It won’t help. We’ll find someplace to teach no matter what.
I have always said that I teach wherever I am. It could be the Walmart checkout when someone asks the cashier about a plant she’s about to buy. I leap in. “Oh, that’s a green cloud sage. You’ll love it. It will bloom on command. Whenever you want flowers, just water it.” My husband, of course, is rolling his eyes to heaven.
Turns out that as soon as I “quit” teaching, I took a Master Gardener course that turned me into a teaching gardener.
Then we moved to Brenham and my co-author (writing textbooks is just another form of teaching – but without the spit wads) said, “Oh, come teach for Blinn online.” Now that’s an offer too good to resist. Not only do you avoid spit wads, but you don’t even have to get dressed.
I love teaching online. The new semester has just started and I hadn’t realized how much I missed it until this morning. I awoke looking forward to whatever emails awaited me from students with questions. Teaching online is a great task for someone as OCD as I am. It can be a 24/7 event. Never a dull moment. Last fall, I had students completing a final project that was due at midnight. I stayed logged in and responsive until 1 am (even though I was also playing dominoes with my daughter’s in-laws during the entire evening).
What I love about this semester’s class is that it is small. Last semester I had two full ones and I hated that I didn’t have time to engage each one fully. This semester I just have one. I should be able to give each one very personalized attention. It’s a business communication class with lots of writing. Little do they know what they have in store for them – a teacher who can hardly wait to teach.
Susan E L Lake 
Leave a Reply