Yes, you’re right… This is the dilemma at the heart of my post here… And thank you for the suggestion! I will definitely be using that in the future to help me figure out what kind of teaching style I want to develop!

LikeLike

Seungbee – I like your post. I totally agree with your points that the “teaching method is different according to who is taught..[and that]…the teaching method is different according to who is taught”. In fact, as Jackson alluded on his comment, finding your authentic teaching self will depend on multiple factors both from the perspective of the teacher and from that of the student, and the environment in which the teaching is taking place. All in all, I think flexibility is indeed the key to finding your authentic teaching self. I hope to experiment with different teaching styles and approaches to help find out what would actually work for me.

LikeLike

Thanks Milad! I definitely agree that it’s important to get to know our students individually and engage with them based on what they are passionate about.

LikeLike

Thanks! That’s definitely been a struggle for me also (regarding teaching and research at Virginia Tech and similar institutions). There were some other posts that wrote about how pushing against this framework is difficult because of how systemically entrenched we are in quantitative education. But as individual teachers we can still affect our individual classes, which is a great place to start.

LikeLike

Hi Anna thanks for this post. Yes we it is difficult to remember the number of time we sit in a class because we had to be there. Sincerely I wonder sometimes if certain teachers take it serious. I n any case you learn something from them but it is just that they could have done better made it a more attractive class by being more authentic and having more consideration for the students or even the parents who are paying money and spending energy for their children success. Hopefully as we are talking about it toady that can help us avoid being boring or “tasteless” educators.

Knowledge and preparation aren’t enough for me either. In a sense, I feel like I knew I wanted to be a teacher before I knew I wanted to teach. Growing up however, being a teacher never seemed like enough to live a comfortable life. Teachers have it bad. In middle, I discovered environmental engineering and thought it sounded like an incredible profession. At some point in time in undergrad, when I starting to think about grad school, then what I would with with a graduate degree…it’s like my passion for teaching and solving environmental problems came together when I decided I wanted to be a professor. As I go further in my education, I realize that the priority for teaching is just not there in research-focused institutions. I don’t think doing research and teaching “on the side” is enough for me—because how will I actually find the time to properly invest to prepare a meaningful class where I consider all the proficiencies, deficiencies, and curiosites of my students? (I love the language you chose there. Had to steal.)

LikeLike

“Who am I when I teach?” I think that is the good question that one has to ask oneself. It can be good to try to imitate or copy the good practices we observed or got from our professor but we are not them and their students are not the ones we will be dealing with; the technology, the resources etc are not the same. Likewise it is not as well helpful to be willing to apply the whole bunch of theories on teaching that we have access now. We have to stay authentic a more creative in all what we do.

I really wish I were like you, being excited about teaching. But what we have in common is this fear to mess up things and comprise students’ future and it is something so serious that all teachers should consider. I might be good at teaching in the future with more practice but now I am stressed whenever I think about my teaching requirements that I have to do next semester. To me it is a huge responsibility and I cannot stop wondering how can will I make it in a successful manner.

LikeLike

I know multiple people who’ve faced this issue you’ve stated in this blog, yet won’t speak about it or confront it because of obvious reasons (bad credit, bad reln, losing funding to name few). The person who’s supposed to guide you, not only failing to do so, but making your academic life miserable would certainly be stressful. I do think we have considerable resources to tackle such issues at Tech but there’s always space for more improvement.

The question you posed at the end really sums it up for me: “What kind of professor do I want to be vs what kind should I be?” To be taken seriously is critical, especially for students who are right on the cusp of being mature adults (and let’s be honest some of them never mature). On the other hand, being relatable helps students better relate the material as they begin to see the “master” was once in their shoes.
In regards to how you joke or what’s appropriate to say in class, you could always consider how you would feel if everyone’s roles were reversed (e.g., if your male professor played a certain video in a class of all females—how it would make you feel).

LikeLike