Teaching Higher Education is Rewarding

 

            Kevin Mitchell is the department chair for the College of Communications at College of Southern Nevada, a community college that services the greater Las Vegas area. Department chair is an elected position that he has held for the past seven years. He likes serving in that role but does point out “it’s always a challenge.” One aspect of that job he says is challenging is he does not like “cleaning up other people’s messes.” Other than that, Mitchell has nothing but complimentary things to say about his position as well as the college he works for.

With a wide range of experience gained from teaching at several other colleges and universities, Mitchell is quick to sing the praises of his current institution. He points out that there is amazing equipment at the community college where he is currently working, but states people just do not know about it. Some of the equipment that he says is unknown to the general public is the state-of-the-art videography equipment as well as radio equipment.

Mitchell finds teaching extremely rewarding. He says that teaching is individual, it is going from “different learner to different learner.” He gives an example of having a student come to him and say that they were the first person on their block to get a paycheck that pulls them out of poverty. Moments like that Mitchell point out are “incredibly powerful” and “make it all worth it.” 

20,000+ Best Books Photos · 100% Free Download · Pexels Stock Photos

Currently Mitchell teaches college courses, dual credit high school courses, and prisoners in the prison education program, all through the College of Southern Nevada. The courses he teaches are Public Speaking, Applied Communication, and on some occasions, Communication Theory. He notes that “teaching is fun but not always sustainable for some people as a career.” He says with teaching at the college level career development is “not what, but who or where.”  Mitchell has dreams of future endeavors that could take him in another direction, but he does not plan to pursue any of them while he is working as chair of the department.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Incongruent, Naturally

Image
            I first heard the song “Alone Again” by Gilbert O’Sullivan when I was in college. It had been out for a few decades at that point, but my friends and I were discovering “older” music and found this gem. It is a relatively upbeat song with easy rhythms and tones, but the lyrics make it an incongruent in my opinion. I especially find the repeated, matter-of-fact tone, notes, and rhythms to be somewhat incongruent with the message of the song. Still, in some ways the straightforward beat, vocals, and notes add to the resolve the lyrics convey.    I do not know at what point while singing the song that I realized he was singing about possible suicide and the death of a parent. At first, I was drawn in by the music. In the first verse the song uses tragic lyrics with dramatic illusion to describe his plans while the phrasing gives a little intensity then ends in a release with the phrase “alone again, naturally....
Read more

What's Next for Kevin Mitchell?

Image
              Kevin Mitchell is not planning to give up being the chair of the communications department at the College of Southern Nevada anytime soon. He is happy serving in that capacity and says teaching is very rewarding. He does however have dreams of doing something more in the future when he has more time. “I hope to have my own podcast/YouTube channel when I’m not department chair,” Mitchell said. He realizes he needs a niche for such an endeavor, and he knows exactly what he would like to do. Mitchell says he would focus on his hobbies and interests. Those include tabletop war games like Dungeons and Dragons sometimes known as D&D, miniature 28 scale, and 3D printing. Mitchell is an avid D&D player and has an impressive collection of miniatures, some of which he has created himself. He also has a plethora of D&D dice and was happy to show off his collection. He does not have experience with 3D printing, ...
Read more

The Businessman is Never Mr. Right

Image
                 Marxist ideology can be found in almost all forms of pop culture text including Hallmark and Hallmark-esque movies. They have become almost formulaic in their portrayal of the uncaring businessman boyfriend who later becomes the ex-boyfriend when the highly successful but down to earth girl meets a working-class man who can offer happiness and love despite his lack of status or material possessions.   Story lines include depictions of evil corporations trying to take over mom and pop family businesses and put in materialistic entities that will promote sales, but not the down-home family atmosphere of the small town they reside in. Despite the formula that would appear to push against the notion that success is based on possessions and status, many of these movies employ an inflected oppositional reading.             Just this last w...
Read more