August 6, 2024 • 43 mins
Ready to unlock the secrets of teaching at the college level? Join us for a fun conversation with Mikayla Lachance, a communications professor from Northern College, who shares her journey to becoming an accomplished college educator. Discover what it takes to thrive in this rewarding profession as she discusses the qualifications needed for various programs and sheds light on the differences between teaching at the college, university, and high school levels.
Ever wondered what the daily life of a full-time college professor looks like? Mikayla gives us an insider’s view, from managing class schedules and lesson preparation to the personalized attention given to students at a smaller college. You’ll learn how to structure engaging lessons, handle classroom management challenges, and create a supportive educational environment. She also recounts her transition from part-time to full-time teaching, providing a comprehensive look at the responsibilities and rewards of the role.
Finally, navigate the future of education with our discussion on integrating AI in the classroom. Mikayla shares her experiences with tools like ChatGPT, exploring their benefits and the importance of ethical use. We also touch on the perks and challenges of the profession, including the joy of supporting a diverse student body and the potential for career transitions. Whether you’re an educator or an aspiring college professor, this episode offers invaluable insights into the multifaceted world of teaching at the college level.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This week's episode is sponsored by VisualPing.
Visualping is the free webdetection monitoring tool that
watches and alerts you tochanges on the sites that matter
most to you.
Forget clicking on that refreshbutton over and over again,
because VisualPing instantlyinforms you about item restocks,
price drops or promotions, andnew opportunities at your dream
(00:21):
workplace.
Over 2.3 million users stay inthe know with Visual Ping.
Create a free account today atvisualpingio.
Is this the Teacher Hotline?
My name is Ronald Hay, where wetry to answer some of the most
(01:09):
pressing questions for teachersin and outside of the classroom.
Today we have Casey from theTDSB, the Toronto District
School Board.
Casey, what can we do for youtoday?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Hey, ron, I listened to your first episode of Season
3 of your podcast and youbrought in someone to talk about
teaching at the universitylevel.
I've taught high schoolbusiness for 20 years and this
always sounded like a greatcareer transition for me.
Your episode mentioned youneeded a PhD for most
university-level teaching jobs.
I was wondering if you knowwhat qualifications you need to
(01:41):
teach at the college level andwhat are the main differences
between teaching at the collegelevel versus university.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Thanks.
Thank you so much for your call, Casey.
Very interesting enough, Iactually also looked into
teaching at the college levelfor many years myself after my
positive experience at Western,Actually.
In fact, I remember seeing adsfor business faculty jobs at
Fanshawe College in London,Ontario and highly considered
applying for the job, butdecided to end up going down the
(02:10):
high school route instead.
So to be honest with you, I'mkind of very curious about
learning about the whole processmyself, about what it's like to
teach at a college and whatthose big differences are.
So today we have MichaelaLachance, a communications
professor from Northern Collegeat the Timmins campus.
Michaela has been teachingthere for five years and she got
her BA in geography fromNipissing University and
(02:32):
currently completing hermaster's in education,
specializing in adult education,at Yorkville University.
Michaela, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Thanks, ron, I'm so excited to be joining on the
podcast today.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Thanks, ron, I'm so excited to be joining on the
podcast today.
Yeah, I'm very interestedmyself about teaching at the
college level.
It's something I've personallythought about myself.
I thought, man, I had such agreat time teaching at Western
that maybe this could be a nextchapter in my life, perhaps so
when I retire the last five, 10years of my life teaching at a
(03:05):
college.
Like I said in the intro, Ilooked into a bunch of ads on
LinkedIn and thought this wouldbe a cool opportunity.
But really, besides justlooking at the job application,
I haven't really dove too deepinto the process.
So I'd love to pick your braintoday just about what it takes
to be qualified, what they'relooking for, what the
differences are, because I'msure there's a huge difference
(03:26):
between teaching at a college,university, high school, maybe
even elementary level.
So maybe we'll start with thefirst question Did you always
know you want to be a teacher,and why the college level?
Why not high school?
Why not elementary?
Why not the university level?
Why specifically college?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, great question.
So I always want to be a ateacher.
I was that classicfour-year-old girl playing
teacher in the basement in myplayroom, always had these
imaginary students creatingworksheets, so I knew I had a
love for being a teacher andworking with kids.
However, when I was doing myundergrad with nipissing
university, I did a placement ina grade one two classroom and I
very quickly realized thatyoung kids were not my jam.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So I'm always elementary teachers.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
I deserve all the praise because I'm like I went
in there for I think it was 10days and I says, oh my goodness,
this is not for me at all.
However, I did continue workingat Nipissing University
throughout my undergrad withadults and our international
services department and Irealized I liked working with
adult learners.
And then, after I completed myundergrad, I continued my
(04:33):
journey up north to NorthernCollege in Timmins and there I
joined the internationaldepartment and I started
teaching part time in theevenings, teaching in the
business programs and somecommunications courses.
So I realized that I liketeaching with adults, continued
teaching adult learners.
So, to answer the question,elementary I knew it wasn't for
(04:54):
me.
High school didn't reallyinterest me as much.
But then being able to teachstudents who already had some
previous knowledge, that was myjam.
I very quickly realized adultlearners was the classroom that
I belong in.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, so let's jump straight into the caller's
question.
This is kind of my question too.
You know, what qualificationsdo you need to teach at the
college level?
Is it very dependent on theschool and the program?
Like you mentioned, that youwere able to sounds like you
went from straight out of schoolto be able to teach some of
those early business coursesright away, part time.
(05:29):
How did that first job kind ofcome to you there?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, so the first job was actually very
interesting.
There's a part time professorthat was lined up to teach the
class.
About a week into the semestersomething came up with their
personal life and I received anemail from the dean at the time
saying Mikaela, I have thisclass, Are you interested in
jumping in to cover it?
So I said sure, I'll try it out, see how it goes.
Usually to teach at the collegelevel it'll depend on the
(05:55):
program.
So some programs, like ournursing programs, you will need
a specialized degree in nursing.
It really just depends on theprogram or the school.
But something likecommunications or business,
where there's more entry-levelcourses, it's usually just an
undergrad degree wow, okay, sovery similar to at least the
westerns kind of style ofsetting up there for the program
(06:15):
.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
They're undergraduate students, right?
You could kind of teach thosefirst and second year courses.
And what course did you teach?
You said communications, butwhat year was that?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
so communications.
So all students at northerncollege take a communications
course, so it's usuallycommunications once.
That's the very first coursethat is offered in our first
semester of programs.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Now this is where I'm very curious.
So when you were teaching thefirst year course that's, I
taught a first year course atWestern as well Did the students
know you were fairly young?
I'm assuming you were 22, 23?
Speaker 3 (06:45):
at the time.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Did they know you were really young, or did you
kind of try to hide the factthat you were just a recent grad
?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I never disclosed my age for students.
Still, I'm a fairly youngprofessor too, and you can see
some students will be saying, oh, I'm 30.
Are you closer to my age?
I'm like, oh, I don't know.
I don't disclose thatinformation.
You have students that arecurious.
I know I didn't tell them I wasa recent grad.
I did tell them that I hadgraduated from Nipissing
University and I was new toteaching.
I like to be transparent withstudents as well.
(07:13):
We're all on a learning journey.
Even as a professor, I'll trythings.
I have a great lesson.
I think it's the best lessonthat's going to work.
And then I realized veryquickly I have students that are
blinking, just trying to stayawake.
So let's pivot and try adifferent strategy as well.
So no, I never disclosed that Iwas a recent grad.
However, I did disclose that Iwas new to teaching.
(07:34):
So to show me grace as I alsooffered them grace as they
started their college experience.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Oh yeah, same here At Western they specifically.
Well, they knew that we wereyoung and they actually asked us
to kind of dress up in suitsand ties and you know we were in
a business program, so theyasked us to kind of look the
part and I think because of justthe way we dressed we looked a
lot older than we actually did.
Does Northern Campus ask forsimilar dress attire as well,
(08:04):
like you got to be dressed acertain way, or what's the kind
of dress code like for teachersthere?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, they definitely ask you to dress professional.
So usually throwing on a blazerand dress pants on days that
you're teaching, days thatyou're not teaching, there's not
as much of that.
Same expectations, however,definitely when you're in front
of the students, making sureyou're modeling to them that
you're here to be professionaland modeling to them that you're
here to be professional, hereto do a job, here to conduct
them like to conduct yourself.
With that expectation when theygo into the workplace they're
(08:29):
going to have to conductthemselves to a similar
professional standard.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, even at the high school level.
I know it's not common, but atmy school, appleby, sometimes
people are very shocked that wehave to dress up in a suit and
tie as well, and you know youraverage high school teacher at
most schools.
You know you can kind of go inand you know whatever you want.
But I kind of like the wholeprofessional wear, especially
(08:52):
for me as a business teacher,going in with a suit and tie.
It just kind of commands a morecertain type of level of
respect from the kids, and soI'm all for that.
So cool to see that NorthernCollege also does the same thing
.
So what are yourresponsibilities as a college
professor at Northern?
Maybe we could kind of go downthe list.
(09:13):
We could talk about teachinghours, office hours, summer
hours.
Maybe let's just kind of get ageneric landscape of what your
job looks like.
So how many classes do youteach and what's your schedule
looking like?
So how many classes do youteach and what's your schedule
looking like?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
So I was a part time professor.
So that's my journey.
I started as a part timeprofessor and then just joined
the full time faculty in August.
So as part time professor Itaught usually one to two
classes a semester, but now, asa full time professor, I teach
four classes a semester or fourclasses a semester, and then we
have three semesters a year.
So I use about 35 students perclass oh, nice and small yes,
(09:50):
nice and small forcommunications.
I've taught some other classesintroduction to organizational
behavior, where those classeswere mostly 50, 55, 60 students.
But for communications.
We have nice and small classes,35 students.
