I don’t know if I’m cut out for this
TLDR: I am a new adjunct instructor at a community college and I don’t know if I am cut out for this job. I’m living below the poverty line and I’m having extreme difficulty finding my footing in teaching. Besides my interaction with students, I don’t find this job enjoyable.
Sorry for the long rant, I needed a place to vent.
I’m about to start my second semester teaching at a community college, and I’m just not excited for it. Honestly I’m kinda dreading it but I don’t know if that’s coming from a place of nerves that will eventually go away, or I just genuinely don’t like this job.
I finished a teaching internship at my college last year and they offered me a position as a part time instructor and I was so excited. However, I was thrown into things without a lot of help. I taught an online class and another one in person to cover for another instructor that had to leave toward the beginning of Spring semester. I didn’t love the online class, but the in-person was great.
I’m going to be teaching two in-person classes this Fall and thankfully most of the materials are built into the course from previous instructors, but I still have to create some quizzes and assessments for both classes. I did not receive the most instruction on how to do this and although I did it before, I found it very stressful. I’ve pretty much struggled with all aspects of lesson planning and I do not enjoy it at all. I’m sure it’s not really anything to enjoy, of course, but I find it so hard to power through to get done.
And I hated not making money over the summer. I tried to make my remaining pay from Spring semester last, but due to unexpected changes in my personal life, most of it got spent very quickly on survival. Don’t get me wrong, I actually make good money per hour for an adjunct compared to other places, but I’m still living below the poverty line. I really don’t know if this is the job for me overall.
Does it get any better?