Like to teach? You will learn more than you expected

Conestoga College teaching jobs fair
Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ontario, plans online teaching job fairs May 15 and May 19, 2021.

If you’ve ever thought about teaching what you know, Conestoga College is looking for you.

For the last two years, I’ve delivered Citizen Journalism and business Client Communications classes at the Doon campus in Kitchener, Ontario. The part-time teaching opportunities give me a chance to share the communication skills learned my a 30-odd year career in newspaper and online journalism. That experience was the foundation to building my business storytelling skills and media relations experience. 

It was a coming home for me when I returned to campus in 2019.  I graduated from Conestoga in 1986 with a Journalism-Print Diploma (honours). The next year, I started my journalism-communications career at the now-closed Cambridge Reporter newspaper. Back then, I never thought I’d be a teacher. But 30 years later, but I responded to a last-minute request to teach a class at Conestoga. And I haven’t looked back.

Part-time teaching jobs

Conestoga is looking for more part-time faculty.  I encourage you to think about sharing your career skills with students in programs ranging from business to social services and animation to bricklaying. 

Register for an online Part-time Faculty Information Session & Recruitment Event on Saturday, May 15, 2021, and again on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. Both sessions run 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Online registration

Register for the job fair using this online form

If you can’t attend the sessions, you may also leave your contact information to receive an application form for potential teaching opportunities, the form says. 

In my experience, if you’re serious about wanting to teach, Conestoga is ready to help you succeed while helping your students succeed.

Without exception, over the last two years, everyone I’ve worked with at Conestoga has welcomed and encouraged me to learn and grow. I started teaching without any formal teaching training on my resume.  Conestoga offers training, workshops and discounted tuition for continuing education courses to build your teaching toolkit.  

I’ve found that the more I teach, the more I learn. The skills I learn and practice while teaching helps me build my career as a project-based business communications consultant, after leaving The Record newspaper in 2016.

In truth, I wonder some days if I’m learning more than I am teaching my students. 

Teaching makes me better as a communications consultant and business storyteller. After all, my day job employs the same fundamental skills I use in class – and vice versa.