I teach four courses a semesterand then I also have faculty
meetings, program reviews,curriculum development, lesson
(10:13):
prep, grading everything elsehas trickled into the day.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Hey, sounds like kind of what we do, pretty much what
every teacher would do actuallyat the high school level,
elementary level, just adifferent, you know audience, uh
that you have right here olderuh adults here, yeah, um, so you
said, uh, you teach fourclasses, and so is it all
communication classes, or yeah,it's all communications classes
(10:39):
we teach.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I teach a communications one class in the
first semester and then acommunications two class in the
second semester communication tobeing like second year students
yes, yeah, second year orsecond semester students seconds
.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Okay, second semester , yeah, um, and what are your
hours like is, are these likemonday, wednesday, fridays, is
it?
Uh, like, how long are theseclasses?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
yes, I usually teach a tuesday, wednesday, thursday,
friday, so four days a week.
I usually I prefer my class tobe held in the morning I'm more
of a morning person and thenstaying there later.
Uh, so I'm usually more of amorning person.
My classes are three hours inlength.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
They're usually looking oh, each class or three
hours yeah each class is threehours, so one three hour period.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
They're not separated into one one half hour.
Some classes are, but in termsof communications they they
usually one three hour period.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Is that specifically for you, or is that?
Just all classes or three hourclasses?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Three hour classes are common and to be delivered
all at once.
Some people will teach a fourhour class, just depending on
the program, and then those onesare often separated into a two
hour block and a two hour block.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Okay, um, yeah, for three hours it's all, it's all
delivered at once yeah, I know,at western we had a bunch of
three-hour classes.
I never taught any of them, butum, I know, I don't want to say
they're common, but um, yeah,that would be.
That's a marathon right thereyeah, especially with adult
learners.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I think people think that young kids have shorter
attention spans, but also withadult learners as well.
So it can be difficult, andthat's what comes into the
lesson prep making sure that youhave your lecture, part of it,
and then you also have anactivity that reinforces the
learning, whether it's a TEDtalk or a video or another
in-class activity, because nostudents want to listen for
(12:21):
three hours straight.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I can't Something else I can't.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I can't even sit through a 10 minute meeting in
my department, so I can't evensit through a 10-minute meeting
in my department.
Yeah, yeah, forget three hours.
Yeah, what about office hours?
Do you guys have mandatedoffice hours in your department?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yes, there's an expectation for faculty.
I have office hours.
Usually I do my Mondays.
I tell my students I don't haveclass on Mondays.
I'll be in my office 8 to 4.
Feel free to stop by.
So yeah, often for an extension.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
All right, of course classic, so that doesn't change
it.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
No, that doesn't change.
That's the stop by and thatchit chat at the beginning.
Oh, I have another question.
Can I have an extension on thisassignment?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Classic move.
It doesn't matter if you're akid or an adult, that's a
classic move, right there yeahthat doesn't change, but there's
an expectation of office hoursespecially.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
It's nice teaching small classes.
I get to know all of mystudents.
Yeah, when we have facultymeetings and I'm able to see
johnny is struggling in thisclass, is he struggling in any
other classes as well?
So yeah, the faculty is greatbecause you will discuss student
concerns and get to know.
Okay, if johnny's juststruggling in my class, I should
reach out to see if he needstutoring or other assistance wow
, I didn't know that of havingsmall classes, and same with
(13:31):
part-time faculty.
They able to email a programcoordinator, a dean, saying so,
and so hasn't shown up.
What should we do?
Should we reach out?
What does that look like?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
wow, that actually sounds very high school like.
Yeah, honestly, like I justassume that once you get to the
college level or universitylevel, it's like you're on your
own, no one's really checking in, because I know at western that
doesn't happen.
Like if someone's flunking outin one class, like we would have
no idea that they're flunkingout in the other class, or
they're struggling like we couldcare less.
To be honest with you, yeah,it's uh, because, yeah, we had
so many students come throughour classes but uh, wow, that's
(14:02):
kind of really nice that youkind of have that one-on-one
attention and that kind ofchecking on the kids like that.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
That's really, really interesting.
I think the benefit of havinglike a small Northern Ontario
school that you don't have thehuge class sizes of 80, 90
students, and I think that'swhere you see a differentiation
between the college anduniversity.
I remember going through myundergrad and there'd be me and
150 other students, so if Iwasn't there for a few weeks no
one would notice.
Right, when you have a smallclass of 35, which is common for
(14:30):
our college classes, you're notthere a couple weeks and that
professor is going to notice.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
What about summer hours?
I'm sure all the high schooland elementary teachers would
want to know about that.
When do you finish school?
Do you have to do anything inthe summer?
What's that all like?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I am off middle of june to middle of august so I
teach a condensed.
I still teach in the summer,but I'll teach from beginning of
may to middle of june.
So I'll teach a condensedcourse, but then I'll have lots
of time within there to work onbuilding curriculum, reviewing
lessons all that fun stuff thereand then I have the summer off,
(15:08):
come back middle of August andwe'll have a couple weeks of
prep before our semester starts.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Now I remember when I was at Western, part of my
summer duties was I didn't haveto come into the office but we
had to publish these casestudies for our classrooms and
for exam purposes, and I knowyour other professors.
They're focused on research.
Is there anything like thatthat at the college level you're
(15:34):
, I guess, quote, unquotecontracted to do, whether you're
a first year professor or a10th year professor?
Is there anything that you haveto do over the summer?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
There's nothing that we have to do Once you hit that.
Middle of June to the middle ofAugust, that is our official
vacation period.
So I think I'm still glued toemail, so I'll probably still be
checking in here and there tosee what's going on.
But no other professors willsign off for the full two months
and we'll travel, go to thecottages camps.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Okay, so very similar to high school teachers.
Yes, yeah, is there anyresearch that gets done at the
college level?
No, there's no research.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's not like a tenured professor where there is
a research component as part ofit.
There's no research.
There's expectations forcurriculum development and
different things are changing,making sure that we're
continuing to stay up to speed.
So a lot of ongoingprofessional learning and
development opportunities thatare provided, but no official
research.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Okay, I wasn't sure about that.
I knew, obviously, universityprofessors, their big thing was
research and publication, so Iwasn't sure if that's the thing
at the college level.
What about, like your contract?
Like how does that work?
Because at Western they made itvery clear to me that it was a
two year contract and I was okaywith that.
(16:49):
And then obviously, even whenyou become a professor, from
what I hear a lot of times,their contract works and like
what's your job security like atyour place?
Is it like, hey, you're therefor two years, or is it like you
can have this job for as longas you want?
How does that all work?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
It's a good question.
So in the position I'm in, I'ma full-time professor, so I
could have the job for however Iwant.
So I'm a full-time professor.
So if I want to teach for fiveyears or in 20 years, I decided
to do're doing when I startedteaching part-time, I'm doing it
(17:30):
my foot in the door to see do Ilike teaching adults as much as
I think I would?
Then that was just semester bysemester, so it'd be often a
course for a semester and thenI'd be offered a new course for
the next semester.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Right, right, interesting.
Yeah, you were saying earlierabout that you got 35, earlier
about that you got 35, maybe upto 60 students per class.
Do you guys also have TAs aswell at the college level?
How do you mark all thoseassignments?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
There are no TAs.
I wish we had TAs.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
No.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
TAs?
Really no, there's no TAs.
I spend many hours grading,especially with communications.
It's a lot of letters andparagraphs, presentations.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
So the amount of hours I spend reading and
grading.
But yeah, there's no TAs, soeach professor is responsible
for grading their ownassessments.
It'll change from course tocourse.
You have those courses whereit's mostly multiple choice and
mostly or mostly tests sure, Ithink those ones are a little
bit easier to grade.
But in terms of communicationsit's all written work.
There's not too many multipleoh, that's so painful.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I got like 20 papers I gotta read right now and it's
like holy smokes.
Uh, I know this is probablygonna come out in the summer.
We were recording this rightnow in march.
But, um, oh my god, like I got20 papers to to read right now
and, uh, it's killing me.
It's yeah, like I'm like, oh mygod, I gotta read 20.
I know the high other highschool teachers probably
thinking, ron, you're a loser,like that's nothing.
(18:59):
Uh, but man, like 30, 40, 50,60 papers like holy smokes, uh,
no, tas, well, my communicationstoo.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
We do our resumes and cover letters looking to
prepare students for postgradand entering the workforce.
So when I had this past winterI had 90 to 100 resumes and
cover letters and we're expectedto grade it within 10 days,
like that's a grading policy soI think at the end of it if I
saw one more cover letter, I'mnot looking at it Like I maxed
(19:28):
out for a couple months oflooking at cover letters and
resumes.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, by the end I'll be like, all right, you're
fired, you're fired, you'refired.
We're not looking at it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I'm like this looks great Like it's hard to get that
fresh eyes to then go throughand provide the same quality
feedback.
Oh Weston, did you have TAs?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, we got TAs.
Yeah, like we got TAs.
In fact, people because we wereso young, people thought we
were the TAs.
Every time I told people like,oh, yeah, I teach at Western.
They go, yeah, so you're a TA.
I'm like, no, no, I'm not a TA.
Yeah, we hired TAs and, yeah,they did the mark.
There was probably twoassignments that we had to mark
ourselves.
There was the final exam andthen there was like one
organizational behavior report.
We marked ourselves, buteverything else was through the
(20:12):
TA.
So, wow, I just assumed youguys had TAs to help you,
because that's a lot ofassignments to mark.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, and there's no like it's not just TAs for my
class, I guess across the board.
You go into our faculty wing ona Friday afternoon you see
everyone just grading and tryingto get all the grades in for
the weekend.
So they don't see any at home.
But yeah, there's no TA'sacross the board.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So, besides the marking, what's it like to prep
a lesson at the college level?
Like, how many hours are youputting in?
Like what are you trying to do?
Like these are long classesthree hours.
I taught maybe one three hourclass once to cover another
teacher back at Western and it'slong.
It is a long grind.
Right now my classes are 75minutes at Applebee.
(20:54):
How do you prep a three-hourlesson?
What does a typical class looklike for you?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Good.
So, yes, an interestingquestion.
It can change each semester aswell, as I'm seeing, like the
demographic of students and whatare their attention spans
looking at as well.
But usually I try to structurewhere it's 20 minutes of lecture
and then we have 20 minutes ofa break activity and then 20
minutes of either we're lookingat a video, playing some type of
bingo, jeopardy, crosswordpuzzle, something to interact
(21:20):
with the students, and thenusually I'll give students a 10
minute break and then kind ofrepeat the cycle.
