Teaching grad school AND K-12? Possible?
May 6, 2010 7:31 PM Subscribe
Looking for some advice on possible career vectors. I wonder if there are any positions available where you can teach or work with a combination of college/graduate students and K-12 students, teaching research/information literacy and other skills?
I really enjoy teaching/mentoring/working with both college/graduate students and K-12 students (particularly the outliers (gifted and special education)).
Are the positions available where it's possible to work with both sets in an instructional capacity? I'm interested in a bit more direct instruction than seems generally possible in a typical public library setting.
In my perfect world, such a position would also encourage assisting faculty/teachers with their teaching and research and doing my own research. There might also be a possibility for problem-solving/mediation.
I am willing to consider conventional solutions such as...working as an academic librarian and doing volunteer work with K-12ers or completely outside the box solutions. I am willing to do all kinds of crazy advocacy to make this work. I would also be happy with a solution that would involve one 'normal' job and one 'volunteer' job provided that doesn't mean working hours I can't work (disability limits me to about 50 hours a week, most weeks).
I mention the library/info literacy because I am about to have a newly minted MLS (in addition to a law degree) and I enjoy working with that stuff, but like I said, I enjoy working with both populations enough to consider completely outside the box solutions. Does anyone get to do this?
Suggestions? Ideas?
I really enjoy teaching/mentoring/working with both college/graduate students and K-12 students (particularly the outliers (gifted and special education)).
Are the positions available where it's possible to work with both sets in an instructional capacity? I'm interested in a bit more direct instruction than seems generally possible in a typical public library setting.
In my perfect world, such a position would also encourage assisting faculty/teachers with their teaching and research and doing my own research. There might also be a possibility for problem-solving/mediation.
I am willing to consider conventional solutions such as...working as an academic librarian and doing volunteer work with K-12ers or completely outside the box solutions. I am willing to do all kinds of crazy advocacy to make this work. I would also be happy with a solution that would involve one 'normal' job and one 'volunteer' job provided that doesn't mean working hours I can't work (disability limits me to about 50 hours a week, most weeks).
I mention the library/info literacy because I am about to have a newly minted MLS (in addition to a law degree) and I enjoy working with that stuff, but like I said, I enjoy working with both populations enough to consider completely outside the box solutions. Does anyone get to do this?
Suggestions? Ideas?
My first academic library job involved being the instructional liaison/collection development person for the the very awesome school of education at the university. There were a lot of opportunities for me to collaborate with students and faculty over there, and while I never did this (I wasn't there very long) I could have taken classes in the school and I'm sure they would have been happy to have a volunteer in one of their many community projects.
It might be hard to find, but perhaps an academic library job that gets you working with an active school of education might be a good fit.
posted by pantarei70 at 8:03 PM on May 6, 2010
It might be hard to find, but perhaps an academic library job that gets you working with an active school of education might be a good fit.
posted by pantarei70 at 8:03 PM on May 6, 2010
I don't know how it works in your field, but teaching grad students in most fields requires a PhD. that's not to say that you shouldn't have plenty of opportunities to teach both college & K-12. Two year schools are a place where in some cases there is a confluence of both. For example, several of our state's community colleges have "middle" colleges, where 11th & 12th grades enroll in a program that gets them their diploma & associates degree by the end of 13th grade.
Another suggestion--near & dear to my heart--would be to primarily teach at college/uni, but get involved with the school's service-learning programs. For example, w're running a program where college students (who are getting s-l credit and are supervised by a prof) are mentoring high school students in a math literacy program at a ratio of 1 college student to 5 h.s. students. The process we use then spreads out, still holding the 1 to 5 ratio, as the high schoolers recruit & mentor middle schoolers. The prof can be heavily involved or minimally involved.
Some uni's are stronger than others on service-learning, which tends to benefit both community & students more than pure volunteerism, since service & learning are meant to be equal partners.
Lastly, in our town, someone with your goals & ambition could teach at whatever level you wanted for the primary job and then teach what we call community resource or CR classes for high school students. The CR classes are designed by the instructor & interested high school students sign up for them. (I know there are at least a couple of Commie High grads here on MeFi, they can tell you better than I how CRs work). My wife, a working artist and adjunct art & design prof, taught a CR in hand-made artists books. klangklangston took a CR in Asian Film criticism.
