This is the last post in my series of Spring 2019 catch-ups! At the May 2019 WIBS meeting, we talked about non-academic jobs, focusing on teaching positions. We had a panel of three special guests for this meeting: Alexis Stein, Danielle Presgraves, and Jon Holz.
Our panelists talked a bit about what they do, including direct teaching, planning lessons, designing courses, and serving on committees. One panelist commented that they spend about 20% of their time on committee work and 80% of their time on teaching and prep. When it comes to teaching, our panelists advised us that classroom management is a skill in itself!
To get teaching experience and prepare for this kind of career, our panelists recommended making the most of TA opportunities during grad school, asking for additional responsibilities, and seeking out outside training opportunities such as online classes on how to design lectures, syllabi, course objectives and the like. There are also teaching postdocs that you can do after finishing graduate school. When applying for a teaching position, our panelists told us that it’s good to have a “teaching portfolio” with a description of your vision as a teacher, some sample activities, and positive evaluations from past students in order to really sell yourself.