LINCOLN CITY — You don’t have to own a tweed jacket and smoke a pipe to fit in as an instructor at Oregon Coast Community College, where local experts with passion and an interesting pitch are wanted to lead fall-term community education classes.

“If you love it, teach it!” is the mantra of program coordinator Lesley Melrose-High, who is recruiting ordinary people with extraordinary talent to teach at OCCC’s popular “night school,” a misnomer because classes are offered day and night according to the instructor’s schedule.

Melrose said the college will consider all sorts of ideas for classes, with no teaching experience required. In recent years, community ed has offered Boat Building, Mushroom Foraging, Gyotaku Fish Printing , and the unusual hit, Sea Shanties. One of the most popular ongoing classes is an AARP Safe Driving class with an insurance discount.

Irish Step Dancing and How to Play Guitar often sell out their spaces, with class sizes running from six (tapestry) to 80 (a lecture by a Siletz Tribe expert). Enrollment at four countywide college centers runs from 300 to 600 community ed students.

“What makes your class special is that you’re the only one who can teach it,” Melrose-High added, recalling past classes on stargazing, local geology and pomology — the study of apples, which thrive at the Oregon coast. “Your life experience, perspective and approach can’t be faked.”

The college makes it easy for rookie teachers to focus on classroom success, paying $35 per hour to the instructor as an independent contractor, advertising the class in its magazine, “Catch the Wave,” registering students and providing facilities from classrooms to dance floors or horse arenas.

“You get to focus on the fun stuff, like choosing when, where and how you’ll teach,” said Melrose. “You could lead a one-day workshop in a multi-week series at any of our four campuses across Lincoln County.”
The deadline for class proposals is Wednesday, July 15. To obtain an online proposal form, visit:

OCCC will hold a free barbeque Thursday, July 9, 4-6 p.m. at its North County Center for amateur experts to learn more about the opportunity to become a paid teacher. To contact Melrose-High, call 541-994-4166 or write: [email protected]