So I'm looking usually 20minute chunks, 20 minute
teaching, 20 minute small groupactivity and then a of repeat
the cycle.
So I'm looking usually20-minute chunks, 20-minute
teaching, 20-minute small groupactivity and then a 20-minute
larger group activity.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Okay, pretty smart.
Yeah, that's pretty much whatwell, at least I try to do in my
classrooms as well.
I realize kids mostly can'thold their attention for that
long.
Are these classes similar bythe time you get to fourth year
in terms of class size and classlength as well?
Is it also 30, 60 students or?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
do they get smaller?
They usually get smallerbecause you see some students
that may decide to changecareers, explore different
things as well.
So you'll usually you'll see,like for the electrical group.
I teach communications toelectrical group of students.
I started with that one at thebeginning of the year at I was
about 30 students now teachingthem in the second semester
we're down to about 2022.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Okay.
So yeah, that's about my, myclass size, roughly around 20
there.
What was it like teaching yourfirst class?
Like were you really nervous,like how did you feel?
Speaker 3 (22:23):
It was so intimidating.
I don't think I slept at allthe night before picking up.
We talk about dressingprofessional and I pick out the
most professional blazer,looking the part, and I feel bad
for my first semester students.
I think I probably talked foran hour and a half.
I'm straight because I'm likethis is content we need to cover
.
This is what has to be done.
So I feel really bad for myfirst semester students because
(22:46):
I probably talked so much.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, it's not easy, it's not.
There's so much nervous energyand I always like to ask
teachers what their first classwas like.
Because, you're right, likeit's, they don't know what's
your first class.
You're not going in announcingthis your first class, but
there's so much nervous energyand I remember saying this to
Emma as well it doesn't matterif you're at the elementary,
high school or university,college level, like that first
(23:10):
day in the classroom is scarystuff.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Oh for sure.
And especially learningclassroom management.
Right, you think you know like,hey, I went to university, I
did some placements, I loveteaching, always want to be a
teacher, I'm just going to knowhow to manage the classroom.
But those are skills thatdevelop over many, many years.
I think, when people thinkteaching adults, no, you still
have people talking, you'restill trying to bring their
attention back, you still havepeople's phone going off in
(23:35):
class, you still have all thosestruggles.
So yeah, it's definitely alearning curve, but I think I
have a much better handle onthings now than I did five years
ago.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
That is a very good point.
Classroom management what isthat like at the college level?
You mentioned, obviously,people talking and phones going
off, and that happens in myclassroom as well.
I'm sure in all classrooms.
Besides, kind of the commonthing was you know, is there
anything that you've ever had todeal with like a fight breaking
(24:04):
out or anything really, reallyextreme?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Nothing as crazy as that.
It's a couple of students thatyou ask them to turn the phone
off or asking them to draw theirattention to the front, them
continuing not to do that.
But at this point the adultstoo right.
So there's some responsibilityover their own learning, whether
they choose to be in class,whether they choose not to be,
whether they just choose to showup on test day.
So it's kind of that message ofI'm here to teach you, I'm here
to support you, and you alsoneed to make that decision for
(24:30):
yourself that you do want to behere.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Right, there's a lot.
It's so funny just talking toyou about this.
There's so many similarities tothe high school level.
You mentioned tests.
How many assessments do youhave per year?
Speaker 3 (24:42):
So per classes about six to eight assessments okay,
yeah, this is per semester persemester, yeah, so usually about
six to eight, so nothing asmuch in the first couple weeks
of the semester.
And as we're building onknowledge, then we start getting
into more assessments and thenusually there's weekly homework
as well, especially forcommunications.
Looking just to build on theoral communication skills, the
(25:03):
written communication skills.
So I think college is verysimilar in terms of high school.
That's why why we alwaysencourage students, if you're
not sure where to go, take a oneyear college program, because
most of our programs are eitherone year or two year programs.
Oh yeah we have a lot ofpathways.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Like we have some students that decide I'm going
to take civil constructionengineering, I really like this,
and then they can bridge offinto a university program from
there oh, I had no idea that alot of these programs are only
one to two years so so you'resaying that I could take a one
year, two year business programat college let's say uh, at your
(25:37):
school, and then I couldtransfer some of those credits
to a university yes, yes, andthen you even have like three
years instead of the four years,like those.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
We have a whole bunch of pathways.
But people often don't knowthat about college, right, they
think it's similar to university, these big class sizes, but no,
I think it's very similar tohigh school, especially I went
to a private high school.
So, looking at my privateschool experience to the college
experience, it is very, verysimilar.
Smaller class sizes, professorsthat know you.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, you said you went to Holy Trinity, right.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Yeah, Trinity College School.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Trinity College, trinity.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
College School yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
In Port Hope.
Yes, so funny.
You told me that and I went toTrinity College last year for a
badminton tournament with thebadminton team.
Yeah, we took the 407 all theway over there, beautiful school
, amazing campus in you grew upin the independent school system
as well.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Then, yeah, yeah, I played hockey for trinity
college, went to school thereand then the university, and
then started career young andpart part time and continued to
grow in that journey.
But no, I find it very, verysimilar to a high school
experience it does sound verysimilar.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
like my classes, I would say I have about eight
assessments per class per yearas well.
So that sounds about on par andI would say most classes at my
school have, roughly around thatballpark, around closer to
eight.
So, with that being said, mynext question is that our
students just as grade hungry atthe college level as they are
(27:08):
to maybe at the high schoollevel in grade 11 and 12?
Do students complain aboutgrades?
Do they grovel about grades?
Do they complain?
What's that like once they getto the college level?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, I think people think that the begging for
grades, or that grade hungriness, stops at high school Once they
accept a college or universityoffer.
It stays the same throughoutcollege.
The students will still say, oh, I got a 68.
My friend got a 70.
Why don't I get a 70?
You still have thoseconversations.
But I always tell my studentsI'm an open book.
(27:39):
You think I missed something.
I'm human, I may miss something.
Let's have a conversation aboutit.
I try to provide very goodfeedback to students when they
submit work going through tohelp explain to them the grade
that they did earn on anassessment.
But no, you still have it.
It's hard too, because you havesome students that will be in
my section of communications butthen their friends are in other
(28:00):
sections of communication.
So they said they look at howdifferent professors grade as
well.
Right, so you start seeing somevariation of grading from
professor to professor.
So, yeah, you get students thatask, ask questions, think their
grades should be higher.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So why do you think they're so anxious about grades
at the college level, like arethey using these grades to get
into another program?
Or is you know, are employerslooking at their grades Like for
me, it makes sense, they'retrying to use these grades to
get into another program.
Or is you know our employerslooking at their grades, like
for me, it makes sense, they'retrying to use these grades to
get into the next stage of theirlife.
Why are they so anxious at thecollege level?
Speaker 3 (28:33):
you think I think some of the pattern that was
just formed from high school.
Like in high school they wereused to every single mark matter
.
They needed it.
So that same pattern forms alsoteaching many international
students to.
They have to provide theirofficial transcript for these
immigration processes as well.
So I think they want to showthem that they are the student
that they're saying they are,and a way that they can prove
(28:54):
that is through an officialtranscript which shows a grade
four course.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Okay, that makes a lot more sense.
We keep talking aboutsimilarities between high school
and the, the college level.
Uh, I asked emma this question.
We talked about it, uh, ontheir first episode of season
three.
As, uh, parents, do you dealwith parents at the college
level?
Is that a thing?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
no, I have no parents .
I think you left that headachefrom that high school and the
elementary level.
But no, no, parents have had afew parents, be true, but when
the teaching adults, especiallyadult, they need to release
permission for the parents to beable to have access to their
grades, even their studentaccount for fees, all of that,
and a lot of students don't wantto give their parents
(29:35):
permission to know about gradingif they're getting in courses.
So, no, not very much.
I'm trying to think back if Ihave any parent experiences, but
not too often, other thanmeeting parents in the grocery
stores when I see students outin the community, and then those
introductions and, of course,the parents oh, how is my son,
(29:56):
how is my daughter?
They good in your class, and Ialways just try to laugh it off.
No official parent interactions.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Okay, yeah, that totally makes sense.
I figured that was going to beyour answer, but I feel like
I've been off with so manythings that I thought I'd double
check with the parents.
And obviously, well, you knowthat at the high school level
and elementary school levelparents are all over the place.
But yeah, college level, by thetime you get to that age, like
parents get out of here, likelet your kids do their own thing
, and yeah, that totally makessense there.
I want to circle back to theassessments piece.
(30:29):
I forgot to ask you about thequestion about academic
integrity and plagiarism.
I was telling stories about howthis was still a thing at the
first year undergraduate levelat Western and we had to deal
with it.
Have you dealt with academicintegrity at the first year
level of college?
Yeah, too many times that Iwant to, too many times, and we
have to deal with it.
Have you dealt with academicintegrity at the first year?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
level of college, or yeah, too many times that I want
to Ah too many times, no, thereis lots when I look at academic
integrity.
sometimes it is just anignorance or not understanding.
I pulled this information froma website.
I think it's great, I'm gonnasubmit it for my assignment.
And often those times are theconversations on like you're
missing citations.
You copy and pasted otherpeople's information.
(31:08):
We can't do that right.
So sometimes I do find thatit's a conversation it's not
been to the opportunity forlearning.
And then there's other timeswhere it's put something into
chat.
Gbt spits out an answer.
It submits that for their ownwork.
So yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I was gonna say there's a lot.
How often have you been dealingwith the chat, GPT and AI stuff
?
I know this is still very brandnew and schools are trying to
figure out how to deal with this.
Have you come across chat, gptwork and how have you guys
handled it?
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, there's a lot of it, especially when we look
at communications and we'reasked to write a paragraph with
something specific or a letter,and some students that.
Then we're asked to write aparagraph with something
specific or a letter, and somestudents that I'll just use chat
gbt for this.
So trying to remind students ofwhy they're in college right,
they're here to learn, they'rehere to build the skill.
So if you use chat gbt, you'reonly cheating yourself on the
skill that you expect to have inthe workplace.
