About Me: Hired as an Adjunct

A Professor

In 2008 I obtained a Master's in Behavioral Neuroscience. It was a strange pick-a-path adventure getting to that point, but that's another story. After earning this degree I wanted to find a way to use it to make money. There are actually several options for example I could've worked in an animal behavior lab, or other animal research facility. But I thought teaching would be a better choice. So I looked on-line and found a job posting at St. Charles Community College for an adjunct professor.

If you didn't know an adjunct is a part-time professor. There are basically two types of adjunct faculty. First, there are the specialists. These adjuncts are experts in their field and would like to teach on the side. For example, a sports psychologist that works with a national sports team might teach a night class on sports psychology. The other type of adjunct has been hired to fill a need for classes while avoiding committing (by contract) resources (money, insurance, etc.) to a full-time position. Many of the adjuncts I know end up teaching at multiple colleges; just having a class or two at each campus. If you are a student at SCC the odds are you've had some classes taught by adjuncts.

So after my application had been reviewed I was called in for an interview. Here, to the best of my memory, is the conversation I had with Beth when she called me to set-up my interview:

Mitch: Hello?
Beth: This is Beth Finders from St. Charles Community College, you had applied for the psych adjunct position are you still interested?
M: The wha-- Oh yeah! Yes I'm definitely still interested.
B: Great. Well we are setting up interviews and teaching demos. Do you think you could prepare a teaching demo for us on Friday.
M: . o O ( thinking: teaching demo? Like a lecture? To whom? About what? ) Oh yeah sure, no problem I can have that ... teaching demo ... prepared for you.
B: *pause* Ok, well do it on Learning Theory.
M: . o O ( thinking: wait, what? learning which theories? ) Of course, that makes sense.
B: Will you need anything for the demo?
M: Like props?
B: We have a computer with powerpoint and projector for your use will you need anything else.
M: Oh. Uhm, ... no.
B: Great, we'll see you Friday.

Then I got out one of the Introduction to Psychology textbooks that I had gathering dust on my shelf and looked up learning theory. I was happy to see it was about conditioning (like Pavlov's dogs) which was a topic I liked a lot, and I set about crafting a powerpoint. Really I just had a picture of Pavlov, a chart of the dogs being classically conditioned and an outline to guide my talk.

First I sat down with Beth and Barb and chatted about teaching and my experiences as a student and teaching assistant and how I hope to do better than my teachers. This seemed to sit well with Beth and she asked me to start teaching. I was so nervous when I stood up to talk, but I think I had spoken for a total of 30 seconds when she cut me off. I took this as a bad sign. In retrospect I think she had already made up her mind from the conversation part of the interview and was ready to get on with it.

For the next couple of weeks Beth worked with me to make sure I was ready to be personable with my students and not just lecture of theory. This was awesome since we are on the same page as far as technique goes. She made a ton of resources available to me including syllabi, powerpoints, and sample assignments. In fact, the whole program (Lisa, Vi, Barb, and Marvin), division (is that what the faculty in the SSB are called, I'm still not sure), and other adjuncts (Sylvia and the rest) made me feel welcome and offered a TON of support. While I was still nervous, I at least felt prepared for my first day of class. Two weeks later I was standing in front of my students as a freshly minted adjunct instructor.