The NMDS Archive: Anticipating and Planning Your Career at SCCC, Part I

Editor’s Note:  This following is the first of the presentations from the second FA New Member Discussion Series event, hosted in cooperation with the Office of Faculty and Professional Advancement (and written by yours truly), titled "The Long View: Anticipating and Planning Your Career at SCCC," on November 14, 2014. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting the text and talking points from the other presenters, too, so that even if you weren't able to attend the session, you'll still have access to some of the insight and advice offered at this professional development workshop. -- SKG

The Long View: Anticipating and Planning Your Career at SCCC

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Associate Professor of English, Eastern Campus, Department of Humanities

I’m good at dreaming and planning. I come up with marvelous ideas. Putting these ideas into action, however, is another less-easy and more-challenging feat.

That’s really the impetus for this workshop today. It’s one thing to anticipate a career: to hold its opportunity, to hope, to imagine the depth and breadth of its possibility. It’s another to plan a career, which requires action in the form of decisions. Choices must be made.

One thing my career at Suffolk has made clear is the connection between choice and perspective. There’s a lot of literature out there about higher education, and about being part of the machine of higher education: it’s easy to become lost in it. A link to one article leads to another leads to a rabbit-hole of research and opinion about “shaping our nation.” But it’s almost impossible to sincerely, whole-heartedly subscribe to a belief in the system of higher education and its role in the lives of our fellow citizens unless one feels real satisfaction with, and honest acceptance for, the choices one has made within that system.

Plotting, I mean, preparing, before the presentation.

I’m a poet by trade. I write from a visceral, intuitive place inside my psyche. But systems – inorganic, exterior constructs -- are what I’m here to praise. They are not, by any means, intuitive; but the best ones allow for intuition, for choices based on gut-feelings, and for forgiveness if that intuition proves false.

Today, I’d like to help you come up with your own system, or plan, for your career at SCCC.

Your Ten Year-Plan (Or, A Letter to Yourself in Ten Years’ Time)

When you were younger, you may have been asked to write a letter to your future self. You were encouraged to ask questions of this future self, all along imagining this person and their likes, dislikes, and accomplishments.

Because no one – ever – is likely to ask you to do this again during your time here, please take a few minutes to pause and do something similar to that elementary school project. Before you groan, remember that I said similar, not the same. Ditch the “Dear Future Self” greeting. Don’t waste time with the questions about your predilections and peccadilloes. Instead, pick up one of the pens at the table, and a notepad, and with your most concise and no-nonsense words, create a verbal sketch of where you see yourself, in terms of your career, in ten years time. What is it that you want to do with your next decade?

Congratulations on what you’ve just done. It takes imagination and critical thinking skills to conceptualize one’s projected career. To use your imagination and critical thinking skills after the semester has beaten all your working brain cells into a fine pulp is no small accomplishment. You should feel a tiny sense of pride. Good job by you!

What you hold in your hand or lap, or on the table before you, however, isn’t a plan. It’s anticipation. Planning requires steps. Tiers of action. So now, let’s talk about those.

Tiers of Action (Or, Buckets of Service)

Years ago, a rather hapless administrator stumbled into a department meeting with thirty faculty members who trade in metaphor and symbols for a living, and reduced our promotion process to a series of “buckets” into which one could drop the ephemera of one’s job here. Imagine, he said, that each area of service to the college (Department, Campus, and College) was a bucket. When it came time for promotion, no one bucket should be more full than another. You could win a Nobel Prize, he said, and if your “campus” bucket was empty, there wasn’t much he could do to promote you.

You are right to laugh. Said hapless administrator was rightly mocked (not to his face, of course) for his oversimplification, which was devoid of lyricism and nuance and akin to that other elementary-school preoccupation with do-goodery, “Bucket-Filling.” Also, his allusion to buckets and a balance between them had the misfortune of producing the image of a yoke, reducing faculty to peasants – or worse – servants – or even worse -- oxen.

Sadly, the clumsiness of his words masked a more-or-less realistic view of our promotion process here. He was, in fact, on to something. Balance. (And by the way, he eventually took back what he said about the Nobel Prize. I’m not sure anyone on the Board could argue with giving that person promotion.)