But when they come through,then it is an academic integrity
(32:01):
case and then following ourinternal process on what that
looks like, whether it's a zeroon assignment or whether it's a
zero on the course.
So we do follow our process andwe understand the integrity
that's associated with themcompleting the work that they
are submitting.
But for me, I'm a believer thatit has to be integrated into
the classroom.
Artificial intelligence isn'tgoing anywhere, so it's looking
(32:21):
more and more on how can weintegrate it into assignments,
into assessments, and use it asa tool to be able to teach
students how to use?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
yeah, I, I 100 agree with you.
I I'm trying to like.
I don't know, if you know, Iteach accounting so I'm trying
to figure out how to bring in aiinto the classroom so you're
right, it's not going anywhere.
People are still using it rightright now.
It feels like we're justsneaking this tool behind
everyone's back.
It's like it's like when Googlefirst came up right, like we
embraced Google, like Googlecome on in and we figured out
(32:51):
how to integrate.
Now Google is part of oureveryday vocabulary, we use it.
So how can we use AI in theclassroom, where it becomes our
friend and rather than our foe?
And I haven't figured out howyet.
And I think, um, we're going tobring in some faculty and some
people into our school for PD,for that.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
But yeah, I don't know.
Have you guys used it?
Yeah, I've used it.
We did mock interviews.
We did cover letters, resumes,mock interviews where I brought
people in from the communityStudents did mock interviews
with the different people andthen one of the follow up tasks
was completing a thank youletter.
So I told students, you can usea thank you letter, you can put
it into chat, gbt, you can useartificial intelligence for the
(33:30):
prompt, and then you need torevise it.
And I was very nervous.
It was my first time where Igave them the green light Go
ahead and use it.
And I created a form sayingtell me the prompt, tell me what
AI brought out to you, what didthey provide, and then show me
the finished letter.
So what did you revise?
Speaker 1 (33:47):
nice, nice, you know I like that actually.
Yeah, we bring in judges in myclassroom for their final grade
12 summative project and Iactually asked them to write a
letter to the uh, to theirguests that's actually a nice
little easy way to introduce aiinto the classroom.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
That's uh, that could be helpful and it makes them
make revisions too right,because I'm like AI doesn't know
that John Smith interviewed youon Tuesday at 10 30 right,
you're gonna have to revise yourletter to provide those details
.
So I'm still very much new intoseeing how can we integrate it
while still assessing studentsown knowledge as well right yeah
, I definitely think it can be atool into the classroom.
(34:25):
It'll be interesting to seewhat the next few years of
education looks like.
What is?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
that I like that idea and this is a lot of work that
you guys do.
I'm curious, if you don't mindme asking you know how, how are
the, the benefits and thecompensation like at the college
level?
Is it comparable to what youthought it was going to be?
Do you think it's fair?
Do you guys have pension?
Like, how does that all workcompared to what you, what you
(34:52):
think the high school level paysand what you've researched out
there?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, I think that.
So the way that their paymentworks, it'll depend on your
education, your experience.
So if you start teachingcollege and you had 20 years of
experience, then your pay willlook different as well.
But in terms of me, like fairlyyoung starting out as a
professor teaching for fiveyears, I think it is a very good
pay in terms of your vacationtime as well.
(35:16):
So, getting your summers off, astrong pension, strong benefits
yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Nice, you get pension too.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Yeah, really good pension plan, good benefits and
the best part is being able tolove your job.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
When you go to a job each day that you love, that is
the best part 100%, so actuallysounds very similar to the high
school level it's based off of,would you say it's like
seniority, like you spend.
If you put 10 years teachingversus two years teaching, the
compensation is going to go updepending on how many years you
put in.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
And your education as well.
Whether you have an undergrad,your master's PhD depending on
your education and yourexperience as well.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay, so okay, very, very similar then to the high
school level Interesting.
And then obviously you guys getyour benefits and all that
stuff, and obviously you guysget the summers off, reading
week I'm assuming you guys haveas well.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Yeah, we don't have it off, though it's still.
We call it a non-teach period,but there's lots of interesting
PD that's available to staffduring that week.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
But it's also a good time to catch up on grading.
We talk about all the gradingthat needs to be done without
TAs.
So reading week, my reading toget caught up on grading.
I'm like no students around, noone's floating by the halls, no
one's knocking on my officedoor, a good time to get all
caught up, right?
Speaker 1 (36:32):
so what is the hardest part of the job of
teaching at the college level?
Is it, I don't know.
Is it the marking?
Is it the teaching?
Is it the student interactions?
What do you think is the mostdifficult part that you know a
person might not realize?
Speaker 3 (36:46):
I think the student interactions they're the best
part and also the hardest part,right.
You get students adults goingthrough hard life things.
So when they see you as someoneto support them by
understanding our job asprofessors can only go so far,
right.
So when they're havingdifficulties at home or they're
needing extensions for certainthings that are going on in
their life, you carry the weightof their worries home with you
(37:07):
as well.
You want to help all thestudents, especially in small
class sizes, and when you feellike you can't help every single
student to the degree that theyneed their assistance, I think
that can be the hardest part.
Same with the academicintegrity Dealing with those
cases when you're handing outzeros on assignments that are
decent work but they just didn't.
They used artificialintelligence or they didn't
(37:28):
complete it with their ownknowledge.
Those conversations are neverfun.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
When you say adults, what's the range?
Like, obviously there's peoplethat comes right out of high
school at 18, 19 years old.
Like are you also gettingpeople in their 30s, 40s, people
that are married with kids?
Like, what do you see?
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Yeah, so my taking my own class size this semester
from 18 probably all the way upto 50.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
18 to 50?
.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, so you have students that are right from
high school this is the careerthey want to explore, and then
other students that have had twoor three careers, taken some
time off, raised kids, had acareer, got laid off, looking to
come back and either explore anew interest or to upgrade their
skills, and they're coming backas mature learners into the
classroom.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Wow, that's got to be hard, like you know.
That's one thing I think mostteachers take for granted.
You teach one age group.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
And obviously maturity level kind of varies,
but it's kind of within thisband.
But 18 to 50, that's two very,very different life stages.
How do you plan your lessons tomake sure that you're appealing
to, let's say, the more maturegroup versus kind of the ones
that are coming straight out ofhigh school?
I think having something youthink about.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Yeah, especially having reflective assignments
when we talk about AI and how dowe combat AI, or or saying like
you can't use this.
But then also, how do we appealassignments to all students.
And I think that's part of itis having reflective assignments
for saying, hey, you need towrite a letter or you need to
write an email, but havingstudents be able to than the
topic that interests a 50 yearold as well.
Right, so making sure that wecan do self-reflective
(39:09):
assignments where students areable to choose what they want to
write about or what do theywant to present about in order
to appeal to their own interests.
But you also start seeing thedifferent motivations, like the
motivation of an 18 year oldversus the motivation of a 30,
40, 50, 50 year old, thatmotivation looks very different
as well.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
And where that life.
But it's also interesting CauseI say like we have a lot to
learn from each other when youstart putting different groups
of people into group worktogether.
It is really interesting to seethe perspectives that are
shared among peers.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Michaela, are they looking for accounting teachers
right now?
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Do you guys teach accounting?
We do teach accounting, you doteach accounting, we do teach
accounting.
First year, accounting Firstyear.
Hey, any job openings right?
Speaker 1 (39:52):
now, or I hope my principal's not listening as.
I'm asking this question.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
But no, honestly, it is a great experience.
I highly recommend it,especially for high school
teachers that are looking for achange of pace.
It is very similar, but thenalso different, right?
You have students that arechoosing to be here, choosing to
be in the classroom.
You have students from allaround the world, all bunch of
different ages together, allbunch of different motivation.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
I you know I was genuine when I said this at the
beginning of the episode.
I really thought teaching atthe college level would be a
great transition job for mycareer.
At one point, when I'm like,hey, you know what I think I'm
career.
At one point when I'm like, hey, you know what I think I'm done
with high school, I'm ready tokind of move on to a different
experience and I love my time atWestern and I thought that
either university or collegeteaching would be a great next
(40:38):
part of my life and just hearingyou talk about it, I'm like man
, this seems like a realpossibility.
So I really appreciate this.
So maybe we'll end the episodewith this final question here
Michaela, what is the best partof your job?
If you were to sell this job tothe listeners out there who
might be on the fence right nowthinking about hopping careers
here to the college level, whatwould you say to them?
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I'd have two things On graduation day each year
seeing students walk across thestage that you have taught
multiple times and knowingthey've overcome life adversity
but they've accomplished thegoal of graduating from a
college diploma and looking tomove on to the next chapter of
life.
That is always rewarding.
I always have tears in my eyesseeing students cross the stage.
They've made it, they'relooking to move on.
(41:20):
And also the everydayexperience in the classroom,
seeing students that arestruggling with the
communication skills and thentelling.
Then hearing them say I hadthis job interview, I got this
job, I'm using the skills I'mlearning from the classroom.
I find that rewarding to justhearing the small wins every day
, seeing students improve,seeing their smiling faces in
the hall that they truly love tobe here, love what they're
(41:43):
learning, they're making friends.
They definitely graduation day.
And then just seeing thestudents small wins every single
day.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Yeah, I can completely resonate with that.
That's a great way to wrap upan episode, very beautiful way
to wrap up an episode, michaela.
Thank you so much.
If people are interested inlooking into applying for jobs,
let's say Northern, where canthey go?
Is there a website or where canthey reach out to?
Speaker 3 (42:09):
for more questions.
Yeah, so our Northern CollegeCareers webpage.
It definitely has any part-time, full-time faculty positions.
But, yeah, there's lots ofopportunities across the
province of Ontario and I highlyrecommend teaching adult
learners at the college level.
It's a great experience andlove my job and love what I do.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Northern College.
I should have probably saidthis earlier.
You guys have multiple campuses, right?
Where are some of the othercampuses?
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Yeah, we have four campuses.
We have campuses in Mussini,Kirkland Lake, Haleberry and
Timmins.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Nice.
Everyone, go check out thatwebsite.
I'll put it in the show notes.
So thank you so much again,Michaela, for jumping on today's
episode.
