The Mittelstaedt Monitor

Christmas 2025

December's now here, and Jean at last said,

"Let's get this newsletter updatèd..."

Ted and Jean, 30th anniversary, August 7, 2023

Working hard...or hardly working...

Ted has been the Director of Information Technology with CODA, Inc., and addiction recovery non-profit, since 2023. He oversees IT operations at the main office and at the various treatment and residential facilities around Oregon. Their latest project is a new treatment and residential facility in partnership with Washington County called Beaverton Recovery Center (aka CATT). He oversaw installation of phone systems, routers, signal repeaters, and everything else tech-related that they will use to assist in their clients' substance addiction recovery. His work still involves hands-on, but he is doing more with budgets and purchasing, equipment deployment, and personnel management. And he's actually taking days off now.  😊

I teach students about writing at Chemeketa Community College and at Linn-Benton Community College. In January, I started teaching at Warner Pacific University as well, teaching about information literacy. And this fall, I began teaching writing at my alma mater, Western Oregon University (go Wolves!). During Fall term, which just ended, I taught two Writing 121 classes at Chemeketa and one Writing 122 class at WOU. I'm teaching writing and information literacy during Winter term, which begins in January. This summer, I taught driver education at Chemeketa and was the adult education specialist for a train-the-trainer session with the Oregon Department of  Education which trains bus driver trainers.  I continue on Chemeketa’s Faculty Senate, where I maintain their Web site, among other duties.   

The CORE Train the Trainer event in July

Hexagonal thinking discussion in Writing 121Z

Visual arguments using print ads in Writing 115

Mittel-Nexters

Ian and Ambrose at a family Halloween party

Ian turned 27 this summer and began a new job as a tech Alvest Equipment Services (AES), which provides support for ground transport vehicles at the airport--think baggage trucks and food transport trucks. His partner Ambrose is at Centria Health, providing support for children with Autism. They just moved to a new apartment. It's larger and has plenty of room for their three cats: Morpheus, Freyja, and Selûne. It's still close by us so he is still able to stop in occasionally for a hot dinner or to let Ruby out when we are out of town. They are both TKs (Theater Kids), so they enjoy going to local theater whenever they can.  

  

Ian and Ambrose at a local pumpkin patch

Dorothy turned 23 this fall, just before beginning her final year at Seattle University. A mechanical engineering major, she's been taking math, physics, and engineering classes as well as gen-ed classes. Her on-campus apartment in Vi Hilbert Hall is much larger, plus she has a view. She's officially in her Senior Design class with a team of four classmates working on a yearlong project for a local company. They will showcase their work at an annual university Senior Project Day in June 2026, when she also graduates! She enjoys finding deals on groceries and trying new Asian recipes in her own kitchen. She loves life in Seattle and enjoys exploring the area around campus when not studying. Her favorite place to visit is Twice Sold Tales, a bookstore with cats, and she regularly checks in with the dogs at Cal Anderson Park. She is still with Rover.com and has achieved Star Sitter status with the excellent service she gives her clients walking dogs and house- and pet-sitting. She's home over Christmas and will return for Winter term classes after New Year's. 

Dorothy and Amura

Dorothy and Foxy

Ruby is 18 now and is slowing down more, but you wouldn’t know it when she's out on the beach at Seaside. She gave us a couple of scares last year where we ended up at Dove Lewis (they are amazing!), but she bounces back quickly and doing pretty well for her age. Her stomach is a pretty reliable timepiece in our house, and she is not above looking thoroughly starving whenever people food appears. She sleeps more these days but still loves going to the beach.

She's perfectly fine in this picture--just enjoying the nice cool grass. 

Mittel-Nesters

Our personal lives are not quite as busy as our professional lives, but we still make time for fun. We celebrated our 32nd anniversary in August. I still sing with the Chancel Choir at Westminster Presbyterian, although sometimes my teaching schedule necessitates a hiatus. I ride my bike when I can. Ted runs and in 2025 ran two half-marathon and the Hood to Coast relay with a team from CODA--which works out great, as we already have a place in Seaside to stay.  😊  In September, we visited the Connections Museum in Seattle and got to see how phone connections used to be made with real working models.  More recently, we enjoyed an excursion on the Holiday Express from the Oregon Rail Heritage Center with a real steam engine. We also enjoy walking through our very walkable neighborhood and watching whichever streaming program we have time for. We're looking forward to Series 6 of All Creatures Great and Small in January. 

The different moods of Tillamook Head in Seaside

And to all a good night...

