Reading the mail this afternoon, two items stood out to me as very helpful thoughts to my teaching pursuits.
The first item was from my dad. My family sends out Thank You notes for gifts (especially those received at Christmas) and in my dad's letter he thanked DW, DS, and I for our donation to Habitat for Humanity on his behalf. He wrote,
I strongly believe in the organization and the fact that the homeowners are required to put some 'sweat equity' into their home. So it is not just a gift but they have a part in building it [which] gives them a stronger feeling of ownership.
The reason this stuck out to me is that a colleague of mine is trying a homework strategy where he will "assign" students homework
and provide the solutions to those problems. Students go home with the solutions and are expected to study them and the understand the process/concepts. At the beginning of the next class, instead of submitting solved homework problems, they are given a quiz with one of the problems (or one similar) to solve. His strategy is similar to that of an apprentice/master approach, the learner continually creates the product with the expert (i.e., the solution) until the learner can create a quality product alone.
I asked my students what they thought of this strategy (thinking they might be thrilled to have solutions!). None of them were "wowwee" about it, and one of them responded similarly to my dad's comment in that they wouldn't really have ownership of the material from struggling to understand (at home...not on the in-class quiz!).
We'll see how my colleague's experiment turns out in a few months. Maybe there is something to his approach that enables students to learn in a different and/or better way that doesn't require a traditional "sweat equity" approach.
The other thought comes from the Author's Note by Jim Collins in
Good to Great and the Social Sectors that my sister sent me today. Jim writes that as a new professor at Stanford,
[he] sought out Professor John Gardner for guidance on how [he] might become a better teacher. Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare,...stung me with a comment that changed my life. 'It occurs to me, Jim, that you spend too much time trying to be interesting,' he said. 'Why don't you invest more time being interested.'
When I read this, I felt the caution applied to my own teaching. I very much enjoy teaching and interacting with my students and enjoy the popular rapport I have. But as I think back on this first week of classes, I gained some additional clarity.
I felt sluggish and like a clutch that just won't engage until the middle of this week. A lot of it may have been the beginning of my fourth semester of teaching, but I also realized my approach was initially reactive to the students and not proactive toward the material.
I had struggled with the students in one of my classes, mainly due to my inexperience. So I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of teaching them again. I also had a lecture to do that I didn't think would come off well, and I didn't really have any ideas of how to adjust it. So I approached the class with a bit of trepidation at how the students would respond, BUT my main focus was to make sure I enjoyed the material. And I did...and they enjoyed it, too!
In my other class with a different group of students where things have gone better in our past classes, I remained excited and interested in them and the material. However, I think I will focus more on being excited in and executing the material so that my lectures don't become watered down due to my (seemingly) better rapport.
Another aspect that John Gardner's quote reminded me of is the advise that professors who perform scholarship in their field are better teachers. Supposedly, by remaining interested in our field through scholarship, we can better maintain an interesting and fruitful learning environment. With my limited experience, I cannot say that I fully agree with the idea, but I can guess how after teaching at the same level and the same topics for several years, the passion can wane.