I definitely learned a lot aswell about teaching at the
college level, and I hope ourlisteners as well.
So thank you so much to all ofour listeners today.
Thank you so much.
If you guys enjoy this content,please feel free to follow us
on Facebook and on Instagram atthe Teacher Hotline, and we will
(43:00):
see you guys next month.
Take care everybody.
This week's episode is sponsored by VisualPing.
Visualping is the free webdetection monitoring tool that
watches and alerts you tochanges on the sites that matter
most to you.
Forget clicking on that refreshbutton over and over again,
because VisualPing instantlyinforms you about item restocks,
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(00:21):
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Create a free account today atvisualpingio.
Is this the Teacher Hotline?
My name is Ronald Hay, where wetry to answer some of the most
(01:09):
pressing questions for teachersin and outside of the classroom.
Today we have Casey from theTDSB, the Toronto District
School Board.
Casey, what can we do for youtoday?
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Hey, ron, I listened to your first episode of Season
3 of your podcast and youbrought in someone to talk about
teaching at the universitylevel.
I've taught high schoolbusiness for 20 years and this
always sounded like a greatcareer transition for me.
Your episode mentioned youneeded a PhD for most
university-level teaching jobs.
I was wondering if you knowwhat qualifications you need to
(01:41):
teach at the college level andwhat are the main differences
between teaching at the collegelevel versus university.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Thanks.
Thank you so much for your call, Casey.
Very interesting enough, Iactually also looked into
teaching at the college levelfor many years myself after my
positive experience at Western,Actually.
In fact, I remember seeing adsfor business faculty jobs at
Fanshawe College in London,Ontario and highly considered
applying for the job, butdecided to end up going down the
(02:10):
high school route instead.
So to be honest with you, I'mkind of very curious about
learning about the whole processmyself, about what it's like to
teach at a college and whatthose big differences are.
So today we have MichaelaLachance, a communications
professor from Northern Collegeat the Timmins campus.
Michaela has been teachingthere for five years and she got
her BA in geography fromNipissing University and
(02:32):
currently completing hermaster's in education,
specializing in adult education,at Yorkville University.
Michaela, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Thanks, ron, I'm so excited to be joining on the
podcast today.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Thanks, ron, I'm so excited to be joining on the
podcast today.
Yeah, I'm very interestedmyself about teaching at the
college level.
It's something I've personallythought about myself.
I thought, man, I had such agreat time teaching at Western
that maybe this could be a nextchapter in my life, perhaps so
when I retire the last five, 10years of my life teaching at a
(03:05):
college.
Like I said in the intro, Ilooked into a bunch of ads on
LinkedIn and thought this wouldbe a cool opportunity.
But really, besides justlooking at the job application,
I haven't really dove too deepinto the process.
So I'd love to pick your braintoday just about what it takes
to be qualified, what they'relooking for, what the
differences are, because I'msure there's a huge difference
(03:26):
between teaching at a college,university, high school, maybe
even elementary level.
So maybe we'll start with thefirst question Did you always
know you want to be a teacher,and why the college level?
Why not high school?
Why not elementary?
Why not the university level?
Why specifically college?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Yeah, great question.
So I always want to be a ateacher.
I was that classicfour-year-old girl playing
teacher in the basement in myplayroom, always had these
imaginary students creatingworksheets, so I knew I had a
love for being a teacher andworking with kids.
However, when I was doing myundergrad with nipissing
university, I did a placement ina grade one two classroom and I
very quickly realized thatyoung kids were not my jam.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
So I'm always elementary teachers.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
I deserve all the praise because I'm like I went
in there for I think it was 10days and I says, oh my goodness,
this is not for me at all.
However, I did continue workingat Nipissing University
throughout my undergrad withadults and our international
services department and Irealized I liked working with
adult learners.
And then, after I completed myundergrad, I continued my
(04:33):
journey up north to NorthernCollege in Timmins and there I
joined the internationaldepartment and I started
teaching part time in theevenings, teaching in the
business programs and somecommunications courses.
So I realized that I liketeaching with adults, continued
teaching adult learners.
So, to answer the question,elementary I knew it wasn't for
(04:54):
me.
High school didn't reallyinterest me as much.
But then being able to teachstudents who already had some
previous knowledge, that was myjam.
I very quickly realized adultlearners was the classroom that
I belong in.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, so let's jump straight into the caller's
question.
This is kind of my question too.
You know, what qualificationsdo you need to teach at the
college level?
Is it very dependent on theschool and the program?
Like you mentioned, that youwere able to sounds like you
went from straight out of schoolto be able to teach some of
those early business coursesright away, part time.
(05:29):
How did that first job kind ofcome to you there?
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Yeah, so the first job was actually very
interesting.
There's a part time professorthat was lined up to teach the
class.
About a week into the semestersomething came up with their
personal life and I received anemail from the dean at the time
saying Mikaela, I have thisclass, Are you interested in
jumping in to cover it?
So I said sure, I'll try it out, see how it goes.
Usually to teach at the collegelevel it'll depend on the
(05:55):
program.
So some programs, like ournursing programs, you will need
a specialized degree in nursing.
It really just depends on theprogram or the school.
But something likecommunications or business,
where there's more entry-levelcourses, it's usually just an
undergrad degree wow, okay, sovery similar to at least the
westerns kind of style ofsetting up there for the program
(06:15):
.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
They're undergraduate students, right?
You could kind of teach thosefirst and second year courses.
And what course did you teach?
You said communications, butwhat year was that?
Speaker 3 (06:22):
so communications.
So all students at northerncollege take a communications
course, so it's usuallycommunications once.
That's the very first coursethat is offered in our first
semester of programs.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Now this is where I'm very curious.
So when you were teaching thefirst year course that's, I
taught a first year course atWestern as well Did the students
know you were fairly young?
I'm assuming you were 22, 23?
Speaker 3 (06:45):
at the time.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Did they know you were really young, or did you
kind of try to hide the factthat you were just a recent grad
?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I never disclosed my age for students.
Still, I'm a fairly youngprofessor too, and you can see
some students will be saying, oh, I'm 30.
Are you closer to my age?
I'm like, oh, I don't know.
I don't disclose thatinformation.
You have students that arecurious.
I know I didn't tell them I wasa recent grad.
I did tell them that I hadgraduated from Nipissing
University and I was new toteaching.
I like to be transparent withstudents as well.
(07:13):
We're all on a learning journey.
Even as a professor, I'll trythings.
I have a great lesson.
I think it's the best lessonthat's going to work.
And then I realized veryquickly I have students that are
blinking, just trying to stayawake.
So let's pivot and try adifferent strategy as well.
So no, I never disclosed that Iwas a recent grad.
However, I did disclose that Iwas new to teaching.
(07:34):
So to show me grace as I alsooffered them grace as they
started their college experience.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Oh yeah, same here At Western they specifically.
Well, they knew that we wereyoung and they actually asked us
to kind of dress up in suitsand ties and you know we were in
a business program, so theyasked us to kind of look the
part and I think because of justthe way we dressed we looked a
lot older than we actually did.
Does Northern Campus ask forsimilar dress attire as well,
(08:04):
like you got to be dressed acertain way, or what's the kind
of dress code like for teachersthere?
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yeah, they definitely ask you to dress professional.
So usually throwing on a blazerand dress pants on days that
you're teaching, days thatyou're not teaching, there's not
as much of that.
Same expectations, however,definitely when you're in front
of the students, making sureyou're modeling to them that
you're here to be professionaland modeling to them that you're
here to be professional, hereto do a job, here to conduct
them like to conduct yourself.
With that expectation when theygo into the workplace they're
(08:29):
going to have to conductthemselves to a similar
professional standard.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, even at the high school level.
I know it's not common, but atmy school, appleby, sometimes
people are very shocked that wehave to dress up in a suit and
tie as well, and you know youraverage high school teacher at
most schools.
You know you can kind of go inand you know whatever you want.
But I kind of like the wholeprofessional wear, especially
(08:52):
for me as a business teacher,going in with a suit and tie.
It just kind of commands a morecertain type of level of
respect from the kids, and soI'm all for that.
So cool to see that NorthernCollege also does the same thing
.
So what are yourresponsibilities as a college
professor at Northern?
Maybe we could kind of go downthe list.
(09:13):
We could talk about teachinghours, office hours, summer
hours.
Maybe let's just kind of get ageneric landscape of what your
job looks like.
So how many classes do youteach and what's your schedule
looking like?
So how many classes do youteach and what's your schedule
looking like?
Speaker 3 (09:26):
So I was a part time professor.
So that's my journey.
I started as a part timeprofessor and then just joined
the full time faculty in August.
So as part time professor Itaught usually one to two
classes a semester, but now, asa full time professor, I teach
four classes a semester or fourclasses a semester, and then we
have three semesters a year.
So I use about 35 students perclass oh, nice and small yes,
(09:50):
nice and small forcommunications.
I've taught some other classesintroduction to organizational
behavior, where those classeswere mostly 50, 55, 60 students.
But for communications.
We have nice and small classes,35 students.
I teach four courses a semesterand then I also have faculty
meetings, program reviews,curriculum development, lesson
(10:13):
prep, grading everything elsehas trickled into the day.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Hey, sounds like kind of what we do, pretty much what
every teacher would do actuallyat the high school level,
elementary level, just adifferent, you know audience, uh
that you have right here olderuh adults here, yeah, um, so you
said, uh, you teach fourclasses, and so is it all
communication classes, or yeah,it's all communications classes
(10:39):
we teach.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
I teach a communications one class in the
first semester and then acommunications two class in the
second semester communication tobeing like second year students
yes, yeah, second year orsecond semester students seconds
.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Okay, second semester , yeah, um, and what are your
hours like is, are these likemonday, wednesday, fridays, is
it?
Uh, like, how long are theseclasses?
Speaker 3 (11:00):
yes, I usually teach a tuesday, wednesday, thursday,
friday, so four days a week.
I usually I prefer my class tobe held in the morning I'm more
of a morning person and thenstaying there later.
Uh, so I'm usually more of amorning person.
My classes are three hours inlength.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
They're usually looking oh, each class or three
hours yeah each class is threehours, so one three hour period.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
They're not separated into one one half hour.
