Stephanie is a term instructor in the Social Sciences department where she teaches geography courses. She has not been at the college long (since fall, 2023) and as a term instructor, does not always know if or when she will be teaching again. But she had an amazing story to tell and some great insights on teaching and learning to share.
Stephanie grew up in Arkansas where she completed a bachelor’s with a double major in geography and Arab studies. After completing a master’s in geography, Stephanie studied tourism in Tunisia before beginning her doctoral studies in environmental studies at York University (moving to Canada for the first time). During all of this, and in between studies, she traveled, attended the American University in Morocco and the Borgiba Institute for Languages in Tunis, worked with World Heritage Sites, specifically in Carthage, then returned to the United States to study American nationalism and identity on landscapes of national parks. Finally, she moved to Qatar with her husband who works in medical imaging IT, where they spent six years before returning to Canada in 2022. “I worked at the US army base with Afghan refugees. We built a school and brought kids together. We would go out into the community and distribute donations. And I ended up teaching English – I never thought of being an English teacher, but it was what was needed.”
After renewing her permanent residency in Canada, Stephanie applied to be a substitute geography instructor at Camosun, a job she did during the winter term of 2023. Then, in the fall of 2023, she came on board as a term instructor teaching two sections of Geography 100, one blended and one in-person. And this past winter term, Stephanie was teaching a full course load, including courses on resource and environmental management, environmental sustainability, and the geography of Canada. As overwhelming as starting to teach at a new institution then taking on a full load of teaching has been for her, Stephanie tells me she has had a lot of help. Her chair at the time was with her every step of the way, and she also had help from some of my colleagues in CETL, as well as her subject liaison librarian, telling me that “every person has been amazing!”
When I asked Stephanie what drew her to teaching and what she enjoys most about it, she immediately answered, the students. “My weekends are busy with course work and sometimes I get bogged down. But when I get back with the students, it’s very energizing and I remember why I’m doing this. In spite of the ups and downs that come with teaching, I just want to engage and empower the students; I want to show them the world.”
I also wondered about her experience teaching a blended course. “Even though I did teach and take classes online during COVID, the blended concept was completely new to me. I taught two blended sections in the winter 2024 term – one ran during the day and the other in the evening and the students in each section had very different needs. I found it challenging but Derek in CETL helped me pick out some books about online learning, and I talked to Susan Chen and Katie Waterhouse [both instructors who teach blended courses.] I would redesign the courses if given the opportunity, but you don’t always know what needs to be changed until you’re in the middle of teaching.” Right now, as a term faculty member, Stephanie unfortunately does not have the Scheduled Development time she would need to redesign the courses. But she didn’t start with nothing. “My chair was very generous in sharing her content, and I inherited some content from another faculty member, so all I had to do was fill some gaps, integrate current topics, and add a bit of myself. The blend itself was one class a week in person with the rest asynchronous in D2L, so I also had to figure out what belonged online and what needed to be in-person. Sometimes I recorded lectures, sometimes the lecture was in person and the lab activity was online – it depended on the class. I worked hard to make the courses successful, but I could only do so much with the time I had.”
I asked Stephanie if any memories of the past year of teaching had stuck with her. “I think just making connections with students and those moments when you say something that opens their eyes to something new. For example, in the resource and environmental management course I asked students if they had heard about the ring of fire. And everyone said yes, until they realized I was talking about the ring of fire in Northern Ontario which none of them knew about, even the Canadians from Ontario. When you hook them, they get excited. For me, that’s the best part.”
Stephanie has had many international students in her courses. “It’s amazing to have students from all over the world because they bring different perspectives.” Stephanie worked with Cristina Petersen (one of our Multilingual Support Specialists) to support her international students on how to take notes, and to provide definitions for terms they find challenging. “When I get frustrated because students aren’t coming to class or taking notes, I remind myself that every student, international or not, has their own struggles, preferences for how to learn, and reasons for being here.” Stephanie can also relate to international students because she is international herself. “In one class, we were talking about forestry in British Columbia and I asked ‘who here can vote in Canada?’ Well, of course, I can’t and that I think that helped some of the international students, knowing that I’m not from here either.”
As we came to the end of our conversation, I asked Stephanie, as a fairly new faculty member, what she would like to have had or known when she started teaching at Camosun, and what advice she would have for other new faculty. Her answer echoed what I have heard from many other term instructors: “I would have liked to have had more time before the start of the term to figure out what I was doing, because that first term was tough. Getting a C-number, getting access to D2L and learning how to use it, etc.” In addition, Stephanie spoke to the uncertainty of not knowing if she would be teaching again in the future until the last minute, and imagining what she could do with her courses if she had more time to prepare. “As far as what would I tell new faculty: Be annoying. Ask questions. If you’re wondering about the writing center go over and knock on the door and introduce yourself. Just be annoying – it’s okay. People will be kind to you. But you’re not going to find out unless you keep asking questions.”