Reflections on a Teaching Career #3
A new college and a new subject to dive into
Reflections on a Teaching Career #3
It was August 1997. I had just successfully completed teaching my first Hitchcock course at the College of Du Page (COD.) While I had another scheduled for the Fall and was advising students part-time, I still needed to beef up my income and teaching load. In those days one could find teaching gigs through the Sunday job section in the Chicago Tribune. Looking under “Education” there was always a last-minute need for an adjunct professor here and there. When I saw the ad for someone to teach Humanities at Moraine Valley Community College, about 35 minutes from where I was living, I thought I’d give it a shot. Recall: my most recent Master’s program at the University of Chicago was a General Studies in the Humanities. I was able to design my curriculum from any of the graduate courses in the division. Of course, I took all film classes.
So, technically I had an advanced degree in Humanities, but the coursework had nothing to do with the content of the Intro to Humanities courses Moraine was offering. Still, why not give it a shot? It was only the week before classes were to begin so they needed someone ASAP. I nabbed an interview with Phyllis Kozlowski, the head of the Fine Arts and Humanities program at the college. Phyllis was a large but well put together woman with finely sprayed blonde hair. What excited her about me was that I had gone through the same program as one of the recent full-time hires in the department, Sean. He was clearly a new wonder boy, and I guess I sounded like I could be one too (what with my long ponytail and all.) The other big advantage I had was that I could teach film. The full-time professor, Joyce, who taught a few film courses while also running the theater program, was taking a sabbatical during the Spring semester. This meant that in addition to Humanities I’d get to teach a couple of Introductory Film courses the following term.
The first semester, in the Fall of 1997, I was given three back-to-back Humanities courses three days a week. While our approach to teaching each class session was completely up to us, there were certain prescribed topics we’d have to cover as the students would be given a departmental final exam at the end of the semester. Essentially the course included topics such as Ancient Egyptian art, Greek and Roman art, theater, and philosophy, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and Medieval art. Ok… confession: I’d never had a course in ANY of those areas. I took a course in Greek Mythology as an undergrad and barely passed it. So, this was all new to me. With only a week until classes began, I was given an offer and had to read, and read quickly! I was always about a week ahead of the students, so it was quite a challenge to keep up.
The thing is, I found it fascinating. One of my dreams had always been to experience Ancient Greece and Rome. I found the history of both cultures SO interesting. I was learning along with the students. I had more at stake, so I carefully chose what slides to show and what details I wanted to emphasize. Prior to my use of Power Point a couple of years later, I was primarily relying on my notes, which featured a series of arrows and scribbles and thus were a bit hard to communicate to students at times. I’d also get pronunciations wrong and feel embarrassed when students knew that Ezekiel was not pronounced “Ez-a-keel.” Because I wasn’t that far ahead in my reading if a student asked me a question, I didn’t know the answer to, I’d have to feign some understanding in the topic or concept.
I beefed up my knowledge though during a trip to Italy in 2000. It was a thrill to get to see so much of what I was teaching about up close. (That was the year of the film Gladiator, so I was particularly impressed about being inside and around Rome’s Colosseum.) I took photos and videos that I could show in class. I wanted to be like that professor I had as an undergrad who impressed me with his own travels to Greece back in the 1980s.
Eventually my teaching load at Moraine would consist of all film courses. I converted our Intro to Film course into “Film Appreciation” to align with state guidelines for transferable classes and created a History of Film course. At the end of each term, we’d have a festival of films created by students in these intro courses. I’d bring in judges and make it a truly special event for the student filmmakers.
Soon Joyce retired and although there wasn’t a full-time position available to me there (more on that in a future post), I quickly became the film adjunct with the most seniority. My courses were rapidly filling (the capacity was always 32) and more sections had to be added. Essentially, I was developing a film program consisting of two courses which were housed under the college’s theater department. It became pretty clear that film was bringing in the most students and revenue to the program.
One day a couple of my students asked if I’ be interested in advising a film club. While I wasn’t particularly versed in filmmaking, they wanted a place to develop their own film projects. I was flattered to be asked and spent every Wednesday afternoon between my afternoon and evening classes helping them talk about and develop their ideas. This was an especially important role for me because of my previous graduate degree in College Student Personnel as well as my own background as a student leader at UIC. Soon they were running the film festival with me and developing a lot of pride for what we were accomplishing. I developed great relationships and rapport with the students and felt like I was making a major contribution to the college.
By the mid-2000s, I had given up my other part-time job counseling and advising students at College of Du Page (COD) and was earning all my income teaching primarily film at both COD and Moraine. It felt like my destiny and the places I’d want to spend the rest of my career.
Next Up: Advancing to university teaching
We’ve all been there, but your passion and adaptability made it work. For me, it’s proof that the best teachers are also lifelong learners!
Very impressive that you could learn about those humanities subjects a week before class. That's dedication!