Some classes are, but in termsof communications they they
usually one three hour period.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Is that specifically for you, or is that?
Just all classes or three hourclasses?
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Three hour classes are common and to be delivered
all at once.
Some people will teach a fourhour class, just depending on
the program, and then those onesare often separated into a two
hour block and a two hour block.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
Okay, um, yeah, for three hours it's all, it's all
delivered at once yeah, I know,at western we had a bunch of
three-hour classes.
I never taught any of them, butum, I know, I don't want to say
they're common, but um, yeah,that would be.
That's a marathon right thereyeah, especially with adult
learners.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I think people think that young kids have shorter
attention spans, but also withadult learners as well.
So it can be difficult, andthat's what comes into the
lesson prep making sure that youhave your lecture, part of it,
and then you also have anactivity that reinforces the
learning, whether it's a TEDtalk or a video or another
in-class activity, because nostudents want to listen for
(12:21):
three hours straight.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I can't Something else I can't.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I can't even sit through a 10 minute meeting in
my department, so I can't evensit through a 10-minute meeting
in my department.
Yeah, yeah, forget three hours.
Yeah, what about office hours?
Do you guys have mandatedoffice hours in your department?
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Yes, there's an expectation for faculty.
I have office hours.
Usually I do my Mondays.
I tell my students I don't haveclass on Mondays.
I'll be in my office 8 to 4.
Feel free to stop by.
So yeah, often for an extension.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
All right, of course classic, so that doesn't change
it.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
No, that doesn't change.
That's the stop by and thatchit chat at the beginning.
Oh, I have another question.
Can I have an extension on thisassignment?
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Classic move.
It doesn't matter if you're akid or an adult, that's a
classic move, right there yeahthat doesn't change, but there's
an expectation of office hoursespecially.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
It's nice teaching small classes.
I get to know all of mystudents.
Yeah, when we have facultymeetings and I'm able to see
johnny is struggling in thisclass, is he struggling in any
other classes as well?
So yeah, the faculty is greatbecause you will discuss student
concerns and get to know.
Okay, if johnny's juststruggling in my class, I should
reach out to see if he needstutoring or other assistance wow
, I didn't know that of havingsmall classes, and same with
(13:31):
part-time faculty.
They able to email a programcoordinator, a dean, saying so,
and so hasn't shown up.
What should we do?
Should we reach out?
What does that look like?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
wow, that actually sounds very high school like.
Yeah, honestly, like I justassume that once you get to the
college level or universitylevel, it's like you're on your
own, no one's really checking in, because I know at western that
doesn't happen.
Like if someone's flunking outin one class, like we would have
no idea that they're flunkingout in the other class, or
they're struggling like we couldcare less.
To be honest with you, yeah,it's uh, because, yeah, we had
so many students come throughour classes but uh, wow, that's
(14:02):
kind of really nice that youkind of have that one-on-one
attention and that kind ofchecking on the kids like that.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
That's really, really interesting.
I think the benefit of havinglike a small Northern Ontario
school that you don't have thehuge class sizes of 80, 90
students, and I think that'swhere you see a differentiation
between the college anduniversity.
I remember going through myundergrad and there'd be me and
150 other students, so if Iwasn't there for a few weeks no
one would notice.
Right, when you have a smallclass of 35, which is common for
(14:30):
our college classes, you're notthere a couple weeks and that
professor is going to notice.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
What about summer hours?
I'm sure all the high schooland elementary teachers would
want to know about that.
When do you finish school?
Do you have to do anything inthe summer?
What's that all like?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I am off middle of june to middle of august so I
teach a condensed.
I still teach in the summer,but I'll teach from beginning of
may to middle of june.
So I'll teach a condensedcourse, but then I'll have lots
of time within there to work onbuilding curriculum, reviewing
lessons all that fun stuff thereand then I have the summer off,
(15:08):
come back middle of August andwe'll have a couple weeks of
prep before our semester starts.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Now I remember when I was at Western, part of my
summer duties was I didn't haveto come into the office but we
had to publish these casestudies for our classrooms and
for exam purposes, and I knowyour other professors.
They're focused on research.
Is there anything like thatthat at the college level you're
(15:34):
, I guess, quote, unquotecontracted to do, whether you're
a first year professor or a10th year professor?
Is there anything that you haveto do over the summer?
Speaker 3 (15:43):
There's nothing that we have to do Once you hit that.
Middle of June to the middle ofAugust, that is our official
vacation period.
So I think I'm still glued toemail, so I'll probably still be
checking in here and there tosee what's going on.
But no other professors willsign off for the full two months
and we'll travel, go to thecottages camps.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Okay, so very similar to high school teachers.
Yes, yeah, is there anyresearch that gets done at the
college level?
No, there's no research.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It's not like a tenured professor where there is
a research component as part ofit.
There's no research.
There's expectations forcurriculum development and
different things are changing,making sure that we're
continuing to stay up to speed.
So a lot of ongoingprofessional learning and
development opportunities thatare provided, but no official
research.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Okay, I wasn't sure about that.
I knew, obviously, universityprofessors, their big thing was
research and publication, so Iwasn't sure if that's the thing
at the college level.
What about, like your contract?
Like how does that work?
Because at Western they made itvery clear to me that it was a
two year contract and I was okaywith that.
(16:49):
And then obviously, even whenyou become a professor, from
what I hear a lot of times,their contract works and like
what's your job security like atyour place?
Is it like, hey, you're therefor two years, or is it like you
can have this job for as longas you want?
How does that all work?
Speaker 3 (17:04):
It's a good question.
So in the position I'm in, I'ma full-time professor, so I
could have the job for however Iwant.
So I'm a full-time professor.
So if I want to teach for fiveyears or in 20 years, I decided
to do're doing when I startedteaching part-time, I'm doing it
(17:30):
my foot in the door to see do Ilike teaching adults as much as
I think I would?
Then that was just semester bysemester, so it'd be often a
course for a semester and thenI'd be offered a new course for
the next semester.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Right, right, interesting.
Yeah, you were saying earlierabout that you got 35, earlier
about that you got 35, maybe upto 60 students per class.
Do you guys also have TAs aswell at the college level?
How do you mark all thoseassignments?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
There are no TAs.
I wish we had TAs.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
No.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
TAs?
Really no, there's no TAs.
I spend many hours grading,especially with communications.
It's a lot of letters andparagraphs, presentations.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
So the amount of hours I spend reading and
grading.
But yeah, there's no TAs, soeach professor is responsible
for grading their ownassessments.
It'll change from course tocourse.
You have those courses whereit's mostly multiple choice and
mostly or mostly tests sure, Ithink those ones are a little
bit easier to grade.
But in terms of communicationsit's all written work.
There's not too many multipleoh, that's so painful.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
I got like 20 papers I gotta read right now and it's
like holy smokes.
Uh, I know this is probablygonna come out in the summer.
We were recording this rightnow in march.
But, um, oh my god, like I got20 papers to to read right now
and, uh, it's killing me.
It's yeah, like I'm like, oh mygod, I gotta read 20.
I know the high other highschool teachers probably
thinking, ron, you're a loser,like that's nothing.
(18:59):
Uh, but man, like 30, 40, 50,60 papers like holy smokes, uh,
no, tas, well, my communicationstoo.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
We do our resumes and cover letters looking to
prepare students for postgradand entering the workforce.
So when I had this past winterI had 90 to 100 resumes and
cover letters and we're expectedto grade it within 10 days,
like that's a grading policy soI think at the end of it if I
saw one more cover letter, I'mnot looking at it Like I maxed
(19:28):
out for a couple months oflooking at cover letters and
resumes.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
Yeah, by the end I'll be like, all right, you're
fired, you're fired, you'refired.
We're not looking at it.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I'm like this looks great Like it's hard to get that
fresh eyes to then go throughand provide the same quality
feedback.
Oh Weston, did you have TAs?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Yeah, we got TAs.
Yeah, like we got TAs.
In fact, people because we wereso young, people thought we
were the TAs.
Every time I told people like,oh, yeah, I teach at Western.
They go, yeah, so you're a TA.
I'm like, no, no, I'm not a TA.
Yeah, we hired TAs and, yeah,they did the mark.
There was probably twoassignments that we had to mark
ourselves.
There was the final exam andthen there was like one
organizational behavior report.
We marked ourselves, buteverything else was through the
(20:12):
TA.
So, wow, I just assumed youguys had TAs to help you,
because that's a lot ofassignments to mark.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, and there's no like it's not just TAs for my
class, I guess across the board.
You go into our faculty wing ona Friday afternoon you see
everyone just grading and tryingto get all the grades in for
the weekend.
So they don't see any at home.
But yeah, there's no TA'sacross the board.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So, besides the marking, what's it like to prep
a lesson at the college level?
Like, how many hours are youputting in?
Like what are you trying to do?
Like these are long classesthree hours.
I taught maybe one three hourclass once to cover another
teacher back at Western and it'slong.
It is a long grind.
Right now my classes are 75minutes at Applebee.
(20:54):
How do you prep a three-hourlesson?
What does a typical class looklike for you?
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Good.
So, yes, an interestingquestion.
It can change each semester aswell, as I'm seeing, like the
demographic of students and whatare their attention spans
looking at as well.
But usually I try to structurewhere it's 20 minutes of lecture
and then we have 20 minutes ofa break activity and then 20
minutes of either we're lookingat a video, playing some type of
bingo, jeopardy, crosswordpuzzle, something to interact
(21:20):
with the students, and thenusually I'll give students a 10
minute break and then kind ofrepeat the cycle.
So I'm looking usually 20minute chunks, 20 minute
teaching, 20 minute small groupactivity and then a of repeat
the cycle.
So I'm looking usually20-minute chunks, 20-minute
teaching, 20-minute small groupactivity and then a 20-minute
larger group activity.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Okay, pretty smart.
Yeah, that's pretty much whatwell, at least I try to do in my
classrooms as well.
I realize kids mostly can'thold their attention for that
long.
Are these classes similar bythe time you get to fourth year
in terms of class size and classlength as well?
Is it also 30, 60 students or?
Speaker 3 (21:53):
do they get smaller?
