The site launched a few months ago and is up and running in its Beta version. Anna manages the marketing and the creative direction of the site, working with communities of testers and keeping the site, well, awesome. I’ve played around with the site a I urge you, your children, and/or your students to check it out.

Some advice for new MAPH graduates and those looking for their first teaching positions:

Over the last couple of years, I’ve had a few folks come my way asking about how to get their foot in that often hard-to-open teaching door. I’ve even had a few people stop me out in front of various campus buildings, asking me if I taught, then launching into a million questions about what I would suggest they do to get into this or that department – no joke! I remember being astonished that these folks were literally walking around the campus soliciting advice from the sidewalk; and yet, I can understand why that would be the case. It’s not easy getting the attention, let alone an actual job, from someone in a position to hire. I’ve had some success at getting some really good courses over the last three years, but I also learned some things the hard way. So here’s my ten cents, for what it’s worth:

1. Cold calling, emailing, and letter-sending rarely works. Don’t bother spending a lot of time looking at the job boards at local colleges, either, for adjunct teaching positions, because they get enough applicants and have no need to advertise. And you can practically forget what I call the “black-hole” of most human resources departments. Your best foot-in-the-door is through someone else that’s already in the door. Get to know someone that already teaches in that department and get an introduction to whoever hires. The MAPH alumni listserve and blog are a great place to start. But network like crazy, because I’ve found that most teaching positions are acquired through relentless networking. Example: My first contact (and follow up emails/calls) with the English department (where I’ve been teaching for three years now) led to absolutely nothing – not even a response (like, “got your letter, but go jump in the lake”)! Six months later, however, I got someone in the department to mention me, and I had my first teaching assignment a week later.

2. Get to know the program in which you are interested in applying to teach. See what courses they offer and how you might best fit in. Play up your strengths, but always gear them towards the department’s needs.

3. If you see a gap in the curriculum, you may want to consider approaching the department with a new course that might interest their students and meet their needs (that’s how I got two of my regular courses). For example, I saw that no one in either the English department or Cultural Studies department at my college was offering courses that dealt with cyberspace literature or theories of cyberculture/s, so I sent in a proposed syllabus to each department. I really had no clue what I was doing, as I had never previously created a syllabus from scratch . . . but I did my research, put my best effort into it, and it worked! And one of those proposed courses was my foot in the door with the Cultural Studies department, where I now regularly teach.

4. Have your curriculum vitae and a variety of editable cover letters at the ready. You never know when you might meet someone who wants to see your CV right away. I also recommend that you get your CV online, so that potential employers an have quick and easy access to your information whenever and wherever. Online teaching portfolios are becoming more and more expected.

5. Take whatever you can get. I wasn’t at all wild about teaching a certain first year course; but I, like most new faculty, had to pay those dues. Once in, you can network even more, learn more about the needs of the department, and position yourself for better classes.

6. Offer some new pedagogical approach that you sense might be needed. Case and point: though I was no technological guru when I left MAPH, I saw the increasing need for the use of technological savvy in the classroom, so I learned all I could and began utilizing this technology in my pedagogy (blogs, wikis, various new media applications, etc.). This undoubtedly led me to more classes and a wider variety.

7. If at first you don’t succeed, try again – perhaps even with a different person. Though you want to be careful with this, because faculty politics can be really rough. The first time I contacted a chair of a department (assuming chairs were always the ones to hire), I received a very curt and negative response. What I didn’t know at the time (in this instance) was that chairs didn’t do the hiring of adjuncts, but rather directors of the sub-programs under that department. After a bit of time, I went to the director, instead, and was successful. This just points again to the need to really know the department and its structure.

8. NETWORK!! It was worth mentioning twice.

For the two years between finishing my undergraduate degree and starting MAPH, I taught high school and middle school English at the Roxbury Latin School, an independent boys’ school in Boston. While I loved teaching, and loved working and interacting with bright, motivated students even more, I knew that if I did not apply to graduate schools soon, I would reach a point of no return and end up teaching for the rest of my life. I may still do so, but as my department chair pointed out when I asked his advice on whether I should go to MAPH or stay at Roxbury Latin, it is preferable by far to make an informed decision to teach after having tried grad school than it is simply to keep teaching because it is the easy thing to do.

Now, in my first year after MAPH, I am back in the classroom in a small independent, K-8 coeducational school in Elgin, IL, called Fox River Country Day School. I got this job through Carney, Sandoe and Associates, a head-hunting firm for prospective teachers who want to work at private and independent schools. The process is simple: one simply has to submit a resume, personal statement, and letters of recommendation to the service, and fill out a questionnaire about teaching interests and geographical preferences. Teaching experience is not required; in fact, many independent schools prefer to hire young teachers who are just out of a degree program in their field, rather than teachers who have been highly trained in the field of education. During my interview at Roxbury Latin, when I expressed concern that I had not even so much as student taught for a single day, the headmaster told me that the school preferred to hire bright people who know their field well and will learn how to teach, rather than people who may know specific teaching techniques but are unfamiliar with any particular topic. This seems to me to be fairly typical of middle and high schools, where each teacher teaches only one or two subjects, while elementary schools are more concerned with the growth process of students than with their academic mastery of, say, history.

