Know Your Profs is an ongoing series of profiles on the instructors at Camosun College. Every issue we ask a different instructor at Camosun the same 10 questions in an attempt to get to know them a little better.
Do you have an instructor that you want to see interviewed in the paper? Maybe you want to know more about one of your teachers, but you’re too busy, or shy, to ask? Email editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we’ll add your instructor to our list of teachers to talk to.
This issue we talked to Human Resources instructor Carole Gosse about yoga, bullshit detectors, and how the efforts of students can enhance their teacher’s life.
1. What do you teach and how long have you been at Camosun?
I teach in the Human Resource Management and Leadership department in the School of Business. I teach mostly human resource management, leadership, and skills-based business courses. I have been at Camosun College for 20 years—first five years in the Hospitality Management Program as co-op coordinator and 15 years as HRM/Business instructor and program leader for the BBA and PDD, HRM Leadership credentials. Prior to Camosun, I spent 15 years as HR director for five different Fairmont Hotels and Resorts in Alberta and BC; my last hotel was Chateau Whistler Resort in Whistler.
2. What do you personally get out of teaching?
I believe that the profession of teaching is a privilege and huge responsibility. We have all been affected by our teachers—good and bad—which plays an important role in our future development. I don’t take this responsibility lightly, and try to connect with my students as future leaders and HR professionals. I try to be a good role model. As an extrovert, I get energized by the classroom dynamics and enjoy sharing my knowledge, experiences, and the many mistakes I made during my career in HR. This allows students to realize that failing or making mistakes is also part of learning and keeps you growing in knowledge, experience, and wisdom. A motto that has guided my teaching career in the last 20 years at Camosun College is “to teach is to learn again.” I love that my profession allows me keep growing, learning, and evolving so both student and teacher grow together.
3. What’s one thing you wish your students knew about you?
I am a hot yoga instructor [and] have been teaching Bikram style yoga for seven years, mostly on weekends and the wee hours in the morning—6 am classes. I teach at the Quantum Yoga Club in the Hudson building downtown. I became a hot yoga instructor at 52 years of age, after completing a nine-week teacher-training program. I have been practicing yoga for the last 10 years, and practice various yoga styles: Ashtanga, Bikram, and Yin yoga. It is important for me to use my body to relieve stress so I practice regularly, five or six times a week.
4. What is one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
My lack of detail orientation… I can’t spell well, and often can’t see my errors, especially when I am writing on the whiteboards; it’s embarrassing, but I do make jokes about it with my students… They all help with my spelling.
5. What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
At the end of a training course I was teaching, students had to create a presentation on what they had learned that term. One group wrote and performed a song for me, using the tune of “Santa Baby.” They had changed all the lyrics to cover the many lessons learned in the course. It was great, so creative, fun, and quite a professional performance. I still have the lyrics they composed.
6. What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
Dealing with the increase in plagiarism and cheating in assignments, which changes the dynamics and my connection with students. I have increased enforcing the Camosun student academic honesty policy and have had difficult discussions with students.
7. What do you see in the future of post-secondary education?
I think that post-secondary education will move forward more rapidly, preparing students for the many changes in AI/business technologies coming our way. So much will be affected by artificial intelligence: our economy, workforce, education, and society in general. More innovation and future visioning and working with industry must be a focus for post-secondary education.
8. What do you do to relax on the weekends?
Practice yoga, garden, and beachcomb for sea glass on the beaches around us. I enjoy making sea glass mosaics, pendants, and windchimes. My sea glass collection comes from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Mediterranean beaches in Spain, France, and Italy. I love the idea of using natural materials to create art.
9. What’s your favourite meal?
I love a good turkey dinner with all the fixings, including pumpkin pie.
10. What is your biggest pet peeve?
People who talk a lot, but never do what they say they will do… I have a high-functioning BS meter.