Engineer Transitions to Teaching
By Patty Edwards Shaver
MCV Career Development Facilitator
After taking courses in engineering and design at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, of Greensboro, Dorrian Stephens realized that he did not want to be an engineer for the rest of his life. So he majored in technology. With a desire for teaching and coaching and a four-year degree in technology education, Stephens began a teaching career.
That was seven years ago and Stephens’ love for teaching young adults is still strong. Stephens teaches an introductory technology course at Broughton High School in Raleigh. Technology education is the study of the built environment and human innovation through the application of science and mathematics. It requires the use of existing knowledge to solve problems and expand human capabilities.
Introduction to Technology course material focuses on five disciplines of technology including: communication, transportation, construction, biology, and manufacturing. Skills in Excel, PowerPoint, public speaking, and design, and the fundamentals of technology, are in high demand using a hands-on learning approach. Stephens encourages his students to not only develop these skills, but to also incorporate personal experience in their coursework. This teaching strategy makes the course content more interesting, meaningful, and applicable to students’ lives.
Technology education evolved from the school system’s vocational department. Along with this change brought more and more females, as students and teachers, to what used to be a traditionally male course. Not only are women teaching technology classes, but women also hold many key decision-making positions at the state level.
Those interested in a career in technology can find employment in architecture and design, engineering, manufacturing, medical, technical fields involving Microsoft applications, and teaching. To be a technology teacher, a technology education degree is preferred.
“If you have worked in the industry, you know how it [technology] can be applicable to life,” Stephens explains, but teaching technology methods can be difficult without an education. To be an effective teacher, you should have patience and enjoy working with high and low functioning students. Teachers must be able to interpret students’ learning styles and be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses. “You have to do it for the love of teaching itself,” Stephens said. “There are many rewards --not monetary, but rewards greater than money.”
Seeing the student’s creativity come through in their design work, based on personal experiences and activities, helps Stephens to get to know his students. He strives to build good rapport and high trust levels with students, and is delighted when they discover something they like and would like to expand on.
Stephens credentials make him a qualified job candidate in several occupations, such as, construction, designing, mass communication, and manufacturing. However, he is content with the rewards of teaching, and coaching football and varsity softball.
(NOTE: Dorrain Stephens is a member of the North Carolina Association of Educators and North Carolina Coaches Association, and is a 1999 recipient of Carnage Middle School’s “Teacher for the Quarter Award”.)
Reprinted from Career Choices in North Carolina, 2004-05
