Professor Status

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11988760_10150633681679956_6883456019591804743_nAugust has been a month of “firsts”. I had the chance to work on my first full body painting and today I had my first experience as a college professor. I like the professor status a lot. I love teaching. I have a great group of freshmen and I had the chance to welcome them for their first class as undergraduate students at this university. I also believe that this is the first time the students were asked by a professor to take a selfie. We all took a selfie with some of the students in the background behind each one of use while the people behind us was also taking a selfie. You might ask “Why?”

Our seminar is about developing a process of inquiry and a selfie allows people to understand our reality that we can only see things from our point of view as everyone else. Therefore, if we allow our assumptions and interpretations of the world around us to be challenged by the fact that there are other points of view we can learn to be unbiased learners. Moreover, it also helps people understand the need to communicate honestly and respectfully. We don’t have to attack people for what they believe or for what they say but we can challenge the statement. We don’t have to agree with everything people say or do, but we can understand why they say what they say and why they do what they do. Above all that, I believe we all need to learn how not to get offended every time someone or a statement doesn’t agree with us and how we see the world. We can also present our position with camaraderie with the intention to grow together as if all the selfies were part of one big picture without offending people.

September promises to be an interesting month. Things will only get more interesting as we continue experiencing the inquiry process in class. During this month I will continue experimenting and exploring more in body painting. In relationship to that, I will be body painting during an art show opening at the Gallery at Elemar in New Haven, CT (Friday, September 18: more details to come), and I will also be body painting the next day during the MAC Fest in Downtown Milford, CT. Don’t forget to also check out the sculpting and painting parties. Hope to see you soon in any of these events.

A Great Night

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Photo Nov 23, 9 40 01 AMEvery night I get to teach is a great night. It doesn’t matter if it is a sculpting or painting party, a computer class, an art lesson for one person or many, a lecture or presentation, I love to teach. It feels good to empower people, to help them try new things and have fun with it. I like to challenge people to break with the fear of trying and to accept their efforts as accomplishments. Interestingly, it was not always that way. Yes, I liked the spotlight since very little and performing was a lot of fun, but teaching was something I didn’t like. It is not the same as just being in front of people, perform, and leave. Teaching requires commitment and responsibility.

When I was working on my masters in education I began looking at instructional technology as a way to teach indirectly. How does that work? Well, I wanted to design online learning environments and allow people to interact with the computer instead of me. To my surprise, the masters took me to new and very interesting teaching experiences. I was teaching art to children with disabilities, computer skills and applications to working adults and seniors, then special education. From there I began training people in different areas during the years I was pursuing a PhD in education. In December 2012, once I achieved the PhD, I applied to many universities to teach either online or on campus. It seems almost impossible to get a faculty job in a university if you don’t have experience. Of course, you are not going to get experience if no one hires you. Then you get the ‘non-qualified’, ‘over qualified’ (not sure what that means), or the ‘we decided to go with another candidate’ thing.

Last week I received notification that I’ve been accepted as part-time faculty in a university, and not an art class. My PhD is in education and for the first time I will be able to use it in the specialty I worked so hard for. I am not going to reveal the name or location until I take a selfie on campus. Although my Facebook friends already know. Teaching just got more serious. I will continue teaching art and the sculpting and painting parties, the workshops, the seminars, and the private art lessons, but teaching 3 times per week in a continuous seminar for a semester is going to be fantastic. I can’t wait to begin. I can’t wait to see the dream of being a college professor come to pass.