Go to the FA’s website, and visit the “Professional Life” tab and scroll down to the “Promotion Information” link. Download the “A” form, which you’ll need to fill out in order to be promoted, and scroll through it. Note that on this form you’ll be describing yourself – and evaluating your own performance -- in the following areas:

• Teaching and Other Duties (Other duties being the rather poor term to describe the daily lives of those who don’t teach)
• Service to the College and Community (which is described, in the paragraph that follows, as encompassing your department/area, campus, college and community. We often forget this last one. Community Service isn’t widely stressed, but it’s important!)
• Personal and Professional Growth (Or, in other words, Research and Scholarship)

Now hold up that “Future Self” sketch. Compare it to the form here. Do they look anything alike?

Probably not. But they probably should.

Sharing (hopefully) useful tips for creating balance

Practicing What We Preach: Revision and Reflection

First, Revision: 

Be patient with me, please, and take another sheet of paper out. Now, revise that original “Future Self” sketch by breaking it down into the following categories:

Daily Duties (Teaching/Non-Teaching)

Departmental Service

Campus Service

College Service

Community Service

Professional Development

Six areas. Our jobs here at SCCC are not simple – they are multi-faceted and complex, sometimes overlapping and working in tandem and sometimes in opposition to one another.

We’ll talk more about the latter in a moment. For now, let’s be positive: What – and try to be as concrete as possible – do you see yourself doing ten years from now? Think truly “big picture.” Be ambitious and idealistic. You have room to do that right now, and it will not serve you to think small.

Hint One: if you entered at the rank of Instructor, and you do everything “right” and “on time,” you will be nearing – but not quite at -- the end of your promotion cycle. If you enter at the rank of PA or Specialist, around 7 years from now you’ll be applying for your final promotion.

Hint Two: Under the “service” categories, you may find yourself a little stumped. You may not know what kind of service you CAN provide. You have lots of options, and this is also your chance to think bigger and better. Sure, most of us participate and contribute by being on committees. But you can contribute also by starting a department or campus newsletter or blog. You can contribute by leading a TLC presentation on your campus. You can contribute by organizing a professional development workshop for the college.  You can work with community partners inside and outside your classroom on unique, meaningful, and curricula-related projects. This is your moment to imagine lots and lots of options, so that you don’t feel limited when it comes to making a choice.

Now, Reflection, Part I:

After you’ve maybe taken that “Future Self” and divided him or her six different ways in this revision, sit back and reflect on what you’ve imagined. And take note – what area holds the most challenging or ambitious “Future Self”?

That most challenging or ambitious part should not be, necessarily, your highest priority – but it’s the area you want to be most conscious of and careful about. This is the area that will, most likely, lead to the highest amount of job satisfaction if you meet your goals.

And frankly, your highest goal should be to come out of this process without bitterness and resentment, or feeling cheated or roadblocked. How does one do that? Through a careful plan. Through pragmatic choices.

Then, Reflection, Part II:

This next part is not intended to be stressful or panic-inducing. Simply answer the question, where – in each of these areas – do I stand now?

I know you just arrived here. You may believe that you haven’t done more than attend department meetings and lead your classes competently, at best. But you may have done a tiny bit more than you realize. For instance: You’re attending this Professional Development Workshop. You know where that goes? Under Professional Development.  You may be a pack leader for your local boy scout troop. That’s Community Service, which really means demonstrating you’re an active and positive part of the local community.

If, after these past two months, you’ve got about two items to divide across this list – good. You’re right where you need to be. If you don’t have anything other than this workshop, you’re still right where you need to be, because where you need to be at this point is at the beginning -- but at the beginning with open eyes, with an awareness of where you’re headed.

Remember, too, that your timeline is your own timeline. You’re not racing anyone but yourself to that final promotion – and if you arrive at that finish line exhausted and depleted, feeling bitter and used, it will diminish your victory.  