Seems to me that you have a rich tapestry of choices to design whatever it is that you want to do. Oh & one more example. A friend & colleague of mine got her JD almost twenty years ago now, & never really wanted to practice law after a year or two in practice. Raised a family & went back to school for a PhD in composition rhetoric. She's now running the writing program at a community college & using the JD background to be a local Lawrence Lessig when it comes to IP & writing.
posted by beelzbubba at 8:20 PM on May 6, 2010
Another suggestion--near & dear to my heart--would be to primarily teach at college/uni, but get involved with the school's service-learning programs. For example, w're running a program where college students (who are getting s-l credit and are supervised by a prof) are mentoring high school students in a math literacy program at a ratio of 1 college student to 5 h.s. students. The process we use then spreads out, still holding the 1 to 5 ratio, as the high schoolers recruit & mentor middle schoolers. The prof can be heavily involved or minimally involved.
Some uni's are stronger than others on service-learning, which tends to benefit both community & students more than pure volunteerism, since service & learning are meant to be equal partners.
Lastly, in our town, someone with your goals & ambition could teach at whatever level you wanted for the primary job and then teach what we call community resource or CR classes for high school students. The CR classes are designed by the instructor & interested high school students sign up for them. (I know there are at least a couple of Commie High grads here on MeFi, they can tell you better than I how CRs work). My wife, a working artist and adjunct art & design prof, taught a CR in hand-made artists books. klangklangston took a CR in Asian Film criticism.
Seems to me that you have a rich tapestry of choices to design whatever it is that you want to do. Oh & one more example. A friend & colleague of mine got her JD almost twenty years ago now, & never really wanted to practice law after a year or two in practice. Raised a family & went back to school for a PhD in composition rhetoric. She's now running the writing program at a community college & using the JD background to be a local Lawrence Lessig when it comes to IP & writing.
posted by beelzbubba at 8:20 PM on May 6, 2010
Teaching college pays better than teaching K-12 as a regular job, and you could run an academic enrichment program on the side or get involved in a summer daycamp program for gifted kids at your university or whatever.
posted by Jacqueline at 8:31 PM on May 6, 2010
posted by Jacqueline at 8:31 PM on May 6, 2010
Response by poster: Wow. Some great stuff I hadn't thought of here.
Beelzbubba: I have 2 "terminal" degrees (or will as of next weekend) so technically I can teach grad students ... or at least teach them to research and um...education law. Great suggestion with the CR thing though. I would never in a million years have though of that.
Panterarei: I didn't know that there were options like that with schools of ed. In hindsight, having worked for a school of ed in a non-library role, that makes sense, but it's a great suggestion.
Thank you for giving me hope:) I know it might be a bit odd, but I get a lot of joy and energy out of training/mentoring both age groups. I'd love any other creative ideas people have.
posted by eleanna at 8:47 PM on May 6, 2010
Beelzbubba: I have 2 "terminal" degrees (or will as of next weekend) so technically I can teach grad students ... or at least teach them to research and um...education law. Great suggestion with the CR thing though. I would never in a million years have though of that.
Panterarei: I didn't know that there were options like that with schools of ed. In hindsight, having worked for a school of ed in a non-library role, that makes sense, but it's a great suggestion.
Thank you for giving me hope:) I know it might be a bit odd, but I get a lot of joy and energy out of training/mentoring both age groups. I'd love any other creative ideas people have.
posted by eleanna at 8:47 PM on May 6, 2010
I'm going to nth that you may want to consider a Ph.D.
I did not do what I am going to describe, but I do know that at one of the universities that I used to teach had a faculty member or two and their area of expertise/specialty was not just a biological field but also education. These individuals obtained grants and in collaboration with grad students and/or postdocs, conducted research with school teachers at nearby high schools. The objective was to improve the quality of science education.I don't remember all the details, but if you are interested, memail me and I can go look at the webpages of the universities and point you towards their webpages, you can check out their research, grants, etc. It may at least let you know what has been done or what is possible.
