A Break From Teaching
Recently I've been contemplating the experience I have gained in teaching and exactly what it means to be a good teacher. I don't profess to have all the answers yet and I know I still have a great deal to learn but for my own benefit and in order that I don't forget what I've discovered so far I thought it would be wise to write myself a summary. I'm sure you will have your own ideas about what good teaching means but for me I believe the following to be good principles:
1. It's really important to care about your students. Knowing all my students names, a few things about them, even really small details, such as where they're from or remembering comments they've made about what's going on in their lives makes a huge difference and helps to make the professional relationship friendly. Even when badgering them for not being prepared for tutorials or not appearing to listen in a lecture can be done much more positively when they believe you actually care about theirs and others' learning experience.
3. You need to be passionate about the subject you are teaching. However, even if you are teaching something which isn't you're own specialist subject, you can (and should) become passionate about it.
4. You can't compare your own teaching style with anyone else. For the first year I tried to copy others who were successful. I was much happier and more confident when I found my own style and as Frank Sinatra says, I did it my way.
5. You can't teach something you don't understand completely. If you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough. I tried to get away with this in my first year but students can tell if you don't know your stuff. This means that the first time you teach a course or module is the most time-consuming it will ever be but every subsequent time you teach the same material, the better and more efficient you will become in delivery.
6. Participation (and lots of it) is vital in all teaching experiences including lectures. People get bored very easily.
8. You need to keep learning new material to stay fresh.
9. The more experience of teaching you have, the better you will be, but it does not follow that everyone who has lots of experience is a good teacher.
10. Did I mention that it's really important to care about your students? I'm really going to miss mine. They're such lovely people and they've taught me so much about teaching and about myself, for which I am hugely grateful.
Well. when we learned the news you were taking a break from teaching we all said that we were sorry about that, and I can guarantee that if not the 100%, but a 99% of us were absolutely sincere. I believe that what make a person to be a good lecturer is the ability to transmit to your audience the passion for the subject you are teaching. Indeed, when I decided to study Business at this University, I thought that the most important subjects were Accounting ones. Over this last three months, instead, I discovered a great interest in the service marketing and management. Understanding what is hidden behind the scene of creating a service started to capture my interest and pushed me to read more about this subject. Again, if a student discover a passion about a new subject I think depends mainly from the person is teaching it. You always encouraged the dialogue and never made us to feel inappropriate when expressing our point of view even if sometimes it was wrong. This made us to start reflecting about what we were studying and its real application. I feel I learned so much from you and no matter what will be the final grade of my course I think I learned a lot and I think it changed my way of thinking about this subject. You left a sign in all of us and when a teacher does it, it means this person achieved one of the most important task. We all thank you and just to remain in topic you showed us how the variability of a service sometimes can be a great advantage when receiving it. So Thank you Sarah and good luck for your PHD and come back soon because many other students need a teacher like you. Greetings!
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