UMD alumna Madeline Johnson has just started teaching at Century College, a community college in the Twin Cities, and she loves the work. She says that “I’ve always loved teaching!” Since the beginning of the pandemic, they have been teaching online.
Teaching online is a little strange, but it has its perks. I’m able to work from anywhere, which means I get to spend more time up North with my family. I’m also able to work for a college near the Cities while living in Duluth. My biggest concern going in was keeping my class engaged (and staying engaged myself! I like being able to see people while I talk to them). My students surprised me with their enthusiasm over video calls, and I surprised myself as well. Being able to communicate via text chat over Zoom has opened up many opportunities for student engagement.
The worst part of teaching is the moment of silence when you ask the class what questions they have, and nobody says a thing. Evidently, many students DO have questions, but for whatever reason don’t want to speak to the class. Since I started using Zoom’s “chat” function to ask for student questions and input, I’ve found that students truly are paying attention and engaging. There are jokes, responses to my questions, running commentary on our readings— a whole little world of student activity that I didn’t get to see in an in-person setting. It turns out that my students have a whole lot to say! They just prefer to type it.
Madeline went from teaching at UMD as an MA student to teaching at Century College, a two-year community college in the Twin Cities. She loves the experience. Teaching at UMD was great preparation for a new experience.
One of the great things about community college is the amazing diversity in the backgrounds of the people I meet. There are so many students who are doing college as older adults. There are parents, international students, teenagers studying as PSEO students, students who have never been in any kind of school before, students deep into their careers who want to switch fields, grandparents, first-generation students, students who speak all kinds of languages— everyone I meet has their own interesting backstory. The students at Century are driven and enthusiastic about seeking their education. It’s been a delight to work with them over this past semester.
The semester has had its challenges, at Century as everywhere else, teaching in a pandemic.
Teaching in a pandemic is challenging. I think doing anything during the pandemic is challenging. I miss having conversations with people, finding out fun things about their lives, learning their hobbies, hearing their stories. But there’s also emotional challenges to teaching during a pandemic. I’m shocked sometimes at how many people in the US want to insist we all carry on as if this is normal, and refuse to acknowledge how terrified we are and how utterly abnormal this entire situation is. It’s absolutely bizarre to wake up every day and go about my work. It’s a little like grieving a loved one— waking up and having to go on pretending like the world is still okay. We know it’s not okay, but we keep going on anyway, answering emails and writing lecture notes. It frequently feels to me like during classes we are all dancing around the elephant in the room, refusing to acknowledge the profound despair and fear that permeates the atmosphere of America in 2020. But we still go on anyway, talking about Jonathan Swift and different kinds of rhetoric and the differences between MLA and APA, in the hope that there’s still value in normal things. We hope that this will be over soon. We hope that we’ll all be okay, and that these skills will be useful. We hope that showing students how to spot manipulative rhetoric in media will help them avoid misinformation and propaganda. We hope that showing students how to identify biases and agendas in writing will help them examine their own. We hope that we’re doing some good for the world. Sometimes that hope feels so faint and foolish. But it’s something to hold onto. A reason to keep trying, to keep helping.
Madeline Johnson completed her BA at Beloit College in Wisconsin. “I double-majored in Creative Writing and English Literature. At UMD, my emphasis was in Creative Writing. I was the first Master’s student in the UMD English department who had a Creative Writing Emphasis, since it was new to that year.”
She has some advice for UMD students:
Ask your teachers questions all the time. If you’re confused, or if you think you might be confused, and even if you’re worried you’re interrupting class or that your question is dumb or that your teacher has answered it already. One of the biggest hurdles you have to overcome as a student is the fear of looking silly or saying something dumb. Your teachers love answering your questions! If you don’t understand something about the lecture, or you weren’t paying attention when something important was announced, or if you think your teacher might have forgotten to explain something, just ask.
Honestly, about half the time my students ask me questions, it’s because I glossed over something far too quickly, or because I forgot to explain an important concept to everyone. I teach several classes and I sometimes forget what I’ve gone over with each group, so when someone interrupts me and asks “wait a second, what do you mean by X?” I’m very grateful. Interrupt your teachers!
For more information about Madeline, visit her LinkedIn page.