Our Podcast

What Do Instructional Designers Do & Why Are Teachers Some of the BEST Instructional Designers?

Why Teachers Become Instructional Designers

There’s always a reason teachers fall in love with their profession. Even if every part of teaching doesn’t excite you as much anymore, some teachers are really naturally gifted at things like: Determining learning objectives Identifying how the objectives will be taught Creating a scope and sequence for learning material Creating the learning resources to go with a lesson If you could limit your work to these types of projects, would that energize or excite you to go to work each day? If so, today’s episode is going to help you see how valuable your strengths are as an instructional designer! In this episode, I am sharing all about the specifics about the role of an instructional designer and exactly why classroom teachers thrive in this position!

Why Teachers Become Instructional Designers

Overworked Teacher to Instructional Designer & Better Dad

Do you remember getting your first paycheck as a teacher? The joy of knowing you were getting paid to do what you love, and what you had been studying and preparing for was unreal! And when you’re single and fueled primarily by that passion to impact the lives of your students, that can absolutely be enough to live on. But when you are growing a family or trying to pay off school debt, it’s often necessary to get a side-hustle to make ends meet. In fact, about ⅓ of teachers in the workforce report that’s exactly what they are doing. Our guest today, Ethan Deceuster was in that very same boat. Ethan loved working with students, but burning the candle at both ends just wasn’t sustainable. Something had to change. Listen to hear about Ethan’s transition from teaching 5th grade, what motivated his decision, how he got his foot in the door, and what a day in the life as an instructional designer looks like now!

Overworked Teacher to Instructional Designer & Better Dad

Discovering the Many Work Opportunities for Instructional Designers

If you’ve caught a few episodes of the podcast, you might be discovering the many work opportunities for instructional designers. Each of our guests has had slightly different experiences and highlight the uniqueness of those positions. In today’s episode, we are talking with former teacher and current Senior Instructional Designer at the University of Arizona, Laura McAllister. Laura’s experience is so insightful because she has worked in several Instructional Design roles, as a designer, and as a consultant. In her current role, she still works directly on courses, but she also oversees a team of designers in her department. This episode is part of a live interview we did with Laura, and the questions are coming straight from the Teacher Transition community. Inside of the From Teacher to Instructional Designer course, Laura offers some behind the scenes training using an LMS (Learning Management System) where she spends a lot of her time building courses with professors at the university.