Your Action Plan: Tips

1.    Make Rules for Yourself. Follow Them. Try Again if You Mess Up.

You are going to be asked to do lots of things. My advice, particularly if you’re enthusiastic about almost everything like someone else I know **cough ** . . .  is to give yourself a rule like: I must take a week to consider before beginning any new projects or commitments. If someone asks you to join a committee, say thanks, ask questions about the time commitment and the charges and tasks of the committee, and then take a few days to reflect. Answer only after you’ve taken stock of your other commitments and surveyed whether or not, realistically, you could handle the responsibility. If you can, great. If not, don’t feel bad saying no. There are lots of us at this college. They will find someone to do the work.

2.    Maybe You Have Two Careers, Not One. Plan Accordingly.

At a community college, research, publication, conference presentations, and other professional development is not the primary focus of faculty. In fact, in that list of six categories, taken directly from the A form, Personal and Professional Growth comes in last.

Some of us are just fine with that, and don’t feel a need to perform in this area beyond what’s required for our promotions. Most of us, though, came to higher education because we were interested in learning, and we specialized in very particular subject areas, and as scholars and true academics, we would like to continue to specialize, and publish, and excel, in our particular areas or fields.

For years now, I’ve answered the riddle of being a Teaching Artist at a community college by thinking of myself as having Two Careers. Two callings, intermingled at points, but that require their own separate focus. If I want to get anywhere with my writing, I need to give it time. And I have to give it time that is sacred, and set apart from my grading, my committee work, my email correspondence, office hours, and meetings.

For years now, it’s been in the mornings. Alternately – and ideally – I wake before my children and use the dark, quiet hours to write, read OR do the boring,  painful, necessary work of submitting to journals and book publishers. Since I began this practice of compartmentalizing my “twin careers,” I’ve seen a drastic increase in my productivity, as well as in my publications and presentations. Also, I’m just happier, because I’m one of those annoying people who’s happiest when I feel useful.

I try – emphasis on try – to keep these hours separate from everything else in my life, and sometimes it’s possible. Sometimes it isn’t possible. And sometimes it’s possible, but the other areas of my life suffer; I fall behind in my committee work, perhaps, or with my grading.

Generally, I forgive myself if this happens. It’s a necessary evil. If you perform perfectly in one of these areas, chances are you’re going to be failing (or flailing) in some or all of the others. There’s just too much to do, and too many demands on our time to do everything perfectly 100%, or even 25% of the time, frankly.

But as most therapists would agree – this is a good problem. There’s too much good stuff! Having a career as an academic, after all, is not a bad lot in life. What matters is that you’re being pulled in different directions by aspects of your life that you care about genuinely, and that you see the good and positive effects of your work on a regular basis, despite the chaos and stress of a fully-packed schedule.

This is, I hope, the key to a long and happy career at this college, or any college: ambition, a pragmatic approach, a willingness to forgive yourself for missteps, and the awareness that you can and will choose the direction and momentum of the events in your career. A career isn’t something that just happens to us. We build it.

The SCCList and Important Phone Numbers at Your Campus

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, FA New Member Program

By now you will have all received the official class cancellation from Mary Lou Araneo for Tuesday and Wednesday's classes. Some of you, if you're on the SCCList, will have been up-to-date on the reason why (Snowpocalypse '15!!) because of Professor Scott Mandia's useful updates regarding the impending inclement weather.

And some of you may be scratching your head right now, thinking, "SCCList?"

The SCCList is the official listserv for Suffolk through which its members may communicate unofficially . . . that is to say, it's a little more casual and democratic -- any member can post and use the listserv to speak to the SCCC Community at large. It's a place where you can discuss anything to do with Suffolk, from its internal policies to pedagogical issues. Or, you know, the weather.

If your email hasn't been made part of the SCCC distribution list already, you may want to sign up to be included. To subscribe to the SCCList, go to http://depthome.sunysuffolk.edu/Library/staff/scclist.asp. Once in a while you'll find a flurry of messages in your inbox via the listserv, but on the whole it's worth the storage space in your email account to be kept in the loop.

