MY FIRST YEAR : ORIENTATION & SYLLABUS
It finally happened! I have secured myself a position as an adjunct instructor at Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis, MN. Now I need to write my curriculum and I am feeling very much like I know absolutely nothing. Maybe I am too much of a worrier, or a perfectionist. I have dreamed of this most of my 17 year career as a professional designer and now I get butterflies every time I think about walking into that classroom.
The past few weeks between orientation and meetings with the graphic design faculty, I have come to find myself buried. Freelance job, with thesis work and a mad scramble to prepare for this class in two weeks. The clock feels like a cruel punishment sometimes. I of course knew that prepping for my class and building the curriculum/syllabus would take time but I severely under-estimated how much.
Note to self - double or triple the amount of time you think it is going to take to prepare for my class.
I am also wondering if other schools have any sort of on-boarding checklist for adjuncts or new instructors. I would love to hear from other educators the systems they use to get new people prepared for what is ahead. We had an overall orientation that introduced us to some of the systems, payroll, employee handbook etc, but there is no real tracking of what departmental structures have been reviewed. Things like the department server and how students receive electronic media for their assignments only came up when I ask a question that related to a given procedure. So far my peers have been amazingly helpful and I can not thank them enough, but I am thinking there would be less burden on them with all my constant questions if there was a hand out or checklist to go through.
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