Our Learning Stories
On why we do this work
My first student story unfolded in my first semester at West Valley College in Spring 97. West Valley hired me to start a multimedia/web design program within Computer Applications. Early internet work such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Netscape Navigator, and HTML. The division chair, who was also my mentor teacher, Donette Dake, asked me to cover one Microsoft Word section that needed an instructor. Imagine platform floors and monitors that now seem the size of two full grocery bags.
Front row, aisle seat, was a Vietnamese woman who appeared to be mid-career. After the first couple of class meetings, she asked if she could bring a tape recorder. Sure. A couple of meetings later, could she have my notes? I explained I have lists more than planned lectures because I know the application well and would most likely not teach it again. I offered that she come in 30 minutes before each class meeting to review assignments and discuss that week’s lecture. She agreed, did so, and still struggled.
I remember sitting on the platform floor next to her chair and asking, “What’s your story?” She asked if I had ever been to Vietnam. I said yes, twice. Next, had I been to Ho Chi Minh City? Yes. Did I visit the university in Ho Chi Minh City? Yes, interestingly, I was there the previous summer with my dissertation advisor to present a paper. She told me she had been a Professor of Law at the University. She taught the history of law before the fall of Saigon, something similar to our constitution law courses. The government did not like what she presented and exiled her to a rural village camp to tend row crops.
The camp government did not like her talking about citizens’ rights, and she was placed in some sort of confinement, from which she walked north and then east through China to the coast, over the course of a few years. She was able to secure legal passage and status in the U.S. because of her previous university work as an advocate for democracy and the government censure she experienced when forced to the rural village camp. She described how to improve her English, she worked in the small appliances department at Macy’s San Francisco for seven years. Now employed in a nearby retail store, she determined that if she learned Word and how to speak professionally on the telephone, she might be able to get a job as a receptionist in a legal office so she could be near the law again.
It has been 24 years since that Spring 97 semester. I realize your interpretation of what I wrote above will be different than mine because of my human connection with her and my volunteer work in SE Asia at the time. For me, after all of this time, my heart feels respect and love for her, and it would be silly to let you know my eyes always well up when I imagine her journey. I can’t possibly count how many student stories since that semester changed my perception and understanding of challenge, grit, accessibility, and perseverance.
This is our work, and although there are days when students ask what time the 8:00 class meets or what day the April 15th project is due, there’s one thing we know. We all do important work. Our availability now and in the 2021/22 academic year serves as a guiding presence for our students. It’s tough when we’re leery about the virus, challenged with navigating our family’s health, and unable to get together in the hallway or at lunch to emotionally support each other. We need to care for each other as much as we care for our students.
Consider the value of new conversations and nice distractions:
- Create your own social or learning bubbles with a few colleagues.
- Adapt Open Education Resource-OER materials from your best projects, rubrics, assessments, handouts, etc., and share them with local and statewide faculty (I can help you identify and submit them to OER repositories).
- Invite guest speakers to Zoom in. With no travel, it’s amazing to see how many people are available to contribute time and expertise.
- Identify a friend and colleague to regularly meet with in person, with agreed safe protocols in place.
- Walk your campus, wander and remember the energy and excitement of your learning community.
- Send notes or cards to those you support or who support you, with words of encouragement not solely related to work.
By nature, we live a life of purpose and service. Let’s encourage, support, and serve each other back to our healthy optimism, creativity, and shared laughter.
Thanks, Kelly
