Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
I love hiking, and I especially like “lookouts.” You know, those stops along the way to stop and enjoy the view—viz., to see how far we’ve hiked. Growing up in the mountains of North and South Caroline, I found these stops especially rewarding. One of my favorites was Table Rock. My incredibly compassionate and intolerably-late-to-everything-by-an-hour-friend Stan was always ready for this hike, and we must have trekked TBSP fifteen times or so over a three year stretch.
Updating a CV is kind of like taking time out to enjoy the view. It may not be as fun or aesthetically pleasing since you’ve got to pull yourself away from your ever burgeoning inbox and the dumpster fire that virtual teaching can feel like. But it is an opportunity, nevertheless, to reflect on what you’ve accomplished. COVID-19 is no exception. In fact, the pandemic may be a great time to open the CV up because it’s possible—no, probable—that many of you have learned a portfolio of new skills while teaching in the virtual environment. For many of you, this update means adding things like the DE Readiness course that you’re required to finish prior to teaching online at the College of Charleston. For others, it may mean adding to the list of technologies with which you have a working proficiency or noting that you have served as a virtual teaching liaison or mentor for some of your colleagues. But there are other things. Of the four tips that Yvonne Smyth provides, the most apropos targets what we’ve all had to do since March: she calls it our “change management experience or mindset.” Our ability to adapt—specific ways in which we do this well—should be properly represented in our self-presentation. On my CV, I’ve found the section “Innovations in Teaching” the best place to effect these changes, but others may find fertile ground in “Related Professional Skills” or “Teacher Mentoring”—i.e., categories of that ilk. So, if you haven’t, consider taking a half-hour this week to re-present yourself in terms that reflect your broadening pedagogical adventure.