I was hired to teach high school Graphic Communications last Spring. Honestly it was an amazing birthday month. Job offer, full eclipse and trip to visit my son at college. Securing a long term substitute job at my future high school helped me get to know staff and students even though I was teaching classes outside of my knowledge base: World history, American History and Econ. Now I am pretty solid in history but econ was another story. Somehow I muddled through and the students were happy to have teaching security instead of a parade of subs for two months. It hit me a couple days into summer break that I needed to plan my Intro to Graphic Design class, from scratch. This was a brand new pathway opening at my school so there was no game plan. I planned, replanned and researched my way through three full classes teaching Photoshop and Illustrator along with copyright, color theory, design theory, professionalism and career opportunities. I lovingly called my students “crash test dummies” because I made mistakes and seemed disorganized. I just needed to figure out how to teach everything so it made sense and built upon the last lesson. We all made it through and my students created some amazing work. Those who had no interest in taking the class, told me it ended up being their favorite class.
However, last semester I had a bad case of imposter syndrome teaching graphic communications at my school. I had to create a class from scratch using skills I was a bit rusty in. I scoured resources for activities and lesson plans that would help teach the standards dictated by the State of Georgia. Some lessons went over well, some fell flat but we got through it. We all learned so much together. More than once I confessed to my admin that I wondered if I was the best candidate for the job.
Somehow I forgot the 30+ years of newspaper experience where I was asked to do so many different jobs and the only option was to try. My title may have been photo editor or director of photo/visuals but I was a photographer, art director, storyteller, reporter, manager, graphic design consultant, editor, librarian, archivist, teacher, mentor, producer and more that I can’t think of right now. Not to mention the time I spent being an adjunct and also teaching a mini course at a local high school.
Then consider how much photography has changed since 1983 when I graduated from high school. Those of us who began taking pictures and who are still in the biz or recently “retired”, had to change as the business changed. We had to grow with the business and technology. I was in a business classroom today as a test proctor and there was a project on the wall about why Kodak failed. As I was reading it, I thought about all of us who changed with the advent of Adobe and digital photography. We left the darkroom and logged in to the computer. Printing negatives to scanning negative to uploading images. Kodak ignored the changing tide so they failed. Photojournalists could not ignore changes, we learned the new technology as it was created. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? That’s B.S.
This semester the fear is gone. My years of professional experience tell me that I have earned this job. Sure, last semester I was not as organized as I would’ve liked but I am learning from my mistakes. I have more confidence. There are resources out there for me to succeed. This semester, I understand how important it is to discover the talents my students don’t know they have, then help them develop those skills. I suspect second semester freshman are calmer than first semester freshman. That makes a difference in both of our abilities to focus. I realize that we are at the beginning of the semester but I leave my school at the end of the day energized instead of feeling drained. It’s hard to remember the last time I felt this way about a job. Maybe it is simply because it is a second career and fresh start.
This is where I belong.
Nell Carroll Photography 