't click away from
me now it's your turn in the hot seat dear
(07:43):
listener
let's talk about your dreams especially if
you have gone or planned to go the mfa route
we'll start with some questions to ask
yourself
one
the first one is a remix of a song you've
heard before if you're like me you've
likely been asked some variation of what
(08:04):
are you going to do with your life your
degree your career
maybe you've asked yourself that while
staring into a computer screen as the
blinking cursor mocked you or to your
blurry reflection while crying out another
publication rejection or across the table
from your bestie at achilles while drowning
your sorrows in buffalo dip
(08:24):
okay those were oddly
specific but you get me
and while this is a valid question i don't
think it should be the first question the
first question should be who do you want to
be yes i'm arguing semantics your poet so
you know words
mean things
who do you want to be sounds a lot more
(08:45):
sincere than what are you going to do the
latter feels accusatory
instead let's go with something that
invites you to imagine to dream
who do you want to be
me i wanted to be a teacher
and a writer i wanted to help people with
both things and during those dark times
(09:05):
before obamacare i also wanted to be a
person with health insurance again i cannot
stress that enough so instead of answering
the what answer the who
embody it
own it
consider it
daily revise the image speak in metaphors
and similese if you have too dear poet
(09:26):
2 the second question takes us from
dreaming to living
it's the how question how will you sustain
yourself along the way we leave graduate
school with dreams of writing full time and
striking it big with an agent and a six
figure publishing deal oh and a movie or tv option
(09:47):
and last that is you are a poet in which
case you know our trajectory differs from
our contemporaries in the pros and fiction
side of things
there are likely no agents no six figure
deals and no tv movie adaptations in our
immediate futures so our dreams will look a
(10:07):
bit different replace agents with a
community of writer homies six figure deals
with featured poets spots workshops and
podcast appearances motion picture screens
with mic stands and stages
okay sometimes there's no mic stand and
sometimes the stage is just a cleared out
spot up front either way
(10:28):
we're there and so is poetry
but there are also bills rent child care
and a designer purse habit to support we
need money a stable income that doesn't
require us to sacrifice so much that we
don't have time to write that's something i
forgot about when i first started teaching
but bebe went through that so you wouldn't have to
(10:52):
how will you sustain yourself
as a writer
career counselors bless their hearts will
tell you to pick something you are
passionate about we know though that it
isn't always that easy for us writers we
have a passion writing that doesn't always
equal the kind of work that promises a w2
in january so my advice instead is to
(11:12):
choose career that allows you to pursue
your passions choose a job that leaves you
room to think and create and if you are
lucky pick a profession that encourages you
to be creative in how you approach the
tasks that feel your days
ultimately for me that was teaching but
before it was teaching it was working
(11:32):
retail i know that doesn't sound glamorous
but i told you before my dream was to be
someone who helps people and i did that
every day when i worked in plus size retail
stores for a while doing that full time
made me more money than being an adjunct
professor
so i did both until i made the decision to
focus wholly on the classroom
i would never tell someone to settle for a
(11:54):
career just to pay the bills especially not
teaching but i will always recommend
pursuing whatever you choose with either
passion or good reason preferably both
so you want to teach huh
okay well this next part is for my folks
(12:14):
who dream of clamoring up into the ivory tower
if that's not you still give this a listen
because things may apply for you too i'm no
expert in being a professor but i've
mentored and trained a few and my advice
seems to pan out
first thing you need is to think about
experience if you are still in or about to
(12:37):
enter an mfa program look for opportunities
to be a teaching or graduate assistant
a tutor a classroom aid or something along
those lines i purposely chose my mfa
program because they advertised two tracks
for work study
if you wanted it
teaching or publishing
if you chose the teaching track you could
(12:58):
possibly parlay being a ta into teaching
your own class at the end i also signed up
to be a writing tutor on campus and did a
short stint as a literacy tutor with my
local public library
some people go into teaching k 12 first as
a full time teacher or a substitute others
become private tutors or even volunteer
their time leading workshops and offering
(13:20):
homework help within community spaces
experience proves to you that this is
something you want and can do and it lets
schools know that you can handle the work
but let's say you don't have traditional
experience in a classroom setting or even
one on one with students this is where your
poetry brain kicks in it is time to see
your experiences as metaphors and similes friend
(13:44):
what skills do professors need to have
things like leadership patience routine
discipline attention to detail innovative
thinking and a growth mindset surely you
can look at the work you've done and
compare using like or as right
isn't a professor a manager leading their
students through the shift now if corporate