Also, with so much recent stress on where-to-go for information, I thought that this would be an opportune time to share some important campus numbers with you: those of The FA Office, Security, Health Services, Counseling, and Payroll. You might want to print this email out and post it on a wall somewhere near your office phone, or maybe even carry a copy with you to class if you’re teaching faculty -- sometimes, sadly or oddly enough, you need Security and/or the assistance of Health Services while you’re teaching class. (It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen  -- sometimes students try to attend class when they’re just too ill to make it through. And sometimes they faint, which is when you should call Health Services.)

Important Numbers  -- Ammerman

Faculty Association:  x4151

Security: x4242

Health Services: x4047

Counseling:  x4053

Payroll: x4204

Important Numbers  -- Eastern

Faculty Association:  x4151

Security: x3636

Health Services: x2510

Counseling:  x2524

Payroll: x4204

Important Numbers -- Grant

Faculty Association: x4151

Security: x6777

Health Services: x6709

Counseling: x6250

Payroll: x4204

Serenity Now!

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, Chair, FA New Member Program

Greetings, new-ish faculty! Congratulations on having survived your first semester of full-time employment at SCCC! You may be surprised to hear from me  . . . I have, after all, been fairly absent from this blog since the end of October, which wasn't intentional but certainly wasn't helpful, either. Teaching an online class for the first time in several semesters very nearly drove me insane (in addition to being a phenomenal time-suck) and all because of some road-blocks and problems that could have been avoided had I only done a couple of fairly small and simple things before the fall semester even began.

But I didn't, and so, as we used to say while waiting tables, I found myself in the weeds. I managed to get through it, but it certainly wasn't pretty.

And now, on the eve of our first semester of the 2015 year, I'd like to extend a few helpful hints and pointers that I picked up as I tripped my merry way through a Complete Disaster Semester in the fall of '14:

Mmmm . . . Canned Serenity

 

1. Using Technology is Good When it's Very Very Good, But When it is Bad, it is Horrid (Subtitle: Check Your Links and Files, Fool!) (Alternate Subtitle: Don't Reinvent the Wheel While the Wheel is Spinning)

Sometimes . . . well, a lot of times, technology doesn't act as you wish it would. This is more likely a result of Operator-Error than anything else, but regardless of the reason, it's really really inconvenient -- some might say, panic-inducing -- when you can't make it work the way you wish it would in the moment when you need it to work. Remember that post from last semester when I cried and whinged about Powerpoint for Macs? Yeah . . . that wasn't especially fun, for me OR the students I had waiting around for the stupid lecture to load. 

I won't rehash the details of that episode here (feel free to revisit my agony any time you like, though!), but it should suffice to say it wasn't my only problem with Blackboard Learn, or my online students, that semester. 

One of the best lessons I learned from last semester -- and this is something that I'm carrying over to my face-to-face (traditional) classrooms too -- is that it's almost impossible to be an effective teacher giving truly quality lectures and/or assignment feedback if you're prepping for your class at the same time you're teaching it. I know I've "known" this -- but I don't think it really hit me as concretely or viciously as it did last semester. 

It's not that I intended to be prepping while I was teaching -- it happened because of the following reasons:

• Like my nine year old daughter taking a test, I didn't check my work:  I'm pretty sure my daughter's interior life consists of a series of gorgeously overblown musical numbers, so I'm not surprised when she marks something on a map as NE instead of NW, despite having a compass rose right in front of her. I, however, don't have the same excuse. I too-confidently copied files from Desire2Learn (our former course management system) to Blackboard, and then set up my online course for the fall trusting that everything was hunky-dory. It wasn't. Lesson: Check your links. Check your files. Check your links and your files. And then check your links and files again. 
• A fresh start is not always the best start: In some ways, the beginning of a new semester is to an academic like the New Year is to the rest of the working world: A chance to start over. However, just because you have a great idea about restructuring your course or revamping its content doesn't mean that you should attempt the change RIGHT NOW. It's tempting -- I know. I did it last semester. I thought I'd make some innovative changes, but because I lacked the amount of time necessary to implement those changes thoroughly and/or effectively, my course ended up being FAR (far) (really far) from innovative.

