I understand the skepticism! And students coming from our K-12 system have not typically been encouraged or allowed to do much in the way of free range learning.
But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much motivation increases when students have more responsibility for their learning and more flexibility about which topics and interests they pursue. I do give them some guidance — the rough parameters of the topic, or some suggested readings, and I point them at high value material they might not find on their own. But I try to leave the rest of it pretty open.
I use blogging in most of my courses these days, and have found that a bit of encouragement and genuine interest on my part, combined with feedback from peers makes for posts and F2F interactions that are richer and more interesting than what I used to experience with more traditional formats.

I understand the skepticism! And students coming from our K-12 system have not typically been encouraged or allowed to do much in the way of free range learning.
But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much motivation increases when students have more responsibility for their learning and more flexibility about which topics and interests they pursue. I do give them some guidance — the rough parameters of the topic, or some suggested readings, and I point them at high value material they might not find on their own. But I try to leave the rest of it pretty open.
I use blogging in most of my courses these days, and have found that a bit of encouragement and genuine interest on my part, combined with feedback from peers makes for posts and F2F interactions that are richer and more interesting than what I used to experience with more traditional formats.

Thanks for sharing your teaching voice. Those are great ideas. The picture about being approachable is actually funny. I find it challenging to meet my students outside the assigned office hours. This is especially true if I have over 100 students. I wonder how you can manage that with your work load. Showing excitement about the topics is another quality I need to develop with my ‘civil engineering’ major.

Thanks for sharing!

We have all been there, it’s a process. Finding your teaching voice requires a lot of time, practice, awareness, and what is most important for me: a lot of reflection during the process.

Over time you start recognizing what things work for you, what things doesn’t and what you can do to improve them.

I believe the most difficult aspect of it is to be able to overcome what doesn’t work in your teaching style, and finding the balance of having control but being approachable while at the same time being yourself.

For me it has to do a lot with understanding what are your values and beliefs. Then you can prioritize on what things you can really change because they don’t matter that much to you, and what other things are the most important aspects of your personality.

It is a great process that can be frustrating sometimes but you will get there, keep doing the great work.

Cheers,

Homero

Thanks for sharing!

Remember that finding your teaching voice is a process. It takes a lot of time, practice, and reflection. I’m pretty sure that at some point, Audrey will be able to become a good dancer, probably she needs to do more reflection and be more aware of her process. Practicing and trying a lot without reflecting might not lead to better outcomes.

Think about what you value, think about what your students expect, and keep practicing. But again every time you practice be very aware and insightful about what is working, what is not, and how you -without stopping being yourself- can do to change what is not working.

Be patience that you will get there.

Cheers,

Homero