                
Peace and love to all of our family and friends in 2026! 

Ted and I got this Nativity when we moved into our house in 1996

Teamwork is the real catalyst for change

While on vacation between teaching assignments, I ate lunch one day with my husband Ted at Panda Express. In my fortune cookie was the following message (seen in the picture at the top of this post): “Your positivity will become a catalyst for change.”

I got to experience this at my first teaching assignment this summer: two week-long “train the trainer” sessions in partnership with the Oregon Department of Education Pupil Transportation unit. I was the adult education specialist and gave five presentations on brain-based learning, planning lessons, presenting with confidence, dealing with “difficult” people, and giving and receiving feedback. I watched and gave feedback on participants’ solo and paired presentations. I led three lunchtime activities as well. It is a lot for a week! This is the third summer I’ve done it, and it’s truly the best teaching assignment I’ve ever had.

I try to bring positivity to what must be hard work for the participants, all bus drivers who want to become trainers. I enjoy observing them as they dive into the activities I facilitate. I enjoy their hard work, both solo and together, as they learn something new. I enjoy watching the participants’ presentations, which show so much growth across the three days they happen. I enjoy meeting individually with each driver to discuss their presentation and our feedback on their work. I hope my feedback helps with their growth as they learn to become a trainer. Most of all, I enjoy talking and laughing together throughout the week, and it’s bittersweet when we say goodbye at the end of the week, not unlike summer camp. Much of that comes from the teamwork that I see and am a part of.

The bus drivers who attend each week are one example of teamwork. They come from all over the state but usually bond quickly at their tables and as a group. They are always supportive during each other’s presentations and in the feedback they give. They are always eager to pitch in; they participate eagerly in their colleagues’ presentation and help each other tear down afterwards if needed. They help me out as well. An old knee injury of mine flared up during the second week, and I spent most of the remainder of the time in a chair. Every single driver regularly asked how I was, looked after me, and offered to help. Their teamwork ensured that the week ended successfully for everyone.    

The ODE staff also exemplifies teamwork. They do the heavy lifting to plan and facilitate the two sessions, but they make sure to include me. We meet in the spring to discuss plans for the summer sessions and then afterwards to debrief. During each session, we discuss the participants and the flow of the week and make any needed adjustments. We eat lunch together (offsite one day) and talk and laugh. Even though I am not an ODE employee, I feel very much part of the team. Brock, Cory, Lesley, Craig, Shonna, Yareli, and Rachel always greet me with a smile, ask me what I need, check in with me regularly, and bid me farewell with a sincere “Until next year!” I always miss them and always look forward to “next year.”

I wish I could say the same for my regular work during the school year, which is teaching students about writing at three community colleges in Oregon. Teaching at several institutions means less available time at any one particular school. As many contingent faculty can attest, there’s often just enough time to arrive, teach, maybe check one’s mailbox and swallow a quick meal, before heading off to the next class or the next campus. This doesn’t leave much time for conferring with colleagues or even processing that last email about an important policy change. It definitely doesn’t leave time or room for much “positivity” or “becoming a catalyst for change” beyond one’s own classes. I wish I could say that any of the schools I teach at has been particularly helpful or mindful of the importance of helping contingent faculty feel part of the team. Some have been better than others, with some individual effort.

My general experience has been that new contingent faculty are given some sort of onboarding experience, which may be in-person or online. Some department chairs meet with the new faculty, even assigning them a mentor; more should do this. Some even invite the new faculty to department meetings and include them in department-wide email lists. But even these small actions aren’t quite enough to help a new faculty person, or even a seasoned one like me, feel like we are part of “the team.” I have usually had new policies or practices communicated to me, but I have seldom to never had any say in creating them. Most meetings are usually focused on the full-time faculty and their activities and service. There seems to be little room—or interest—in inviting contingent faculty to become part of “the team.” So even though I teach at three different schools, I do not really feel like I am part of “the team” at any of them.

Earlier this spring, I wrote an article for the newsletter of a professional organization I belong to. The subject was how full-time faculty could do better by their contingent colleagues. Among other suggestions, I said, “Invite us to the table. If you know someone has a specialty, or skill or professional interest, ask them to join a workgroup or committee or to be included in the email chain or group chat.  Ask us what we think about ___ (teaching idea, policy, event) or about something from our perspective. And if a part-time colleague approaches you, listen.” It just seems to me that a little teamwork could go a long way toward cultivating positivity that could catalyze some needed—and welcome—change.