The affiliation with NCHS has opened some doors reminiscent of one of the best gigs I've ever done. Back in college I made a little side money as an undergraduate teaching assistant with the math department. Two days a week I got to lead a class in intermediate algebra. There was also a couple of hours of tutoring lab time. At the end of the semester I led a final exam review two-hour session. The feedback was affirming. After graduation I tutored briefly at Heartland Community College and got an offer to teach a night class (which actuarial exams didn't leave time for). Now thanks to some friends, there are some leads that might enable me to help out students struggling to graduate high school with enough math credits.
I briefly perused the ISU catalog's requirements for getting a high school teaching degree. Then I remembered how functional I am at 7 a.m. Who knows what jibberish that comes out of my mouth at that hour of the morning might end up in the notebooks of the next generation's NASA scientists? I can't be responsible for the fates of the spacepeople whose ship crashes into Jupiter because way back when, Mr. Mac taught their flight engineers to calculate the slope of a straight line by "rounding to the nearest eightieth" or some such gobbledygook.
For now, the prospect of inching one student forward, one volunteer hour at a time, will do just fine. We'll see where the resume leads.
No comments:
Post a Comment