I take the bulk of the blame for my lame online class last semester, but I will say this: Our system at SCCC for creating and changing online content is not the greatest. Faculty do not have ample amounts of time to "reinvent the wheel" -- even when we take "summers off" we spend most of that time catching up on all of the professional development and scholarship we've ignored during the school year. The result is depending on pre-packaged monstrosities from mercenary, thoroughly NON-academic publishing companies (despite their titles) for course content; or, rushing to get it all done in the few weeks before the course begins (. . . or even after it begins *cough*); or, paring down the content until it's a ghost of your traditional classroom. 

None of this, of course, is satisfactory. The obvious answer is to have the class mapped and as kink-free as possible before day one, and to do this WELL before the semester begins. (A little birdie tells me there's hope --and possibly paid time to work on revitalizing your DE classes -- on the horizon, but I'll wait to tell you more when I have concrete details.)

But wait, you're saying (if you're still reading, that is): Surely ALL of your classes didn't go poorly, did they? Funny you should ask! As a matter of fact:

2. Sometimes You DO Have Time to Plan Thoroughly and Those Plans Fail Anyway (Subtitle: Keep Calm and Change Your Course  . . . of Action)

For my face-to-face/traditional classes, I found that my preps were easy and completed well before the semester began -- I'd taught the classes before, made minor changes to the lecture/discussion agenda, updated my assignments to match updates in the texts, etc.

And then, you know, HUMANS happened.

My students know pretty well into the first month of a class that if they come to an office hour, I'll give them my full and undivided attention for as long as they need it. Unfortunately ("unfortunately" only in terms of time-management), quite a few of them -- a lot of them -- more than any previous semester -- took me up on this offer. That ate into my figure-out-that-darn-online-class time, which grew monstrously and then proceeded to eat into my grading time, which then ate into my sleeping time because any moment that isn't spent in service of my job these days is spent in service to my three young children (I know, I know, I did it to myself: the audacity of having babies while teaching! Not to mention that at least they were relatively healthy this fall, unlike in 2013, where even my contingency plans needed contingency plans).

Anyway, on the upside, I felt like my traditional-classroom students garnered a LOT of one-on-one help, and I believe it helped the classroom dynamic as well as their understanding of the material. On the downside, I felt thoroughly overwhelmed at how I was going to possibly respond to all of their assignments . . . assignments that in a "normal" semester (I know! Normal! I can hear you laugh!) would have seemed manageable. 

So I explained my dilemma. I was honest with them, apologetic to a point (I mean, I was still doing my JOB, I just wasn't doing it the way I'd outlined it at the beginning of the semester). Instead of hiding from my students in those final weeks, I scheduled MORE one-on-one conferences and made sure I looked each of them (most of them) in the face and reviewed the work, right in front of them, that they'd been waiting for so patiently.

And it seemed to work. At least, no one's lobbed fiery hate-mail at me yet. And it seems the old adage is true: You can't account for the actions of other people, but you CAN account for your response to people. 

Just try to make sure your response to other people isn't running at a full sprint from the room, wailing and tearing at your hair.

3. Your Most Important Duty is the One That Makes Your Job Title. All the Other Stuff is Frosting.

3.A. Okay, Not All of It is Frosting. Some of It is Definitely Not as Fun as Frosting. (This Blog is Frosting.)

In a week I'll archive the first of the presentations from our November New Member Discussion Series Event, and in it you'll read something to the tune of: "Only accept those tasks and committee memberships you feel truly excited about and/or invested in, because no matter what, you're going to feel overwhelmed."

I felt incredibly overwhelmed last semester. And by this point in my career, I only participate in those committees and activities to which I feel drawn and enthusiastic. So I felt very disheartened that I didn't have enough time to complete the primary responsibility of my job, let alone the secondary and tertiary responsibilities . . . like this blog, for instance, which I thoroughly enjoy writing (I don't know if you can tell); or my advising of the campus literary magazine; or my contributions to the planning of our annual creative writing festival.

