Know Your Profs is an ongoing series of profiles on the instructors at Camosun College. Every issue we ask a different instructor at Camosun the same 10 questions in an attempt to get to know them a little better.
1: What do you teach and how long have you been a teacher at Camosun?
I am an instructional technologist in the department of Visual Arts and have been for the last four years. I teach the technical aspects of photography, graphic design, intermedia, animation, filmmaking, and, occasionally, printmaking.
2: What do you personally get out of teaching?
I believe in the old adage that knowledge is power. At the end of the day our students leave the building knowing things they didn’t when they took the bus up in the morning. To have a hand in facilitating that knowledge is incredibly rewarding.
3: What’s one thing you wish your students knew about you?
I was not always a good student, but I did always care about making good art.
4: What’s one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
I’m not publishing that information in the college newspaper.
5: What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
The year-end exhibitions that we do every April. They are such an effort to pull off but are so rewarding for our students.
6: What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you as a teacher here?
Last year’s budgetary review process. Very stressful indeed.
7: What do you personally see in the future of postsecondary education?
A return to learning for the sake of learning. People change their minds, quit their jobs, and do other things now. Postsecondary education, at least in our department, is about adaptability, creative problem solving, and critical thinking.
8: What do you do to relax on the weekends?
Family, hiking, swimming, BBQ, and IPA. Usually in that order.
9: What’s your favourite meal?
Steak frites, or a really amazing sandwich.
10: What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Bad driving and bad manners (although these are usually connected).