The Teacher

Did you know that Shannon used to be a college instructor?

Cisco Certified Network Instructor

Shannon was an adjunct faculty member at West Virginia University at Parkersburg.  he taught Cisco Data Networking classes that prepared students for the CCNA exam. He enjoyed teaching, and his students enjoyed his teaching style, but after Shannon was selected to work full time as a network administrator at a local hospital, the scheduling constraints quickly became too much to juggle.  His final class ended in May, 2008.

At the conclusion of every semester, students had the opportunity to rate their instructor with an anonymous survey.  Some instructors ignored the surveys, but Shannon paid very close attention to them.  He has the results tabulated on a spread sheet, and he has all student comments compiled on a master sheet.  The system He uses gives him a cumulative number, much like a grade point average, between 0 and 4, with 4 being the best.  His current cumulative GPA is 3.64.

If you're curious about these results or student comments, they are posted online:

LINK COMING SOON

Election Systems and Software

In 2006 Shannon was contracted by Election Systems and Software to teach county governments and poll workers how to use the new touch-screen electronic voting systems that the state intended to use in the primary election.  The devices were much simpler than the computer hardware Shannon already knew how to use, and among all the new team, he alone had prior experience teaching technical subjects to non-technical people.  He quickly became the project leader's "goto" man.   When a problem arose that had to be fixed right away - whether it was technical or political - and the team lead could not go himself, he sent Shannon.

Shannon did not work in every county of the state, but in every county where he did work, the government requested him as their on site technician for election night and often requested him instead of the full time ES&S employees for follow-up training.  During  the week prior to the election, Shannon clocked 119 hours in seven days.

He was eventually assigned to Harrison County on the night of the election, with orders to be prepared to help neighboring Marion County, where he had worked most often in the days leading up to the election.  When it was all said and done, the election was a success, and he had job offers from Marion County and ES&S.  Marion County also awarded him for his service.  Shannon turned down both job offers but was very pleased with the award.

Other Teaching Endeavors

Shannon taught technical classes online for an outfit in Virginia.  The job lasted about a year.  He enjoyed  the teaching and course development aspects of the job, but he did not like the way the school conducted business and he did not approve of the additional duties and problems that were placed on instructors' shoulders.  Initially he was a sterling success, a rising star within the ranks and a darling of administrators and students alike, but he quickly wore down and burnt out under the weight of inane organizational policies and politics.  It ended badly in October 2006.

Shannon has also taught numerous people a wide variety of tasks during on-the-job training sessions.  he enjoys the one-on-one scenarios where he can be sure the student understands the task at hand.  These tasks have been as varied as Shannon's work history, but almost all involved a hands-on task, some applicable skill.

Future Plans

Shannon would like to teach creative writing courses.  He isn't qualified on paper to do it yet, and he isn't confident enough in his credentials to try anything too ambitious, but it is a goal.  He's taught a few workshops and one-day events.  He's considering a Master's program in creative writing from WVU.  As with most things, Time will tell the tale.