So what does that mean? It means change! Something has to change. Either I change the way I do these tasks, or I relinquish some of these responsibilities, or I refashion my role(s). Will all of this change happen immediately? Um . . . NOPE! Of course not. Remember what I said earlier in this book-of-a-blog-post about big changes at the beginning of a semester: DON'T DO THEM. But I can tweak. And I can be more mindful of the way I approach these facets of my job that I love, and judge worthy of my time, but that ultimately MUST come second place to my primary job duty (TEACHING) and MUST come second to my family life and my health. (Because being this crazy takes a toll on you and your loved ones, believe me!)

* * *

So here are some suggestions for enabling this semester to run more smoothly -- and as a result, any subsequent semesters, too: 

• Do as much preparatory work as you can RIGHT NOW, during this last week before classes. Yes, the specter of last semester's final exams may still be haunting your office, and yes, you may not want to drag yourself into the office or over to your computer to dredge up any file other than your trusty course outline . . . and sure, it may be super tempting to either veg out on your couch with a Walking Dead marathon or book a last-minute mini-getaway to Connecticut . . . but if you haven't prepped your lectures/handouts/assignments/in-class exercises day-by-day, down to May 13, you're probably going to be swimming in a lot of grading backlog when May 13 actually arrives.
• Keep a notebook/journal/diary for notes about class sessions. Many of us teach two to five sections of the same course every semester, either by necessity or by virtue of a strategic decision to create LESS PREP. The problem with this is that it can become very difficult -- particularly in the middle of the semester -- to remember what the heck you said to which group of students. Crack the same lame jokes to a class for the second class in a row, and you'll virtually hear the WAH-WAH-WAAAAHHH of a distant trumpet as your students grimace politely with restrained disdain. Spend fifteen minutes covering the same territory you spoke about in the last 15 minutes of the previous class, and you'll find your name blazoned across all the Yik Yaks or Yahoos or Rate Yer Professors that span the vast interwebs, in "critiques" (always featuring perfect grammar and refined, impermeable logic, of course) that go something like this: "omigod Profesor X totaly doesnt haf her SH** togethr Y do I come to class oh Yeh its for that hottie in the Abercrombie tee LOL." Anyway . . . where was I? OH YEAH. Keep a notebook. Jot down the date and time of the class session, and take a full five minutes -- surely we can spare that, right? -- to jot down a few notes:
• Material covered (as expected -- because you prepped thoroughly, remember?)
• Material not covered (also as expected -- because each class is different and you know that sometimes discussion is derailed when students need more time to cover some topic or problem more thoroughly)
• Thoughts on the class: Did it go well? How do you know? Were students responsive? Were they engaged with the text? Did they read the text? How can you ensure they read the text next time? Some of these thoughts will lead to small innovations (pop quiz next time, suckers!) and some of these will lead, IN THE FUTURE AND CERTAINLY NOT THIS SEMESTER, to reshaping your course, changing the pace or sequence of material, and/or altering out of class or in class assignments. 
• Solicit informal student feedback once or twice during the semester. Not of the brown-nosing, "OH I LOVED THIS CLASS SO MUCH" variety -- but of the "Do you all feel comfortable moving to the next text/issue/problem/concept, or should we take another class period to cover this material?" vein. Sometimes, taking yourself out of lecturer mode (or discussion facilitator mode) and having an honest conversation can really help you gauge whether the pace of your class is the right one -- particularly if you're teaching a  course for the first time -- and before you collect a bunch of lousy, vague papers or lackluster-to-terrible midterm scantrons. 
• Be kind to your students, and you'll be helping yourself. This last suggestion I'm making comes from our lovely and on-top-of-her-game Adjunct Rep, Cynthia Eaton. You remember how last semester you introduced your students to the course and it took them forever to buy the books? Or the students went dutifully to the book store and it turned out the book store habitually NEVER BUYS ENOUGH TEXTBOOKS FOR THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS ENROLLED IN THE COURSE BECAUSE THEY'RE A BUSINESS AND BUSINESSES DON'T CARE IF SAMMY OR SHEILA FAILS THEIR FIRST QUIZ? Or the students came back and told you that the two books you'd ordered cost a total of $220 at the store, and they can't afford that yet because they don't get paid until next Friday/their financial aid hasn't come through, and also, oh yeah, they can get the same books on Amazon or at Powell's for $80 flat? Yeah . . . WELL! There's something you can do RIGHT NOW that might make your life easier in two weeks. Email your students and let them know what books you'll be using, and whether or not you mind them using ebook editions, or library copies, or secondhand copies sold on half.com. It's as simple as that: Let them know. It's not guaranteed, but it increases your chances of having prepared students in your first classes on January 20 and 21. 