They usually get smallerbecause you see some students
that may decide to changecareers, explore different
things as well.
So you'll usually you'll see,like for the electrical group.
I teach communications toelectrical group of students.
I started with that one at thebeginning of the year at I was
about 30 students now teachingthem in the second semester
we're down to about 2022.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Okay.
So yeah, that's about my, myclass size, roughly around 20
there.
What was it like teaching yourfirst class?
Like were you really nervous,like how did you feel?
Speaker 3 (22:23):
It was so intimidating.
I don't think I slept at allthe night before picking up.
We talk about dressingprofessional and I pick out the
most professional blazer,looking the part, and I feel bad
for my first semester students.
I think I probably talked foran hour and a half.
I'm straight because I'm likethis is content we need to cover
.
This is what has to be done.
So I feel really bad for myfirst semester students because
(22:46):
I probably talked so much.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, it's not easy, it's not.
There's so much nervous energyand I always like to ask
teachers what their first classwas like.
Because, you're right, likeit's, they don't know what's
your first class.
You're not going in announcingthis your first class, but
there's so much nervous energyand I remember saying this to
Emma as well it doesn't matterif you're at the elementary,
high school or university,college level, like that first
(23:10):
day in the classroom is scarystuff.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Oh for sure.
And especially learningclassroom management.
Right, you think you know like,hey, I went to university, I
did some placements, I loveteaching, always want to be a
teacher, I'm just going to knowhow to manage the classroom.
But those are skills thatdevelop over many, many years.
I think, when people thinkteaching adults, no, you still
have people talking, you'restill trying to bring their
attention back, you still havepeople's phone going off in
(23:35):
class, you still have all thosestruggles.
So yeah, it's definitely alearning curve, but I think I
have a much better handle onthings now than I did five years
ago.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
That is a very good point.
Classroom management what isthat like at the college level?
You mentioned, obviously,people talking and phones going
off, and that happens in myclassroom as well.
I'm sure in all classrooms.
Besides, kind of the commonthing was you know, is there
anything that you've ever had todeal with like a fight breaking
(24:04):
out or anything really, reallyextreme?
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Nothing as crazy as that.
It's a couple of students thatyou ask them to turn the phone
off or asking them to draw theirattention to the front, them
continuing not to do that.
But at this point the adultstoo right.
So there's some responsibilityover their own learning, whether
they choose to be in class,whether they choose not to be,
whether they just choose to showup on test day.
So it's kind of that message ofI'm here to teach you, I'm here
to support you, and you alsoneed to make that decision for
(24:30):
yourself that you do want to behere.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Right, there's a lot.
It's so funny just talking toyou about this.
There's so many similarities tothe high school level.
You mentioned tests.
How many assessments do youhave per year?
Speaker 3 (24:42):
So per classes about six to eight assessments okay,
yeah, this is per semester persemester, yeah, so usually about
six to eight, so nothing asmuch in the first couple weeks
of the semester.
And as we're building onknowledge, then we start getting
into more assessments and thenusually there's weekly homework
as well, especially forcommunications.
Looking just to build on theoral communication skills, the
(25:03):
written communication skills.
So I think college is verysimilar in terms of high school.
That's why why we alwaysencourage students, if you're
not sure where to go, take a oneyear college program, because
most of our programs are eitherone year or two year programs.
Oh yeah we have a lot ofpathways.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Like we have some students that decide I'm going
to take civil constructionengineering, I really like this,
and then they can bridge offinto a university program from
there oh, I had no idea that alot of these programs are only
one to two years so so you'resaying that I could take a one
year, two year business programat college let's say uh, at your
(25:37):
school, and then I couldtransfer some of those credits
to a university yes, yes, andthen you even have like three
years instead of the four years,like those.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
We have a whole bunch of pathways.
But people often don't knowthat about college, right, they
think it's similar to university, these big class sizes, but no,
I think it's very similar tohigh school, especially I went
to a private high school.
So, looking at my privateschool experience to the college
experience, it is very, verysimilar.
Smaller class sizes, professorsthat know you.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Yeah, you said you went to Holy Trinity, right.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Yeah, Trinity College School.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Trinity College, trinity.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
College School yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
In Port Hope.
Yes, so funny.
You told me that and I went toTrinity College last year for a
badminton tournament with thebadminton team.
Yeah, we took the 407 all theway over there, beautiful school
, amazing campus in you grew upin the independent school system
as well.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
Then, yeah, yeah, I played hockey for trinity
college, went to school thereand then the university, and
then started career young andpart part time and continued to
grow in that journey.
But no, I find it very, verysimilar to a high school
experience it does sound verysimilar.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
like my classes, I would say I have about eight
assessments per class per yearas well.
So that sounds about on par andI would say most classes at my
school have, roughly around thatballpark, around closer to
eight.
So, with that being said, mynext question is that our
students just as grade hungry atthe college level as they are
(27:08):
to maybe at the high schoollevel in grade 11 and 12?
Do students complain aboutgrades?
Do they grovel about grades?
Do they complain?
What's that like once they getto the college level?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Yeah, I think people think that the begging for
grades, or that grade hungriness, stops at high school Once they
accept a college or universityoffer.
It stays the same throughoutcollege.
The students will still say, oh, I got a 68.
My friend got a 70.
Why don't I get a 70?
You still have thoseconversations.
But I always tell my studentsI'm an open book.
(27:39):
You think I missed something.
I'm human, I may miss something.
Let's have a conversation aboutit.
I try to provide very goodfeedback to students when they
submit work going through tohelp explain to them the grade
that they did earn on anassessment.
But no, you still have it.
It's hard too, because you havesome students that will be in
my section of communications butthen their friends are in other
(28:00):
sections of communication.
So they said they look at howdifferent professors grade as
well.
Right, so you start seeing somevariation of grading from
professor to professor.
So, yeah, you get students thatask, ask questions, think their
grades should be higher.
Speaker 1 (28:16):
So why do you think they're so anxious about grades
at the college level, like arethey using these grades to get
into another program?
Or is you know, are employerslooking at their grades Like for
me, it makes sense, they'retrying to use these grades to
get into another program.
Or is you know our employerslooking at their grades, like
for me, it makes sense, they'retrying to use these grades to
get into the next stage of theirlife.
Why are they so anxious at thecollege level?
Speaker 3 (28:33):
you think I think some of the pattern that was
just formed from high school.
Like in high school they wereused to every single mark matter
.
They needed it.
So that same pattern forms alsoteaching many international
students to.
They have to provide theirofficial transcript for these
immigration processes as well.
So I think they want to showthem that they are the student
that they're saying they are,and a way that they can prove
(28:54):
that is through an officialtranscript which shows a grade
four course.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Okay, that makes a lot more sense.
We keep talking aboutsimilarities between high school
and the, the college level.
Uh, I asked emma this question.
We talked about it, uh, ontheir first episode of season
three.
As, uh, parents, do you dealwith parents at the college
level?
Is that a thing?
Speaker 3 (29:15):
no, I have no parents .
I think you left that headachefrom that high school and the
elementary level.
But no, no, parents have had afew parents, be true, but when
the teaching adults, especiallyadult, they need to release
permission for the parents to beable to have access to their
grades, even their studentaccount for fees, all of that,
and a lot of students don't wantto give their parents
(29:35):
permission to know about gradingif they're getting in courses.
So, no, not very much.
I'm trying to think back if Ihave any parent experiences, but
not too often, other thanmeeting parents in the grocery
stores when I see students outin the community, and then those
introductions and, of course,the parents oh, how is my son,
(29:56):
how is my daughter?
They good in your class, and Ialways just try to laugh it off.
No official parent interactions.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
Okay, yeah, that totally makes sense.
I figured that was going to beyour answer, but I feel like
I've been off with so manythings that I thought I'd double
check with the parents.
And obviously, well, you knowthat at the high school level
and elementary school levelparents are all over the place.
But yeah, college level, by thetime you get to that age, like
parents get out of here, likelet your kids do their own thing
, and yeah, that totally makessense there.
I want to circle back to theassessments piece.
(30:29):
I forgot to ask you about thequestion about academic
integrity and plagiarism.
I was telling stories about howthis was still a thing at the
first year undergraduate levelat Western and we had to deal
with it.
Have you dealt with academicintegrity at the first year
level of college?
Yeah, too many times that Iwant to, too many times, and we
have to deal with it.
Have you dealt with academicintegrity at the first year?
Speaker 3 (30:46):
level of college, or yeah, too many times that I want
to Ah too many times, no, thereis lots when I look at academic
integrity.
sometimes it is just anignorance or not understanding.
I pulled this information froma website.
I think it's great, I'm gonnasubmit it for my assignment.
And often those times are theconversations on like you're
missing citations.
You copy and pasted otherpeople's information.
(31:08):
We can't do that right.
So sometimes I do find thatit's a conversation it's not
been to the opportunity forlearning.
And then there's other timeswhere it's put something into
chat.
Gbt spits out an answer.
It submits that for their ownwork.
So yeah, there's.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I was gonna say there's a lot.
How often have you been dealingwith the chat, GPT and AI stuff
?
I know this is still very brandnew and schools are trying to
figure out how to deal with this.
Have you come across chat, gptwork and how have you guys
handled it?
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, there's a lot of it, especially when we look
at communications and we'reasked to write a paragraph with
something specific or a letter,and some students that.
Then we're asked to write aparagraph with something
specific or a letter, and somestudents that I'll just use chat
gbt for this.
So trying to remind students ofwhy they're in college right,
they're here to learn, they'rehere to build the skill.
So if you use chat gbt, you'reonly cheating yourself on the
skill that you expect to have inthe workplace.
But when they come through,then it is an academic integrity
(32:01):
case and then following ourinternal process on what that
looks like, whether it's a zeroon assignment or whether it's a
zero on the course.
So we do follow our process andwe understand the integrity
that's associated with themcompleting the work that they
are submitting.
But for me, I'm a believer thatit has to be integrated into
the classroom.
Artificial intelligence isn'tgoing anywhere, so it's looking
(32:21):
more and more on how can weintegrate it into assignments,
into assessments, and use it asa tool to be able to teach
students how to use?
Speaker 1 (32:30):
yeah, I, I 100 agree with you.