How high is your need to work with high school students? Would a few times per semester would be sufficient? If you teach at a university, you can contact nearby high schools and offer to do a special guest lecture. Bring special equipment or something that high school students normally don't get a chance to see plus bring along a few undergrad students who want to volunteer. I've done this in the past and my undergra students seemed to love it and the high school teachers and students seemed receptive. During brain awareness week, I went to nearby high schools, brought along a few brains ("show and tell") plus sheep brains.Some of my undergrad students volunteered to help and present material. What's not to love about brains? I think if I stayed at that job longer there could have been the potential to do more of that but it honestly would have only been a few times a semester. Just a personal observation, but universities/small colleges seemed very open to letting you do whatever you wanted provided you taught your students ......
posted by Wolfster at 9:03 PM on May 6, 2010
I did not do what I am going to describe, but I do know that at one of the universities that I used to teach had a faculty member or two and their area of expertise/specialty was not just a biological field but also education. These individuals obtained grants and in collaboration with grad students and/or postdocs, conducted research with school teachers at nearby high schools. The objective was to improve the quality of science education.I don't remember all the details, but if you are interested, memail me and I can go look at the webpages of the universities and point you towards their webpages, you can check out their research, grants, etc. It may at least let you know what has been done or what is possible.
How high is your need to work with high school students? Would a few times per semester would be sufficient? If you teach at a university, you can contact nearby high schools and offer to do a special guest lecture. Bring special equipment or something that high school students normally don't get a chance to see plus bring along a few undergrad students who want to volunteer. I've done this in the past and my undergra students seemed to love it and the high school teachers and students seemed receptive. During brain awareness week, I went to nearby high schools, brought along a few brains ("show and tell") plus sheep brains.Some of my undergrad students volunteered to help and present material. What's not to love about brains? I think if I stayed at that job longer there could have been the potential to do more of that but it honestly would have only been a few times a semester. Just a personal observation, but universities/small colleges seemed very open to letting you do whatever you wanted provided you taught your students ......
posted by Wolfster at 9:03 PM on May 6, 2010
My grad advisor had a second group doing chemistry education. Curriculum development, education research, teacher training, the works. She has permanent staff in addition to students. I bet there are other groups like it.
There's also a lot of research & outreach at educational places - science centers, aquariums, etc. I hear the competition for such jobs is fierce...
posted by janell at 10:17 PM on May 6, 2010
There's also a lot of research & outreach at educational places - science centers, aquariums, etc. I hear the competition for such jobs is fierce...
posted by janell at 10:17 PM on May 6, 2010
Response by poster: Well, I'll consider a Ph.D. but I really have no idea what it would be appropriate to get it in right now. Suggestions appreciated. (I don't think that a library science Ph.D. or SJD would help me much here (though please tell me if I'm wrong)....Education? My undergrad is in politics and I can't imagine that there's a lot there...)
I do know that there are law professors who supervise students teaching high school students about their rights though which I remembered after some of the suggestions here. Maybe there are possibilities in that direction.
How high is my need? I'd love it if it were at least twice a month. In a perfect world, an average of once a week. I find that working with students that age keeps me grounded in a way that older students don't.
posted by eleanna at 10:50 PM on May 6, 2010
I do know that there are law professors who supervise students teaching high school students about their rights though which I remembered after some of the suggestions here. Maybe there are possibilities in that direction.
How high is my need? I'd love it if it were at least twice a month. In a perfect world, an average of once a week. I find that working with students that age keeps me grounded in a way that older students don't.
posted by eleanna at 10:50 PM on May 6, 2010
What about teaching at a community college? I think these positions can be difficult to get, depending on where you are, but teaching at a local two-year college would put you in contact with people of a wide range of ages and backgrounds -- from precocious high-school students to retirees. And perhaps a community college would be flexible about which degree you have.
posted by miriam at 4:41 AM on May 7, 2010
posted by miriam at 4:41 AM on May 7, 2010
Well, to me (an academic librarian) it seems like being an academic librarian could be a good fit but it would depend a bit on the expectations/opportunities at the institution you worked at, as well as your particular job within the library.
I do quite a bit of library instruction in my job with our undergraduate population and there are certainly occasional opportunities to work with middle school or high school classes who want to come and learn about our library and our resources. Also, as it happens, a summer program for talented and gifted middle school students takes place on our campus so I have had some interaction with them as well (but I imagine if I actively pursued greater involvement I could have more contact time with them). Some of my colleagues work as mentors for struggling students, and one colleague taught a first year seminar which meant that they also took on advising role for that group of students.
