By David Joe.l Miller, MS, Licensed Therapist & Licensed Counselor.

So much to do and so little time.

A lot of things have taken place over the summer, which has cut into my time for creative pursuits. Despite my best efforts, I found it difficult to keep up on everything over the summer. Initially, I thought that with the pandemic working from home would result in an increase in productivity, and while it did, sort of, increase my productivity in some areas, some of the things have had to go on to back burners. So, here’s a little bit about what I’ve been up to and what I hope to get to as we move into the fall and winter months.

I’ve completed my online teacher certification classes.

When the pandemic first came on the scene, no one had any idea how we would need to react to it. There’s still a lot of confusion and disagreement that we are all having to muddle through.

One result was that the community college I teach at moved almost all of its classes online. Learning all the ins and outs of a new online platform, we are using Canvas, has been a challenge.

In addition to learning the platform, I had to create new material and convert the material I had been using for online use. I’ve added sound to all my PowerPoints and converted most of them to videos. I’m still working on slicing some of the longer videos up into shorter segments to make them more watchable and adding some of the material I would have talked about had you been in the class.

With more people vaccinated and more people used to the idea of taking certain risks in order to go back out into the world, more and more of the classes which were moved online will be back in the physical classroom.

Will I be returning to the classroom?

This is still up in the air. While I’ve had two vaccines and probably will get the booster as soon as it is available, I do know that vaccinated or not, the older you get, the more the risks if you do catch Covid. Well into my seventies, I’m aware that my risks of dying should I catch Covid are a lot higher than a faculty member who is in their thirties or forties. Having spent five days in the Covid ICU last November, the realities of the risks are very much on my mind. Fortunately, last November, I did not have Covid, and I recovered relatively quickly. I’m fully aware; however, that should I catch Covid, I probably would not be so fortunate next time.

Will I continue to teach online?

I certainly would like to. I’m hopeful that the classes I taught in the classroom in the past will be approved as online classes in the future. Additionally, exploring the possibility of teaching online courses either in substance use disorders, mental health, or simply having a happy life for another college or university.

I’m exploring the possibility of creating some online classes.

A lot of exciting new things are happening in the online education field. Not every class necessarily needs to come with units leading towards a degree. This is an exciting time in which to live. I have been investigating several platforms for creating online classes and considering what topic I might want to teach. I know there’s going to be some time needed to create that class, especially to make it interesting and engaging. As I progress with my plans for online courses, I’ll keep you informed.

If you have any ideas for a class you would like to see me teach, please leave a comment or use the contact me form. As my ideas get firmed up, I intend to conduct a survey and get all my readers’ input on the ideas I’ve come up with. Hey, if I’m going to teach a class, it ought to be one that my current readers would like to take.

Whatever happened to my YouTube channel?

Ever since Covid, all my efforts on YouTube have been directed towards short videos on substance use disorders. I stayed with a simple format and produced videos that were primarily for my students in the substance abuse counseling classes. Surprisingly to me, anyway, the number of viewers I’ve had on YouTube has continued to increase, and many of those new subscribers were not students in the classes I taught. That tells me that some of you would like to see videos on mental health topics rather than read long blog posts. Any ideas for a video you’d like to see?

Some of you have asked what happened to my writing?

My writing time has been extremely limited over the last year. I did manage to turn out a few blog posts. But my nonfiction and my novels have been on hold. Typically I write a first draft of a novel every year during the NaNoWriMo writing contest. I hope to start another novel this year, though, with less than a week to go till November. My ideas still aren’t fully developed. Maybe this year will be my year to write a half-baked novel.

Staying connected with David Joel Miller

Seven David Joel Miller Books are available now! And more are on the way.

For these and my upcoming books, please visit my Author Page – David Joel Miller

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