— In Professor Fowler’s article, he/she mentioned: Always engage with your students; do not do something “to” them, or “for” them, or “at” them”. —

Exactly. I’m glad you picked up on this notion.

I see it a bit like chewing food. Some things in life can only be done by the recipient — you can’t do it for them. Or, at least, you can’t do it for them well.

The secret to teaching is only the student can do it for the student.

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Some do step up, but an alarming number of them continue business as usual. It can be a little disheartening, like the number of emails i got the night before demanding points from a trivial assignment when I’m trying to stay on top of email outside of normal business hours for exam questions.

Hopefully one day they process the benefit of the “professional mean guy who wont fire you” I think thats an excellent description

Personally, I’ll be happy if students (engineering in particular) still *want* to learn after they leave their undergraduate experience. I know that my peers, myself, and many graduating seniors that I talk with feel “done” with school at that point in their lives.

Graduate school is an option for many of them, but something about the undergraduate engineering experience has sapped their will to learn. Some make it back to school in some form, but many don’t. I hope for those students they find some track in their lives that fills that need for growth and education.

I’m *really* glad to see another non-traditional student going into a teaching career. I’ve had similar breaks in my educational track as I’ve struggled to pay for it all. Looking back, its been one of the best paths my life could have taken.

I firmly believe that one of the hardest hurdles to cross when transitioning from the student to the teacher is recognizing the importance of topics and a priority to convey them in. Having a life perspective outside of academics helps immensely. If for no other reason than it gives the person an alternate mindset to compare his or her academic mindset with. What works in both settings? What seems to work in one but not the other and why? From there, its a matter of applying ideas, seeing how they work, and adapting.

I’m sure you’ll do a stellar job when it comes time to teach a full class.

I’m so impressed that you had the undergrads call you Amy! I have such complicated feelings about this one…..(teaser for class).

Some people call me Andres. But I have tried multiple ways, and this one is working out well! haha Now, for the papers I am thinking how to do it, Guerra, MA!

I think nervousness in itself makes people nervous when talking about it. It just isn’t a very comfortable topic. It requires vulnerability to tell someone else what makes you nervous, what happens when you are nervous, and what you have to do in order to rid yourself of some of this nervousness (Fowler article). Ok I’ll start… haha! I always get nervous before teaching or giving a presentation, sometimes more than others. When I get nervous, my heart starts to beat quickly and my mouth gets dry. I have to take deep breaths both before and while I’m in front of a crowd. I also try to have a water bottle on hand so that my dry mouth doesn’t lead to a coughing fit. There you go… I did it! However uncomfortable it may be, I do think the physical aspects of teaching should be talked about openly. I believe that the more we talk about it, the more we’re able to solve the issues associated with them rather than to hide them.

Nice post. I like the analogy. We need to develop our secret sauce, but also need to adjust the toppings a bit for each class, as every student’s taste is a bit different. The problem is developing this sauce is easier said than done. I wonder how much of a brilliant teacher’s brilliance is developed, and how much is raw talent. Did VT’s most famous prof, Dr. Boyer, train to be the teacher he is, or is it natural? At any rate, your post is evidence that you’re on the right track. And now I want pizza…

Heh. There are a lot of things in American culture that you could apply that formula to: American XXX = original XXX + Sugar^2