“Those who care, TEACH.” I am a firm believer that the art of good teaching is a balancing act which requires more than knowledge and information sharing. In fact, good teaching incorporates imagination and innovation as well as interest, focus, and self-discipline—many of the skills required for good learning. Mastering each skill demands that both students and teachers care about the subject matter; it requires the critical confrontation of subjects with passion and integrity. Amid meeting curriculum standards, setting classroom expectations in syllabi, and ensuring that the demands of each are met, good teaching becomes an increasingly difficult task.
Teachers are called to care about the challenges students face in the classroom and beyond, including the new aspects of their burgeoning college lives. From what I recall of my own experiences, the roles and responsibilities of being time-manager, bill-payer, and perhaps most ironically, “curfew-setter” and “curfewkeeper” can be particularly daunting. Not unlike students, teachers are also often overwhelmed by the demands of teaching—not to mention those of our own personal lives. When we feel overwhelmed, the care so critical to what we do is threatened. This is especially true when students seem incorrigible, making it easy for a teacher to become disenchanted with his or her efforts.
When I teach, I do so with care, and realistic expectations. While I’m happy with high cumulative scores and I am ecstatic about the turnaround students make during a semester, I realize it takes some students longer than others. I’m not an investment banker whose success can be determined by the results yielded at the end of a fiscal year. I’m a teacher. I regularly remind myself that the successes of teachers go far beyond cumulative scores. The difference a teacher makes in a student’s life can take a lifetime to be realized by both student and teacher.
I believe it is a good teacher's job not only to teach, but to ensure students learn. Grade consciousness traps some educators in "model" teaching. For years, the benefits of "teacher-centered" instruction versus "student-centered" instruction have been pitted against each other as effective models for our ever-changing teaching and learning environments. My experiences, however, have taught me to teach in whatever model necessary to ensure that my students learn. With that in mind, I employ both visual and kinesthetic methods in classroom instruction. I believe in the merits of service-learning education and I encourage my students to become involved in non-traditional learning activities like blogging, class debate, and role-playing exercises which allows students to better analyze content.
I believe good teaching is the engagement of teachers and students. Teaching is an exercise of mutual respect in an environment free from absolutes, judgment, and persecution. The college classroom is the last likely setting in which students will have the opportunity to grow through accomplishments as well as through mistakes, without suffering irreparable harm. I encourage students to become involved in classroom discussions, discovering who they are, questioning what they traditionally accepted as truth, and to believe that they matter! In my classroom, decorum affords students the freedom to explore a wide array of themes, challenge content, consider context, as well as share their ideas and opinions in an atmosphere geared towards intellectual, professional, and personal growth.
I believe just as teachers impart knowledge to their students, students help to enrich their teachers' lives. The college classroom provides a great atmosphere for student-teaching, peer-learning and teacher enrichment. Whether it's keeping me abreast of the latest music, fashion trend, or popular jargon, my students are always up to the task. They challenge me to keep my lectures both fun and informative, infused with the vibrancy appropriate for my mostly millennial audiences. Many of my undergraduate experiences can seem like distant memories of people, places, and things that I have outgrown. Fortunately, my students always offset the "knowledge gap" with the realities of their lives. As I witness their successes, the difference I see in their lives enriches my own life beyond measure.
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