I have spent a lot of time working in classrooms. I started teaching High School English in the mid-70's because my college career advisors told me, bluntly, it was the only career choice for an English major. (They were very wrong.) I wasn't opposed to the idea because I had spent much of my early years (age 11-18) in the Boy Scouts. They value training and education. As a scout "leader", I had been trained in summer scout camp by some outstanding instructors and found teaching fun.
My first teaching position was in the English Department at Archbishop Molloy High School in New York City (1974). I was laid off in a budget crunch after four years and found my way to Alvirne High School in Hudson, NH (1977). At both institutions I established a television program for the students. At Molloy, it was a TV Journalism after-school club and at Alvirne, I was specifically hired to establish a Television production curriculum as part of the English Department. I remember that, in 1977, my budget for television equipment was $14,000.
To learn more about television, I volunteered at WENH-TV in Durham, NH, a PBS station that always needed volunteers. I learned a lot there. After four years teaching at Alvirne, I was itching to get out and do TV production in the "real world" and seized nan opportunity to join a New Hampshire production company as a camera operator.
Education came into my life again when Digital Equipment Corporation (and later Compaq, and later Hewlett-Packard) tapped me to go on the road to teach data center administrators how to integrate new storage products into their data centers. For about three years, I traveled throughout North America with 3000 pounds of computer equipment teaching engineers how to hook these new products up and make them work. I did one city a week for three weeks a month for about three years. I enjoyed teaching adults, was good at it (from what the surveys said) and didn't mind the travel. As with all things corporate, the strategy was eventually "re-organized" and I moved on to other things.
My most recent foray into education results from two years of on-and-off discussions with Tim Kelley, a friend of mine who was working in the Nashua School District as the Academic Dean of the High School. He knew that the district had plans for the construction of a massive television facility, and thought there was a match between me and it. I guess he was right. It was a challenging and interesting project to get this million-dollar program up and running. I don't know what my next challenge will be after this, but as of now (2009) I am teaching high school juniors and seniors how to do professional level television. I don't get much sleep, but it is fun--mostly. Tim, by the way, is now the Principal of Hollis-Brookline High School.
In the Spring semester of 2008, I taught an Advanced Video Production Course at the University of New Hampshire (Manchester Campus). I'm now teaching Television Studio Production each semester to Communication Arts Majors. This work is enjoyable.
One final point on this: I've done a lot of things for "work". I never work harder than I do when I am teaching.
Below, some links relevant to my current work.