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.
Do you have an instructor that you want to see interviewed in the paper? Maybe you want to know more about one of your teachers, but you’re too busy, or shy, to ask? Email editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we’ll add your instructor to our list of teachers to talk to.
This issue we talked to English instructor Michael Stewart about his hopes for his students, his love of sourdough bread, and his bone to pick with Netflix.
1. What do you teach and how long have you been at Camosun?
I started teaching English literature and academic writing at Camosun in February of 2017. So I’m quite new!
2. What do you personally get out of teaching?
So many things. It’s wonderful to introduce curious people to new books (or new ways of looking at familiar books), and I love helping people find their inner writer (and reader). English class is also a great place to think, talk, and write about new and difficult ideas, which should be part of any college program. Plus, I just love meeting Camosun students, who are so lovely, diverse, and engaged.
3. What’s one thing you wish your students knew about you?
That I want them to succeed. Most teachers I know want that. We’re not here to punish or scold students, but to help them become better writers, readers, and thinkers. And that’s good for everyone.
4. What’s one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
Er, my Twitter handle.
5. What’s the best thing that’s happened to you as a teacher here?
I haven’t been around long, but over the last two terms, I had the privilege of teaching students in the Indigenous Studies program, both writing and indigenous literature. Not only did I get to talk about my favourite books and writers to a bunch of wonderful, engaged students, I learned so much from my class. It was a perfect (or nearly perfect) experience.
6. What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you as a teacher here?
As term faculty, I’d have to say the stress that follows and precedes every term. Since I and many of my colleagues are on contract, we get laid off at the end of each term, and sometimes don’t know if we’ll get hired back until the very last minute—even then, we can be given a class we’ve never taught before and need to spend every waking moment preparing for it. That said, my more established colleagues are pretty much the best people on Earth and bend over backwards to make sure contract faculty are supported emotionally and professionally.
7. What do you see in the future of post-secondary education?
What a question! I think I’ll focus on what I’d like to see. Students are carrying record levels of unsustainable debt and, particularly in places like Victoria and Vancouver with low vacancy rates and runaway housing costs, live increasingly precarious and challenging lives. I want to see more funding for tuition and cost-of-living allowances so that everyone who wants an education can get it. Not only do prospective students deserve it, we owe it to them.
8. What do you do to relax on the weekends?
I have two small children, so there’s not a whole lot of relaxing going on in my home, but when I can, I love to tend my vegetable garden, bake sourdough bread, and go for hikes on this beautiful island of ours. Also beer. Delicious beer.
9. What is your favourite meal?
Too many to count, but it’s hard to beat a piece of freshly caught salmon, rockfish, or halibut, and some garden-fresh potatoes and vegetables. Some wine would be nice, too.
10. What’s your biggest pet peeve?
I am very peevish, so this is a bad question for me. This is how people find out how small and petty I really can be. I guess as a parent of young children, my pet peeve is how unbelievably terrible kids’ TV shows are. They are horrible, by any standard. How hard is it to make a good kids’ show, Netflix?