Monday, January 12, 2009

Creating Community for Community College Instructors, Part 1

Community college teaching, I am discovering, can in some ways be more isolating and lonelier than K-12 teaching. In K-12 practice, you are on campus daily with the same group of adults, even though you may not interact with them on a daily basis. You may also be meeting with your peers on a regular basis; at my former high school I met with some subset of my peers formally once a week.

In community college, you are lucky if there is a departmental meeting each semester. You may know few of your colleagues, even in your own department, especially if you are teaching part-time or in the evenings. This makes it difficult to feel a sense of community, or to exchange ideas about how to better reach students by improving instruction.

To combat some of my isolation, I am considering a variety of professional societies focused on science education, reflecting my own focus on Biology. Societies are listed in descending relevance:
National Science Teachers' Association
Society for College Science Teachers
National Science Education Leadership Association
Association for Science Teacher Education
National Association of Biology Teachers

I will likely elect for membership in the first three, as well as Sigma Xi or possibly AAAS.

No comments: