Goal: Gain Experience as an Educator

December 4, 2021 admin Goal

How does this goal fit?

Throughout my life, I have had success with mentoring others whenever the opportunity came up, and this is an activity that I enjoy very much. I have never held a teaching assistant position, but I have participated in mentorship programs in the past, including a “Peer Educator” role in which I mentored students on writing skills during my previous degree at Simon Fraser University. I have also frequently taken on mentorship roles with peers, in situations where my knowledge on topics such as writing, interaction / user experience design, research, and others allowed me to provide guidance to students within the same courses.

These experiences have served to encourage me in viewing myself as someone with potential as an educator, and being in an educator role as a sensible part of my career goals. The more experience I acquire as an educator, the better positioned I am to make progress on this goal, and to make further assessments on whether or not that is the right path for me to take, and when I should take it.

What activities will progress me towards this goal?

• Find employment as a teaching assistant
• Mentor peers and students on writing skills
• Work with peers to develop appropriate learning network approach

What resource(s) will I need to achieve this goal?

The opportunity to work as a TA depends on relationship building and use of resources through which the positions are provided. It would be short sighted to restrict these goals only to what is offered through the OCAD U job postings system.

Similarly, I must not be hesitant to reach out to peers, and effectively communicate with them in order to establish what my strengths in potential mentorship are, and that I am enthusiastic in taking on these challenges. In the past, I have always made an effort to be active in class conversations, and to offer to help whenever I see an opportunity to do so. In my undergrad thesis course last year, I had more conversations with students about their projects privately than in class, because I wanted to prioritize giving the professors more opportunities to give feedback than myself during lecture times. This strategy has proven effective, so I feel confident in continuing it.