A Professor That I Do Like
Another one of the John Merrow podcasts was on H. Michael Gelfand, an adjunct at the University of Arizona. He makes a nice comparison to Paulette Kurzer, who I wrote about a couple of days ago. It's an interesting podcast, because he's one of those who have been hanging around academia for years trying to get in the door to one of those tenured positions. Some of the quotes I really liked:
John Merrow: And had anybody trained you to teach?
H. Gelfand: My preparation began with a professor at the University of Georgia who said to me, "H., you're going to teach Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll do Monday, Wednesday and Friday." And I had never taught before. And it was a classroom of 500 students. And it was a sort of a semi-circular room with a balcony, so that when you looked around, there were people looking down at you from every direction, and I felt about that big, I was nervous as heck, and ever since I've just had a good time with it
I like stories like that. On a much smaller scale it's what I've tried to do with my student teachers, because that's teaching--you're on your feet and you go. My master teacher went on a 2 month coffee break, and I was better for it.
Here he talks about his relationship with his students:
Now, some people critique that and say, you need to establish that firm wall between the students and the professor. I have found that by breaking that wall down a little bit, the students become more comfortable, you get more interaction. They are more interested in learning the material if they feel comfortable.
This guy gets it. Dr. Kurzer talked about how no one would participate in her classes and blamed it all on them, but Dr. H here thinks about what he can do on his end to get them to participate. He talks more about his role in their learning here:
Merrow: So if they don't learn it that's their fault, or yours?
Gelfand: Both. I look at it this way. If they're not learning something then probably I may not be achieving my goal of attempting to really inspire them and to draw them into the topic.
Later on in that section he goes on to talk about the work that the student has to put in, but I like how he begins with what he does.
It's a great piece that's well worth listening to. You can also download the transcript here.
John Merrow: And had anybody trained you to teach?
H. Gelfand: My preparation began with a professor at the University of Georgia who said to me, "H., you're going to teach Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll do Monday, Wednesday and Friday." And I had never taught before. And it was a classroom of 500 students. And it was a sort of a semi-circular room with a balcony, so that when you looked around, there were people looking down at you from every direction, and I felt about that big, I was nervous as heck, and ever since I've just had a good time with it
I like stories like that. On a much smaller scale it's what I've tried to do with my student teachers, because that's teaching--you're on your feet and you go. My master teacher went on a 2 month coffee break, and I was better for it.
Here he talks about his relationship with his students:
Now, some people critique that and say, you need to establish that firm wall between the students and the professor. I have found that by breaking that wall down a little bit, the students become more comfortable, you get more interaction. They are more interested in learning the material if they feel comfortable.
This guy gets it. Dr. Kurzer talked about how no one would participate in her classes and blamed it all on them, but Dr. H here thinks about what he can do on his end to get them to participate. He talks more about his role in their learning here:
Merrow: So if they don't learn it that's their fault, or yours?
Gelfand: Both. I look at it this way. If they're not learning something then probably I may not be achieving my goal of attempting to really inspire them and to draw them into the topic.
Later on in that section he goes on to talk about the work that the student has to put in, but I like how he begins with what he does.
It's a great piece that's well worth listening to. You can also download the transcript here.
posted by Ryan at 7:43 PM
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