For those who are interested in teaching at an independent school, you have to know one thing: it will be your life. Teaching, even if you only spend four hours per day in front of a class, is one of the most demanding and exhausting (both physically and mentally) jobs that you will ever encounter. I currently have four preps, plus weekly work on the school newsletter, a study-skills class for sixth graders, and am the assistant boys’ soccer coach—in addition to the grading that comes with being an English teacher. I am constantly jealous of my friends whose jobs end at 5 pm; but then, they don’t get to experience the joys of being a teacher. And the joys are many: spending all day talking to bright kids about interesting things, seeing the looks on their faces when they finally understand a concept or have an original insight, witnessing their genuine gratitude to their teachers. That’s not to say, of course, that teaching doesn’t have its frustrations, too; particularly after a year of such intensive graduate work as we all did in MAPH, suddenly having to struggle to get sixth graders to understand The Jungle Book can be quite a letdown. But on the whole, if you think you have any interest in teaching, give it a try; at its best, it can be the perfect combination of fun and academics.

As for me, I am currently in the process of applying for Ph.D. programs in English. The MAPH year (and the tough time I’m having with those sixth graders) convinced me that I want to do my best to stay in academia on the university level. Of course, I can’t rule out teaching high school as a career, but at least now whether I stay with it or not, I’ve had the experience both of teaching and of grad school.

Speaking of blogs . . . I am very interested to hear from those of you who teach and have been utilizing various forms of technology within your pedagogy. When I first started teaching at Columbia College Chicago (English & Cultural Studies Departments) a bit over three years ago, I was fairly unsure of how to incorporate technology into the classroom and admittedly a bit hesitant to do so. I didn’t want to “dumb down” the curriculum by turning to popular media/technological tools or use them as some crutch for effective teaching.

However, about two years ago, I began replacing weekly homework assignments (typed and turned in) with class blog assignments, and I have had some pretty amazing results. While I did not replace any of the formal essays with blog writing (i.e. midterm/final papers), I now find that weekly blogging affords students a number of educational benefits:

1. Student blog responses to readings and class discussions often are more critical and thoughtful than weekly typed responses.
2. Students seemed more engaged in class, after having blogged about the assigned readings.
3. While students spend the first week or two typically writing in a vacuum (as if no one else in their class exists), by week three, they begin dialogues with one another, responding to others’ thoughts and comments; and by mid-semester, many are blogging even when not required, or sharing additional references, links, and/or outside sources.
4. The sense of collaboration and cooperation is greater within the classroom, because they begin to form a sense of community outside the classroom through the blog.
5. When they do approach their formal essays, the quality of writing (focus on content and context) seems to translate over into their papers in a way that did not occur before.
6. I was able to more quickly identify those having difficulties understanding the materials and respond to them offline with suggestions and guidance.

While I’ve not read any scholarly articles that thoroughly discuss the qualitative and quantitative benefits of blogging in college settings, I have become convinced that blogging can further enrich and deepen engagement with the readings, discussions, and others. My theory is that the informality of blogs is exactly that which allows students to focus more on the issues, arguments, ideas, and concepts. While formal writing skills are an absolute must, what good are the elements of grammar, composition, and overall structure if students are not able to make effective contextual connections? Weekly blogging allows students to respond more intuitively, provides a more relaxing and communicative environment, and allows them opportunities to engage more deeply with the materials.

I’ve learned a few things along the way about how to best facilitate class blogs, and it shows in each new semester’s responses. I’ve also incorporated other forms of technology into the classroom, some more effective than others, though that’s another blog for another time. I would, however, be interested to hear from those of you who teach and have utilized this or other forms of technology in your pedagogy. What has proven most challenging and/or effective? And for those of you who do not utilize technology in the classroom, what are your thoughts on the matter?

If anyone is interested in seeing how I set up my class blogs, you can visit any one of the following three for this semester. The semester’s blogging has just begun, so I’m still guiding students through effective blogging, but you can see the progression.

Introduction to Cultural Studies, Fall 2007 (http://culturalstudies07.wordpress.com/)
Reviewing the Arts, Fall 2007 (http://revarts.wordpress.com/)
Literature and the Culture of Cyberspace, Fall 2007 (http://cyberliterature.wordpress.com/)

Kristin Scott, MFA, A.M.
Adjunct Faculty,
English and Cultural Studies Departments
Columbia College Chicago
http://www.kristinscott.net