Mayhem & Chaos: The Blog

Dictionary.com defines an instructor as:

1. a person who instructs; teacher.
2. a teacher in a college or university who ranks below an assistant professor.

And a motivator as:
a positive motivational influence

Now where do I fit in? Since I started this blog, my goal was to have one of those go to places for CSS and web-related issues along with my random thoughts on non-web related topics. The trouble is that I still don’t feel that I have much to contribute to the community. But then I look at my peers who are just now getting into this whole CSS/table-less development and I realize that I may actually have something to contribute. Friends are coming to me as I once did with my mentors and that’s a really good feeling [and scary]. When I see someone struggling at something, I try not to just step in and do it myself, rather let them figure it out as my teachers did with me. But, most of the time I get frustrated and I’m thinking, “Why don’t you know this, c’mon!”.

I guess my biggest issue with teaching people is that I, for some reason, expect others to know what I know, and them some, already. Like sponsored links. Who clicks on those things anyways, I dont! But, apparently a lot more people then would think about sit there and click away, making some happy blogger a nice check at the end of the month. Maybe it’s the fact that I got a late start that I assume everyone is already ahead of me. But the truth is I actually do know a lot more then most. Granted, I’m no Cameron Moll or Jonathon Snook, but I’m also not some punk high-school kid playing with Myspace layouts, calling myself a web designer. [Inserting snippets of code doesn’t make you a designer, son]

As far as being a motivator, I believe my military background over powers my teaching abilities. That’s not to say that the Army didn’t teach me how to be a good instructor or teacher, however, I took more of a motivators role. I’m usually first to step up and try to encourage my peers to better themselves at work or even life. Just a few weeks ago, while interviewing an intern, I sat there and told him things he really needs to be up to speed on; the things I wish someone had told me while I was still in school. Also, not too long ago, Aaron and I spoke at The Art Institute of Houston. Being an alumni, my part of the presentation was about being in the real world after school and what you should being doing and learning now rather than later.

I fully intend on breaking out of this rut of not being able to write up good web articles and ending up with “design apathy”, as Aaron calls it [link to his posting coming as soon as he….posts it].

Anyone else out there start of this way? I want to be a good teacher and quite possibly an authority to look up to one day as far this industry is concerned. Hey, I’ve already spoken at The Art Institute, right?

So, what am I: instructor or motivator? Right now, I believe that I am a really good motivator, trying to motivate myself to becoming a better instructor/teacher. I have some work to do, but don’t we all?