It is really interesting to me that I
am an educator as a major portion of my second career. I never
saw myself as a teacher, although I was always successful at it
when the opportunity presented itself. Now that I have been at
it a while, I find it to be nearly impossible to believe that
this is not what I was meant to do with the rest of my life.
I came to teaching as an officer in the U.S.
Navy. Having served two tours of duty as a flight instructor,
I knew I enjoyed teaching in this context. More importantly
I completed my M.S. in Systems Management, and I so thoroughly
enjoyed working on the degree, and on my subsequent Aviation
Safety diploma from the Naval Postgraduate School, that I sincerely
felt that academia held a great appeal to me. When the opportunity
to teach Navy ROTC arose, I jumped in with both feet. As an
Assistant Professor of Naval Science, I taught Naval Weapons
Systems and Seapower and Maritime Affairs to college
sophomore Midshipmen and Officer Candidates. Naval
Weapons Systems was a pretty straightforward applied science
and engineering course, but Seapower and Maritime Affairs
was a thinking course that attempted to teach concepts of Naval
strategic thought through the study of naval history. I loved
teaching the course, and the best part was that my students30
in one classactually got it! They were able to
express, in essay form, a working grasp of the concepts of Naval
strategic thoughtsomething that frankly stymies a lot
of knowledgeable and experienced Naval officers. It was, if
you'll pardon the phrase, a real rush to be able to see
the growth and maturation over the span of a semester, and it
was so rewarding that I knew I had chosen correctly in this
path for my life. Following my retirement from the Navy I was
offered an opportunity to become an Adjunct Assistant Professor
of Computer Science, and I jumped at it.
Like many college-level educators, I have
not had a great deal of formal instruction in pedagogy. Some
view this as a drawback, and, indeed, in the case of many professors
it is. Many Ph.D. students who do solid research and present
and defend their ideas adequately prove to be unable to rise
to the task of constructing a rational curriculum and conveying
material to students in a manner that inspires anything other
than profound boredom, and most professors would benefit
enormously from some formal pedagogical education. I have had
the advantage of attending three Navy courses on instructional
methods, one of them actually focused specifically on conducting
college classes. I wish everyone who seriously wants to teach
could have the same opportunities. I also wish that my current
employer had a formal faculty development program, as I think
these programs are of great benefit to both students and faculty.
I have been blessed with a loud voice that
carries very well in a classroom (although it is a bit of a
curse at other times); I am very good at organizing and presenting
material in such a way as to be coherent and logical; and I
am a solid researcher who can consistently and exhaustively
search out resources relevant to the topic I am teaching about.
I excel at explaining technical topics to non-technical folks
which is a serious focus of my teaching today. I have had the
opportunity to develop several curricula for both credit and
non-credit certificates in areas that I have some particular
expertise. I have an extensive list of
my courses on this site.
I believe that most adult learners (the bulk
of my students now) learn much better if they are provided with
a copy of the class notes that the instructor lectures from.
For most professors this is a level of organization they are
not able to achieve, but to me it is worth every bit off the
effort I put into it. I also am a strong believer in learning
objectives and assignment rubrics that spell out very clearly
what knowledge and demonstrated level of performance is expected
from each student. I make every attempt to provide my students
with a broad range of resources so that should they choose,
they can go into any given topic in a great deal more detail
than I am able to cover in class.
It is still a great feeling to know that I
can convey my knowledge to others, and to do so in such a way
that they actually learn to such an extent that it is very visible
to both me and the student. When this happens I know I am in
the right job, just as I knew I was in the right job aboard
ship in the Navy. My primary job title is not that of an educator
but it is the core of what I do. I may do other things in the
future, but I am certain that teaching will always be a part
of my life.