Not everyone can teach well. Many people believe that if you have the right credentials and mastery of subject, then you can teach others. I disagree, I believe that teaching is a skill and like any other skills if you practice it the right way , you get better at it. One may not start of well, but with appropriate training, knowledge about the teaching practices and opportunity to practice can make anyone a good teacher (including self awareness).
For the past year I have been teaching a class at VT and reflecting back on how I am in a classroom setting has given me a slight Idea of what kind of a teacher I am and ways in which I am changing. I have learned that listening is as important in the classroom as teaching. Actively listening to my students (within the classroom and outside) has allowed me to get informal feedback about what they are learning and what they are not learning. Professor Fowler’s- “Passion, Preparation, and Energy” really resonates with me as I continue to develop my presence in my classroom. Before I enter my classroom I always think of “choose your attitude”. One’s attitude has an impact on others and in a classroom setting I am always a role model (whether I agree or not) and if my attitude is negative, towards what I am teaching, than subconsciously it will transfer to my audience.
Early last year I struggled with some of same questions that Sarah Deel posed (How do I create a professional relationship with my students? Can I maintain authority and treat students fairly while striving for them to like me? Where should the boundaries be? How do the students see me?…) I soon realized that it was not just about the students and the ways in which they viewed me as a teacher, but it was more about how I viewed myself as one. If I am comfortable with who I am as an individual then it is easier to not think about the rest.
Over the time I also realized that it is good to be flexible; flexible with the ways in which I teach, the content I hope to cover in a given class session and flexible in the ways that I evaluate each of my students. I have also realized that students have varying needs and some are more involved and invested than others. Therefore, I need to invest differently in each student based on their needs. I recognize that I am really good at building one on one relationships with individuals as opposed to large group settings. Therefore, each semester I have all of my students meet with me at least once a semester. This allows me to learn about them, their interests outside of the classroom and learn from them. As a result my students are more engaged in class and some stay after class to talk to me or discuss information further. In summary, my teaching style involves flexibility, actively listening, building relationships, remaining passionate, prepare in multiple ways and choosing my attitude.
Ayeshaella, I loved your post! All the points you bring out are the puzzling questions I have too. I hesitate regarding this “choose your attitude” thing a lot. As Sarah Deel points out, I am not a natural comedian, can not make canned jokes, am not aware of (and can not be interested in) pop-culture references — and more than that, if I wake up feeling not so enthusiastic at that day, I can not get into that “costume”. I tried many things, including this famous “Fake it until you make it” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc) techniques, but nope, it does not work.. And as you mentioned, I can see that when I am grumpy, I transfer that “attitude” to my audience. Then, I feel worse because of seeing this attitude on them, trap.. I have recently been working on openly saying that that is not a wonderful day for me and I apologize for that in the beginning. I am not sure it completely works.. Let’s see how it will evolve as time goes on..
I really liked your solution of being flexible by the means of professional attitude. I also realize that professionalism is directly linked to the level of comfort while dealing with student concerns, questions and interactions. In the context in-class environments, it seems to work (because of my naturally serious look I guess :p), but in online environments I am not sure how to balance flexibility and professionalism, still.
After receiving many student e-mails like “HEY! r u gonna post … i’m waitinn” and if I am lucky enough, with an extra line of “k thx”, last semester I added a “Professional e-mail writing guidelines” section with a subtitle of “The tips to reflect your best professional self in Academia” to my syllabus and included questions from this section to the Syllabus Quiz. I am pretty sure for some of them this is a “sensitivity of her” and is not their favorite, but honestly, I am pretty happy with the results. Hope one day, I will not need to put this section on my Syllabus..
Ayesha, I like your post a lot! I also talked about the similar qualities that I aspire to have as a teacher. I find passion and flexibility very important. If teachers are passionate about what they are doing, they give it time and teach the material in an energetic and dynamic way. I can’t agree more with what you said about being oneself too. I believer that creating an enjoyable learning atmosphere for students is an easy task when professors are comfortable with the way they perceive themselves and reflect that in the classroom.
Passion is everything. You can feel the passion being sucked out of the room when the professor reads from canned slides, kind of like this: http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhrqncQ0LB1qzmowao1_400.gif
Don’t be like that. 🙂
Build positive relationships and make those students be excited to come to class. All the world’s a stage.
What a great post, thanks for sharing!
I agree with you, I think teaching is a skill that can be developed over time with the right training, and for me that training involves a lot of self-reflecting. I really like how you know yourself enough to understand that one on one relationships is what work for you and you are being proactive to set individual meetings, that will for sure change the entire climate of the classroom.
I also agree with the importance of flexibility, I think instead of confronting students it is more valuable to actually be flexible and incorporating them into the learning environment. Some times being flexible brings more “discipline” and “control” than being controlling if that makes any sense. But again, it all ties back to knowing yourself first – like you already said.
Thanks again for sharing.
Really great post. I agree with you in theory. I believe your approach will be the ideal. However, how practical is being flexible and sensitive to each student’s needs. Each student is different and that will be a lot of work on one’s part. Couple this with teaching 2 or more classes a semester and one could easily be overwhelmed. The big Q will always be how to balance flexibility with practicality without losing one’s ‘mens sana’.