Gerald I recieve in the mail every year (and I assume every other welding company in the local yellow pages does as well) a letter from the local Community College asking interested business owners if they, or any of their employees are interested in teaching classes.
My schedule would'nt allow it right now but at some point in the future I'd enjoy doing it.
Maybe something similar is available in your area.
The boilermakers have instructors as I'm sure you know. But I'm guessing you dropped out of the apprenticeship?
Good luck,
JTMcC

Hey Gerald!
I've got to mention this to you because I asked myself the same question years ago...

Most schools are looking for someone and here's the key word: "PREFERED" with a Bachelor's degree and something like two yearsof actual welding/fabricating experience or equivalent combination of education and work experience (I think you already have that "Equivalent" combination of education & experience friend!)... They also expect one to be familiar in many area's & processes including such topics as:
Welding Physics, Basic Welding Metallurgy, Welding & NDT symbols , blueprint reading and welding design & fabrication, Structural/Pipe Welding & layout/fitting, Cost/Estimation, OFC, OAW, SMAW, GMAW, FCAW,GTAW, SAW, CAC, Familiar with automated or robotic applications in some cases, etc.

One of the talents that you already got going for you is that you already have teaching experience which IMHO, is better than coming fresh out of school with a fancy piece of paper, still wet behind the ears with less than a decade of actual experience under one's belt and then be led to think that they're more qualified to teach than someone that's already went through the trial by fire through years of blod sweat & tears and really loves what they're doing because it shows in the success of their students when they bump into them later on in life and mention that they're now supervising or making sooo much money that it's feels almost criminal (We know it is'nt but, one of my students thought so and mentioned it to me!!!).

If you've already developed curriculum, then you're way ahead of most newly hired inexperienced instructors... If you know how to manage both the classroom and lab with military precision then, you're way ahead of some of the newcomers who really should spend more time out in the field honing their time management skills before they attempt to experiment with a class... If you already have confident presentation skills then keep improving on them because communication skills education never stops when one is the educator!!! If you're already the most unforgiving SOB in the lab or in the classroom for that matter, then you'll earn the class respect in short order because remember, they do'nt have to love you - they've just got to respect you so, make sure you're firm but fair - remember the USN and the way they taught you??? Need I say anymore??? An AWS CWE does'nt hurt either... If you already know how to dance with administratium's BS then, you'll go far Son!!!
If you have kids, then teach your students like you would want your children to be taught ;)

I can go on and on but, I know that there are other instructor's here that also have words of wisdom for you to embrace so I'll leave you with this: I personally think that you would be a fine instructor Gerald - PERIOD!!! ;) Remember where you come from and remember where you've been because as long as you have that in focus, the rest is gravy baby!!! ;)

Respectfully,
Henry

Hi Gerald,

Our college is seeking Welding instructors to work on an adjunct basis. Generally, we do require advanced degrees.  However, for some of our advanced trades (such as welding) we have some flexibility. Please reply to this message if you would be interested. **We're in the Houston area.

Thanks,

Carol

Gerald, I am a weld instructor at a large company.  we have had hard times finding welders that could meat our expatations so we started a welding school in pampa TX.  Starting a school and getting it going is a hard task but it has paid off.  You might find a company that is in need of welders and create a school just for there needs.  This is a chalinging job but it is fun and rewording.  I ran 5 students 5 hr. a day and 5 days a week.  the company is doing much better and has doubled in size.  the most inportant part is the practel part of welding, but you have to conseder all the outher parts of welding.  (Saftey, printreading, parts of metal ergy and so forth)
I have a two year degery from TSTC, in Waco and that has helped me out trumendusly.

Good luck
Jason

I've been teaching adults for about four years now and find the cost to be biggest obstical . If you go to your local community collage you can set up your own class . As an instructer you have to come up all of your own materials anyway . If they run the class they pay for it though .  What you can also do is find out where they hold their welding classes and see If you can rent  that facility. Some big companys have paid training as part of their retiernment benifits so you might be able to tap into that sourse of money . I here that the instructer for that class ends up with around $50.00 an hour . It's a body shop and he gets repeat buisness . The idea is to come up with something that fits into peoples hobbies or give them the equipment to do what they want .  Non credit adult is the key to teaching without papers here .    

Find out what distance he can see the best at. I have a student legally blind in one eye. He has progressed slower but has really improved when we moved everything.

Gerald Austin
Weldingclassroom.org

Speaking of choosing a different color...I have found my new favorite. It's a gold colored lens, I think is made by Linde. It was in some old stock in the store room here at work. I had broken mine and was looking for a quick replacement and fell in love with the clarity of what I was seeing.