How Do We Do It All?Teacher Educator’s

Responsibilities in Addition to Teaching & Scholarship

Dr. Patti Powell

Professor of Education

Trinity Christian College

Service

The third important component to our job at Trinity is service. Service to Trinity, to our community, to our churches, and to the world. It is equal in worth to teaching and scholarship when one is looking to promote to the next level or attain tenure. This is one of the BEST things about teaching at Trinity.

Advising

•Education faculty typically advise 20-25 students•We see them regularly twice a year to help them register for the fall and spring semesters- each advising session is about 45 minutes long•In addition, they come to see us about any concerns that may arise in any part of their academic, personal, or professional life•They become more than our advisees, many become close acquaintances and even friends

Committees

Each faculty member serves on a number of committees whose load equals 10 points. Some committees are worth 1,3 or even 5 points. Often you will serve on a committee for several years and then chair the committee. There are several committees that are elected positions but their point value is often equivalent to a committee that is not an elected position.

Teaching overloads

Since Trinity has an adult studies program in secondary education, elementary education and special education, many of the education department faculty teach overloads during the school year or during the summer. Each adult studies class lasts 5 weeks for 4 hours one night a week. In addition many of us are “owners” of adult studies courses, particularly if we teach that course in the traditional program and are paid to keep the course current, especially if new editions of the text being used come out.

Education Department Meeting and sub committee assignments

The education department at Trinity which includes elementary education, special education and adult studies education meets at least once a month for 2-3 hours. In addition to this, each of us is on 1 or 2 sub committees that meet between large education department meetings working on areas such as improving writing for our students, integrating RTI across the curriculum and improving technology for our students.

How Do We Do It?

If you’re like me, you stay late, come back at night, sneak in an hour or two on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and work from home at night. One of the advantages of working at a small college is the tremendous flexibility that we have but the drawback is the increased workload….but I found being able to move up the ranks was quite doable and what was required to do so was reasonable and achievable. I guess we can Do It All!