Prepared faculty AND prepared students? That would be a fearsome thing to behold.

* * *

This post is dedicated to 

Carol Cavallo, 

Colleague and Friend Extraordinaire.

Happy Retirement, Carol!

On Being Open to the Mentoring Process

by Sarah Kain Gutowski, New Member Program Chair

This Friday, from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in the Eaton's Neck Room of the Ammerman Campus, the FA and the Office of Faculty and Professional Development will host the second event in our FA New Member Discussion Series, titled "The Long View: Anticipating and Planning Your Career at SCCC."

This event -- featuring Dr. William Burns, Teri Morales, and yours truly -- will focus on presenting personal and anecdotal approaches to professional development. We hope to share practical and moderate approaches to work/life balance while at the college, along with advice on creating what I think of as "work/work balance" -- an equal (and desirable) distribution of time and energy among ALL facets of your career: the duties and responsibilities that come with your job title (as teaching/non-teaching faculty), service, and presentation/publication.

Isn't November supposed to be gray and damp?

Hopefully, you'll leave this event with very concrete ideas about how to navigate your first promotion and the years beyond, gaining the kind of advice, warnings, and inspiration that most of us mid-career types wish we'd been privy to when we began teaching at Suffolk.

One of the things I wish I'd known when I first began working at SCCC -- and was assigned my very own mentor through the New Member Program -- is the following: 

Mentoring is a reciprocal relationship. 

Most of us regard being mentored as a passive role, but it's much more dynamic than that if it's conducted appropriately and correctly. So I thought that this week, before we present our second installation of the discussion series in our mentoring program, I'd share something I learned a few years back at the “ELT (NYSUT’s Education & Learning Trust) Seminar on Mentors” co-sponsored by The Office of the Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs and the Faculty Association.

The first three points come from a handout the ELT constructed, in which they quote Hal Portner, author of the book “Being Mentored: A Guide for Protégés” (Corwin Press). Portner asserts that in order to get the most out of mentoring, you should “be” the following:

Be ready – “Wholeheartedly accept the opportunity to be mentored”

Be willing – You need to “believe that you have an ongoing need to learn . . . When you are doing something you believe in – when what you are doing sits well with your set of values and is relevant to your life – you will do it better; you will do it with passion.” Additionally, you need to “have confidence that being mentored . . . can make a difference between success and failure.” And lastly, you must  believe that “being mentored can help you remain in the profession and have a satisfying and gratifying career.”

Be able – “Whether you have a mentor who offers little help or support, or a mentor who throws so much information and help your way that you are constantly overwhelmed, or a mentor who is . . . experienced [and] who understands how to work effectively with a protégé, you will still get more out of being mentored if you are ‘able’. Being able means having the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to be proactive in the mentoring process. Being proactive means not only being ready and willing to access the resources available to you, but also being empowered to do so.”

I think these three points can be very eye-opening and valuable, if you attempt to put them into practice. Mentoring involves not just humility -- admitting that you don't know everything and could benefit from guidance -- but a willingness to make the relationship work by helping your mentor shape the process. Ask specific questions. Let him or her know what you need. Offer feedback about the help and advice you receive -- let your mentor know what works for you, what doesn't, and what could use tweaking or adjustment.

Finally, the ELT handout offered these “Principles for Success”:

• Take the initiative when it comes to having your needs met as a protégé.
• Avoid making assumptions about your mentor’s plans and expectations.
• Solicit feedback from your mentor as a way to improve.
• Receive feedback objectively.
• Attempt to construct ways to learn from seemingly untenable situations.
• Take responsibility for your personal well-being.
• Contribute to the learning of other educators.

 I look forward to seeing you at Friday's event!