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START OF A NEW ACADEMIC YEAR
What happened to the summer? Seems like it
wasn't very long ago that we had graduation and headed off for a long
and well-deserved break. Hmmm
As we saw at Convocation, there are plenty
of new faces on campus. Here at the LIGHT Center (yes, we are still in
the same place despite massive relocations across the campus). We are
operating this year with fewer staff, and some with reduced hours. I am
hoping that this Newsletter can continue in the face of this heavier load,
but time will tell.
I am choosing to start this year with the thoughts of
a Professor at my alma mater. Brenda Cameron is a nursing instructor at
the university level. She holds a Ph.D. in nursing and has recently won
an award for teaching excellence in undergraduate teaching. Her thoughts
and tips were published in New Trail, an academic magazine. While she
relates her ideas to the profession of nursing, the ideology and tips
she discusses are relevant to anyone who instructs in the classroom. While
none of it is rocket science, I hope it will serve to remind each of us
of our role and responsibilities when we interact with our students.
TEACHING TIPS-BEING RELATIONAL
Excerpts from B. Cameron
At the heart of my teaching is the relation I develop with my students.
To look over a class and see each face is to be responsible for them on
both a teaching and personal level. For in the very near future, my nursing
students will look into the face of suffering, death, and struggle, and
the rapport I develop with them serves as a forerunner for their nursing
experiences; they need to connect with, and understand individuals quickly.
My approach to teaching is closely allied with my profession.
The nature of nursing requires that choices and critical decisions be
made among many competing and complex possibilities. I can only prepare
the student for this by creating a relational space where the student,
the subject, and I come forth--just as they must in the moment of care.
Added to this is the challenge of maintaining a respectful connection
with students in the midst of ever-growing and often overwhelming chaos
and complexities in our personal and professional lives. In the face of
all of this, how can we develop a relation with students, and not push
them off the desk or out the classroom too quickly?
- Call out to the students. Think of the classroom as
a meeting place and genuinely ask how they are as a way of asking who
they are.
- Be cognizant that the students today carry heavy personal
loads. Listen for these and how they interfere with learning.
- Think of your initial "how are you?" as a
magnetic field. If it is truly asked, it collects indiscriminately everything
in its path. The information you gather is then yours to sort through
and consider along with course content and potential learning.
Comments? mailto:trish-blair@redwoods.edu
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- Impart courage and confidence. Ask students where they
are in their learning and challenge them to access the material with
as much of themselves as possible. Stay with them during the process.
- Be personal. I have often tapped into a student's interest
or engagement in only a few seconds, not so much because of teaching
skills, but more because of how I reveal and present myself.
- Build a relation through your daily, ordinary teaching
interactions. A clear course outline, a well-placed question, a few
moments in the hall, or an extra paragraph of comments on a paper create
a connection and invoke learning.
- Be aware of the effect of your behavior on others and
show respect for the students. In the classroom and interculturally,
we must be very aware of, and responsible for, each and every action
of ours, how it facilitates, detracts from learning.
- Be present. If we are present, so are our students.
Even if we are absent in ourselves some days due to the pressure of
our lives, know that the short absence is helpful as it highlights what
was there once-a teacher, a class, questioning, discussion.
- If you have to hand the student to someone else because
of the nature of the issue or situation, make sure it is someone who
will carry the action through.
- Be mindful that students watch everything in class.
They often know before we do how we feel on a given day. There is a
certain vulnerability in students that make them watchful. Be equally
as watchful.
Quotation of the Week
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging
their prejudices."
--William James
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