I I'm trying to like.
I don't know, if you know, Iteach accounting so I'm trying
to figure out how to bring in aiinto the classroom so you're
right, it's not going anywhere.
People are still using it rightright now.
It feels like we're justsneaking this tool behind
everyone's back.
It's like it's like when Googlefirst came up right, like we
embraced Google, like Googlecome on in and we figured out
(32:51):
how to integrate.
Now Google is part of oureveryday vocabulary, we use it.
So how can we use AI in theclassroom, where it becomes our
friend and rather than our foe?
And I haven't figured out howyet.
And I think, um, we're going tobring in some faculty and some
people into our school for PD,for that.
Speaker 3 (33:09):
But yeah, I don't know.
Have you guys used it?
Yeah, I've used it.
We did mock interviews.
We did cover letters, resumes,mock interviews where I brought
people in from the communityStudents did mock interviews
with the different people andthen one of the follow up tasks
was completing a thank youletter.
So I told students, you can usea thank you letter, you can put
it into chat, gbt, you can useartificial intelligence for the
(33:30):
prompt, and then you need torevise it.
And I was very nervous.
It was my first time where Igave them the green light Go
ahead and use it.
And I created a form sayingtell me the prompt, tell me what
AI brought out to you, what didthey provide, and then show me
the finished letter.
So what did you revise?
Speaker 1 (33:47):
nice, nice, you know I like that actually.
Yeah, we bring in judges in myclassroom for their final grade
12 summative project and Iactually asked them to write a
letter to the uh, to theirguests that's actually a nice
little easy way to introduce aiinto the classroom.
Speaker 3 (34:04):
That's uh, that could be helpful and it makes them
make revisions too right,because I'm like AI doesn't know
that John Smith interviewed youon Tuesday at 10 30 right,
you're gonna have to revise yourletter to provide those details
.
So I'm still very much new intoseeing how can we integrate it
while still assessing studentsown knowledge as well right yeah
, I definitely think it can be atool into the classroom.
(34:25):
It'll be interesting to seewhat the next few years of
education looks like.
What is?
Speaker 1 (34:30):
that I like that idea and this is a lot of work that
you guys do.
I'm curious, if you don't mindme asking you know how, how are
the, the benefits and thecompensation like at the college
level?
Is it comparable to what youthought it was going to be?
Do you think it's fair?
Do you guys have pension?
Like, how does that all workcompared to what you, what you
(34:52):
think the high school level paysand what you've researched out
there?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, I think that.
So the way that their paymentworks, it'll depend on your
education, your experience.
So if you start teachingcollege and you had 20 years of
experience, then your pay willlook different as well.
But in terms of me, like fairlyyoung starting out as a
professor teaching for fiveyears, I think it is a very good
pay in terms of your vacationtime as well.
(35:16):
So, getting your summers off, astrong pension, strong benefits
yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
Nice, you get pension too.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Yeah, really good pension plan, good benefits and
the best part is being able tolove your job.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
When you go to a job each day that you love, that is
the best part 100%, so actuallysounds very similar to the high
school level it's based off of,would you say it's like
seniority, like you spend.
If you put 10 years teachingversus two years teaching, the
compensation is going to go updepending on how many years you
put in.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
And your education as well.
Whether you have an undergrad,your master's PhD depending on
your education and yourexperience as well.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Okay, so okay, very, very similar then to the high
school level Interesting.
And then obviously you guys getyour benefits and all that
stuff, and obviously you guysget the summers off, reading
week I'm assuming you guys haveas well.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Yeah, we don't have it off, though it's still.
We call it a non-teach period,but there's lots of interesting
PD that's available to staffduring that week.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
But it's also a good time to catch up on grading.
We talk about all the gradingthat needs to be done without
TAs.
So reading week, my reading toget caught up on grading.
I'm like no students around, noone's floating by the halls, no
one's knocking on my officedoor, a good time to get all
caught up, right?
Speaker 1 (36:32):
so what is the hardest part of the job of
teaching at the college level?
Is it, I don't know.
Is it the marking?
Is it the teaching?
Is it the student interactions?
What do you think is the mostdifficult part that you know a
person might not realize?
Speaker 3 (36:46):
I think the student interactions they're the best
part and also the hardest part,right.
You get students adults goingthrough hard life things.
So when they see you as someoneto support them by
understanding our job asprofessors can only go so far,
right.
So when they're havingdifficulties at home or they're
needing extensions for certainthings that are going on in
their life, you carry the weightof their worries home with you
(37:07):
as well.
You want to help all thestudents, especially in small
class sizes, and when you feellike you can't help every single
student to the degree that theyneed their assistance, I think
that can be the hardest part.
Same with the academicintegrity Dealing with those
cases when you're handing outzeros on assignments that are
decent work but they just didn't.
They used artificialintelligence or they didn't
(37:28):
complete it with their ownknowledge.
Those conversations are neverfun.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
When you say adults, what's the range?
Like, obviously there's peoplethat comes right out of high
school at 18, 19 years old.
Like are you also gettingpeople in their 30s, 40s, people
that are married with kids?
Like, what do you see?
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Yeah, so my taking my own class size this semester
from 18 probably all the way upto 50.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
18 to 50?
.
Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yeah, so you have students that are right from
high school this is the careerthey want to explore, and then
other students that have had twoor three careers, taken some
time off, raised kids, had acareer, got laid off, looking to
come back and either explore anew interest or to upgrade their
skills, and they're coming backas mature learners into the
classroom.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Wow, that's got to be hard, like you know.
That's one thing I think mostteachers take for granted.
You teach one age group.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
And obviously maturity level kind of varies,
but it's kind of within thisband.
But 18 to 50, that's two very,very different life stages.
How do you plan your lessons tomake sure that you're appealing
to, let's say, the more maturegroup versus kind of the ones
that are coming straight out ofhigh school?
I think having something youthink about.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
Yeah, especially having reflective assignments
when we talk about AI and how dowe combat AI, or or saying like
you can't use this.
But then also, how do we appealassignments to all students.
And I think that's part of itis having reflective assignments
for saying, hey, you need towrite a letter or you need to
write an email, but havingstudents be able to than the
topic that interests a 50 yearold as well.
Right, so making sure that wecan do self-reflective
(39:09):
assignments where students areable to choose what they want to
write about or what do theywant to present about in order
to appeal to their own interests.
But you also start seeing thedifferent motivations, like the
motivation of an 18 year oldversus the motivation of a 30,
40, 50, 50 year old, thatmotivation looks very different
as well.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
And where that life.
But it's also interesting CauseI say like we have a lot to
learn from each other when youstart putting different groups
of people into group worktogether.
It is really interesting to seethe perspectives that are
shared among peers.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
Michaela, are they looking for accounting teachers
right now?
Speaker 3 (39:44):
Do you guys teach accounting?
We do teach accounting, you doteach accounting, we do teach
accounting.
First year, accounting Firstyear.
Hey, any job openings right?
Speaker 1 (39:52):
now, or I hope my principal's not listening as.
I'm asking this question.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
But no, honestly, it is a great experience.
I highly recommend it,especially for high school
teachers that are looking for achange of pace.
It is very similar, but thenalso different, right?
You have students that arechoosing to be here, choosing to
be in the classroom.
You have students from allaround the world, all bunch of
different ages together, allbunch of different motivation.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
I you know I was genuine when I said this at the
beginning of the episode.
I really thought teaching atthe college level would be a
great transition job for mycareer.
At one point, when I'm like,hey, you know what I think I'm
career.
At one point when I'm like, hey, you know what I think I'm done
with high school, I'm ready tokind of move on to a different
experience and I love my time atWestern and I thought that
either university or collegeteaching would be a great next
(40:38):
part of my life and just hearingyou talk about it, I'm like man
, this seems like a realpossibility.
So I really appreciate this.
So maybe we'll end the episodewith this final question here
Michaela, what is the best partof your job?
If you were to sell this job tothe listeners out there who
might be on the fence right nowthinking about hopping careers
here to the college level, whatwould you say to them?
Speaker 3 (40:59):
I'd have two things On graduation day each year
seeing students walk across thestage that you have taught
multiple times and knowingthey've overcome life adversity
but they've accomplished thegoal of graduating from a
college diploma and looking tomove on to the next chapter of
life.
That is always rewarding.
I always have tears in my eyesseeing students cross the stage.
They've made it, they'relooking to move on.
(41:20):
And also the everydayexperience in the classroom,
seeing students that arestruggling with the
communication skills and thentelling.
Then hearing them say I hadthis job interview, I got this
job, I'm using the skills I'mlearning from the classroom.
I find that rewarding to justhearing the small wins every day
, seeing students improve,seeing their smiling faces in
the hall that they truly love tobe here, love what they're
(41:43):
learning, they're making friends.
They definitely graduation day.
And then just seeing thestudents small wins every single
day.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
Yeah, I can completely resonate with that.
That's a great way to wrap upan episode, very beautiful way
to wrap up an episode, michaela.
Thank you so much.
If people are interested inlooking into applying for jobs,
let's say Northern, where canthey go?
Is there a website or where canthey reach out to?
Speaker 3 (42:09):
for more questions.
Yeah, so our Northern CollegeCareers webpage.
It definitely has any part-time, full-time faculty positions.
But, yeah, there's lots ofopportunities across the
province of Ontario and I highlyrecommend teaching adult
learners at the college level.
It's a great experience andlove my job and love what I do.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Northern College.
I should have probably saidthis earlier.
You guys have multiple campuses, right?
Where are some of the othercampuses?
Speaker 3 (42:31):
Yeah, we have four campuses.
We have campuses in Mussini,Kirkland Lake, Haleberry and
Timmins.
Speaker 1 (42:37):
Nice.
Everyone, go check out thatwebsite.
I'll put it in the show notes.
So thank you so much again,Michaela, for jumping on today's
episode.
I definitely learned a lot aswell about teaching at the
college level, and I hope ourlisteners as well.
So thank you so much to all ofour listeners today.
Thank you so much.
If you guys enjoy this content,please feel free to follow us
on Facebook and on Instagram atthe Teacher Hotline, and we will
(43:00):
see you guys next month.
Take care everybody.
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