was your first calling can't a professor
(14:06):
examine and assess data and come with a
plan to address the needs of their students
yeah you see you got the skills already now
that you know you want to teach here's
number two the question is teach
what
if you have the experience we talked about
earlier think about the subjects and
lessons you took part in as well as what
(14:27):
you wish you had the opportunity to cover
what about the classes you took in
undergrad in graduate school could you see
yourself teaching those classes do you have
the content knowledge or expertise
before we go any further i'll tell you from
an insider's perspective that exclusively
teaching creative writing
it just may not be an option right so what
(14:47):
else can you teach i spent the first 10
years of my career teaching every iteration
of composition from developmental courses
to senior thesis with a few upper division
electives and literature social sciences
and even art history
how did i know i could teach those things and
because i researched which is the next step
number 3
(15:08):
research aka looking things up and then
making them your entire personality for a
few weeks or in this case making them your
career the first thing i want you to
research is less about what you know about
your subject matter and more about what it is
out there in academia right what's
happening out there what's going on the job
market what are people teaching these days
(15:31):
look at class schedules course descriptions
teacher bios and cvs ask your former
professors and professor friends what their
classes look like okay and i know you have
professor friends now because you have an
mfa all right make a list of what you think
you can teach and then look into the
pedagogy behind those subjects if you were
lucky enough to be a ta in grad school
(15:53):
teaching pedagogy may have been part of
your training if not it's up to you now
there are classes you can take but you can
also do your own research because i started
teaching college classes pretty quickly i
trained myself i got very familiar with
scholarly journals through online databases
and books on teaching i signed up for the
(16:13):
chronicle of higher education and read the
latest scuttlebutt about teaching i also
just kind of like saying the word
scuttlebutt because i'm approximately 12
years old you're welcome okay let's go on
scuttlebutt
okay
my last tip here is maybe a little more
practical
find the job posting
then
apply
(16:35):
yes i know that seems really simple but
you gonna do it
okay and i know you don't feel like you're
ready right you haven't transformed into
your favorite professor from undergrad yet
and you are nowhere near as cool as robin
williams in dead poets society but who is
you said you want to be a professor right
well it's time to apply for the job friend
(16:56):
will you get the gig on the first swing i
can't promise that but you will get
practice and experience applying for a
position in higher education which is very
different from any other job application
remember that statement of purpose you
wrote to get into your mfa program
we call that a cover letter now yeah yeah
(17:18):
and i'm not talking about the five line
thing you have hazardly typed up when you
emailed your resume for your desk job i
mean a full narration of your educational
and professional history up to this point
and how it has prepared you for teaching
the classes that the institution you're
applying to offers
yeah it's a bit more involved now but
(17:38):
you're a writer and you know that drafting
revising is more than half the work of
writing so it's time
to get to it
and your resume
it needs a little xuzhin too so it can
become a curriculum vitae or a cv for short
this is more than just a list of where you
worked and when we need some details
(17:58):
right we need to know more about the skills
you utilize and the tasks you completed in
the class you taught whatever the case
but remember you're a poet so make it
beautiful babe
academic postings also need recommendations
at some point so
assemble your avengers give them plenty of
lead time to get the letter submitted so
you're not playing chicken with your
(18:18):
deadlines
also you should dust those transcripts off
as well oh yeah they want to see those
transcripts too they'll likely need an
unofficial copy upload it when you first
apply and then official copies down the line
and let's say you get the call the dean or
the chair whoever wants to meet with you
for an interview
yes
(18:39):
now you get interview experience prepare
for this of course research and talk to
those professor homies one more time go on
the interview and pay very close attention
even if you don't get this job you need to
learn from this experience what kind of
questions did they ask if you fumbled
something why that's just a space that you
(19:01):
know you need to look into and let me
research a bit more about for next time
a lot of interviews require a teaching demo
of some kind this is where you show and
prove that you can do this and believe me
friend you can
actually at least so start applying and
keep applying
(19:22):
well dear listener we have come to the end
of my office hours for today thanks for
listening and dreaming with me and thank
you for welcoming me to the poetry lab
podcast if you enjoyed what you've heard
today check out past episodes and be sure
to like and follow us for more if you
really want a gold star in our hearts share
this with a friend to help us grow our
(19:43):
community here for more information about
the poetry lab podcast check us out at
theportreelab com
slash
podcast
talk to y'all later
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.