I would expect most colleges/universities to have variety of ways that you could get involved with mentoring/working with students but some of this might well need to occur outside of your typical work day.
Best of luck with your search!
posted by pie_seven at 5:12 AM on May 7, 2010
I do quite a bit of library instruction in my job with our undergraduate population and there are certainly occasional opportunities to work with middle school or high school classes who want to come and learn about our library and our resources. Also, as it happens, a summer program for talented and gifted middle school students takes place on our campus so I have had some interaction with them as well (but I imagine if I actively pursued greater involvement I could have more contact time with them). Some of my colleagues work as mentors for struggling students, and one colleague taught a first year seminar which meant that they also took on advising role for that group of students.
I would expect most colleges/universities to have variety of ways that you could get involved with mentoring/working with students but some of this might well need to occur outside of your typical work day.
Best of luck with your search!
posted by pie_seven at 5:12 AM on May 7, 2010
In addition to requiring a PhD, some universities certify their faculty as "graduate faculty" and won't let you take on grad students unless you've done all the paperwork and shown you have an active research agenda. "Research agenda" here is crucial - graduate students often choose supervisors based on their research profile, publications, connectedness etc. & believe me if you go this route, you may not have time for K-12 students as well.
Do not get a PhD if all you want is contact twice a month.
posted by media_itoku at 9:10 AM on May 7, 2010
Do not get a PhD if all you want is contact twice a month.
posted by media_itoku at 9:10 AM on May 7, 2010
I got a high-paying tech job, but I am a member of a Rotary Club in charge of Youth Services. In that capacity, I am the adviser for the club's high school Interact program and am on the district board for the college and young adult Rotaract club. On a volunteer basis, I get to mentor and befriend a lot of high-performing young people.
For the high school kids, for instance, I run a leadership workshop over the summer that teaches them how to do project management, function as public speakers, and run meetings.
Rotary International just elevated the importance of youth programs, middle school through young adult, but they are by no means the only option. The Kiwanis also work with youth.
I consider myself lucky and find it quite invigorating to work with such great kids.
posted by rw at 10:03 AM on May 7, 2010
For the high school kids, for instance, I run a leadership workshop over the summer that teaches them how to do project management, function as public speakers, and run meetings.
Rotary International just elevated the importance of youth programs, middle school through young adult, but they are by no means the only option. The Kiwanis also work with youth.
I consider myself lucky and find it quite invigorating to work with such great kids.
posted by rw at 10:03 AM on May 7, 2010
Response by poster: Wow. Lots of great suggestions I hadn't thought of.
I know it's possible for me to teach grad students (in a limited capacity, which is really all I want) with the degrees I have because well...I know a lot of people who are doing it. Research courses, primarily, but there is some room for other stuff with experience (in these fields, that experience can be both inside and outside of universities), so I was less concerned about that, though...with as much education as I've accumulated at this point, I'd consider another degree if I could pay for it and it would help. So suggestions there were also appreciated.
I especially appreciate the outside organization suggestions. They're helpful because I'd pretty much convinced myself that my options were...take academic job and ... teach sunday school. Or something else along those lines.
Most of all, thanks for all the great thoughts and suggestions. Much appreciated!
posted by eleanna at 5:05 PM on May 7, 2010
I know it's possible for me to teach grad students (in a limited capacity, which is really all I want) with the degrees I have because well...I know a lot of people who are doing it. Research courses, primarily, but there is some room for other stuff with experience (in these fields, that experience can be both inside and outside of universities), so I was less concerned about that, though...with as much education as I've accumulated at this point, I'd consider another degree if I could pay for it and it would help. So suggestions there were also appreciated.
I especially appreciate the outside organization suggestions. They're helpful because I'd pretty much convinced myself that my options were...take academic job and ... teach sunday school. Or something else along those lines.
Most of all, thanks for all the great thoughts and suggestions. Much appreciated!
posted by eleanna at 5:05 PM on May 7, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by crazycanuck at 7:49 PM on May 6, 2010