Know Your Profs is an ongoing series of articles helping you get to know the instructors at Camosun College a bit better.
This time around we caught up with business instructor Al Morrison and talked about classroom diversity, faking it, and Telus ads.
Is there a professor on campus that you want to see interviewed? It can be Interurban or Lansdowne! Email editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we’ll get on it.
1: What do you teach and how long have you been a teacher at Camosun?
Introduction to Communications (Bus 130), Introduction to Management (Bus 150), Organizational Behaviour (Bus 220). I am in my fifth year at Camosun College, having spent the previous 15 years at both the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology and Grant MacEwan University.
2: What do you personally get out of teaching?
The rewards are huge. Seeing a young person grow intellectually and emotionally from the first day they step on campus to the day they cross the dais on graduation day is amazing. Did I mention the students keep me young?
3: What’s one thing you wish your students knew about you?
Like them, I have lapses in confidence. You just have to ignore that inner critic and “fake it ’til you make it.” We all fell off our bikes a few times before getting it right.
4: What’s one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
Those Telus ads with the panda bears get me all teared up.
5: What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
Becoming a full-time continuing instructor. This is such a wonderful place to come to everyday. The students are amazing and my colleagues are extremely supportive.
6: What’s the worst thing that’s happened to you as a teacher here?
I went into a class on the first day and started off by checking attendance only to find that I was in a colleague’s accounting class in error. I still have nightmares over thatÉ the thought of teaching accounting.
7: What do you see in the future of postsecondary education?
Diversity! This is hard for me to articulate but essentially the “classroom” has evolved in so many ways and continues to evolve. We have more young women taking business classes than ever before, more international students studying on campus, excellent study abroad programs and co-op options, support for students with learning disabilities… it is wonderful. We also all have more ways for learning to take place: blended, online, face to face, prior learning options… I hope students embrace the diversity available to them.
8: What do you do to relax on the weekends?
Spend as much time as possible with my wife, Donna. (Can you make sure she reads this?)
9: What is your favourite meal?
Anything with garlic.
10: What’s your biggest pet peeve?
That many governments see the cost of funding education as a expense instead of an investment.