Education is the foundation to the progression of humanity. The ideas and ideas, experience, and research of those who have gone before are passed down to a new generation to take and expound upon. To continue the trend, I must play my part and take what I have learned and pass it on. This practice is fundamental the to collegiate effort to grow young minds and to further scientific exploration.
To maximize student professor involvement the professor should be passionate about the field of study they teach. For me that is mammalian reproduction. With a high level of commitment to my chosen field I will teach reproduction passionately and show the scientific application in Assisted Reproductive Technologies. To make sure that I do not lose the students who do not have a niche for the subject, I will give ample opportunity review the subject matter in flexible office hours. My goal will be to have a high level of student success and involvement. This can be achieved by showing videos in class for the visual learners, and lectures for the auditory learners and, dependent on class size, workshops for the kinesthetic learners. Workshops would include showing the anatomy of a cow through a prop and AI using rods and water bottles to show the challenge of passing through the cervix to inseminate in the uterus.
At the start of the class, I will give an online survey to see the status of the students in the class. The purpose of the survey will be to see if the students feel like they are doing well or are they drowning in class and in life. This will let me know if I can continue with the lecture as planned or if I need to talk to the students and give them advice on how to study or how to succeed or endure in college life. During the lecture period, I will encourage the use of laptops. I understand how they can be a distraction for the students, but I believe it is important for them to be able to take notes and copy the pictures I have in my slides. To give extra participation points, I will have a break in the class to and challenge the students to find information in scholarly articles. This way they will feel more engaged and be excited about extra points and the will also can the knowledge of how to find scholarly articles from different sources.
Most students want to succeed and dread tests. At the beginning of the semester, I will go over the syllabus so the students understand the format of the tests so they can study properly. I don’t want to surprise or trick any of my students. It will be important that they understand the meat and potatoes of the presentation. This means they will need to understand the innerworkings of reproduction that I will go over every class at the beginning. I will not ask them the in-depth details like the specific name of a pathway of a hormone that was hardly discussed. I will not try to trick the students by giving a true or false questions with the false part being a commonly misspelled word. The core of the test will be them essay questions about the material to see if they comprehended it.
My goal when it comes to teaching will be to inspire students to be passionate about their work like I am. They will get a good understanding of reproduction and appreciate it more but may also feel motivated to find their own collegiate niche in life and work towards it. I would maintain an open-door policy and try to encourage students to come ask me questions about class or their future life. It is important to me that they feel welcome to see me at the office, but this will also be a professional setting that encourages academic success and encourage student self-actualization.