Inspiration for college educators
The Best of The Teaching Professor: Priceless wisdom from the newsletter devoted to the art and science of better teaching
Dear friend and fellow educator,
Does thinking of yourself in metaphorical terms help guide you through the challenges of teaching? Perhaps you think of yourself as a gardener, sometimes “tending flowers,” sometimes “pulling weeds.”
Dr. Ike Shibley is motivated by the story of encountering two bricklayers and asking them what they are doing. The first tells you he is just laying bricks. The second reports that she’s building a cathedral, a grand structure that will seat 2,000 and enhance the community in many different ways.
As teachers, we are doing much more than “laying bricks,” Dr. Shibley says. We are building student confidence, motivation, and intellect that should provide a better quality of life for the individual student and for future generations.
Professor Robert G. Kraft likens teaching to coaching. He reminds us that students need to understand the entire game, not just some small part of it, and that we have to let students play the game, not just read about it.
Professor Jon Sperling’s analogy of teaching as “fishing story” suggests learning can be more effective when we feel compelled to ask questions.
Professors Erin Steuter and Geoff Martin liken colleges and universities to cooking schools, where the faculty are master chefs with expertise in particular types of cuisine, and the students are apprentice chefs who benefit from the masters’ instruction on the basic principles and methodologies of cooking.
Professor Zopito A. Marini prefers the teacher as Sherpa guide metaphor.
“Learning has striking similarities to mountain climbing in that it requires a sense of adventure, perseverance, and a great deal of plain, hard work,” says Professor Marini. “If learning is like mountain climbing, then teaching can be seen as the process of facilitating the climb. And what better facilitator of mountain climbing than a Sherpa guide.”
What’s your favorite metaphor for yourself as a teacher? Whether you think of yourself as a gardener, builder, bricklayer, musician, coach, fisherman, master chef, ringmaster, Sherpa guide or something else, I think you’re going to want a copy of The Best of The Teaching Professor for your personal library.
The Teaching Professor, the newsletter devoted to the art and science of better teaching, illustrates innovative, creative ways to reach, motivate and inspire students.
Plus, it speaks with authority because it’s based on consistent theoretical research into sound pedagogical practice through scholarship on teaching.
Typical topics include assessment and evaluation, engagement of student interest, faculty time management, and the learner-centered classroom.
And now we’ve taken the best of the best — 83 articles from first 18 years of The Teaching Professor — and compiled them in one volume: The Best of The Teaching Professor.
Do you want innovative, creative ways to reach, motivate, and inspire students?
Practical advice from The Best of The Teaching Professor: Articles that not only discuss theoretical issues but also offer detailed guidance
Dr. Shipley, who selected the articles for The Best of The Teaching Professor, characterizes The Teaching Professor as a humble newsletter.
“Although it contains what I think is some of the most practical advice available…its articles seem to engage the reader in a conversation. They talk with the reader, not at the reader,” he says.
“Receiving each issue of The Teaching Professor is a bit like hearing from an old friend — a well-read, incredible articulate, and still-youthful friend.
“Editing this collection has been both edifying and gratifying. Selecting the best articles was like trying to choose what to eat from a menu on which every item is appetizing.”
Generous praise, indeed. And if you’re a regular reader of The Teaching Professor, I think you’ll agree.
Now The Best of The Teaching Professor brings you a compendium of practical advice, with articles that not only discuss theoretical issues, but also offer detailed guidance.
Each chapter of The Best of The Teaching Professor explores specific aspects of learning, including learner-centered teaching, classroom activities, writing and technology.
You’ll discover the pervasive aspects of critical thinking, grading, motivation, plus an overall view of teaching in higher education.
The articles compiled in The Best of The Teaching Professor represent the outstanding, diverse, and thought-provoking writing that The Teaching Professor, routinely publishes.
The wisdom contained in the essays will challenge you to reflect on your own teaching practices and help you to clarify your own teaching philosophy.
Are you ready to unlock the secrets of how to connect with your students?
Discover techniques to improve your teaching with new ideas, innovative strategies, and tactics you can use in the classroom today
The goal of The Best of The Teaching Professor is not to advocate for any one particular philosophy of teaching, but to encourage you to develop your own understanding, rationale and reasons for teaching.
To that, we add a generous helping of very practical ideas and advice.
In The Best of The Teaching Professor, you’ll discover diverse tips on classroom activities, from suggestions for learning your student’s names…to the benefits of “concept maps” for encouraging conceptual thinking…to using “minute papers” for soliciting feedback on the content presented in class.
You’ll learn how one professor discovered how to use “The Knowledge Game” to pique student interest beyond his wildest expectations in previously “boring” topics.
You’ll find practical advice on everything from how to pace your lectures…to how to integrate humor into the classroom…to how to coach students on note-taking skills…to dealing with cognitive overload…to reckoning with learning modalities.
Plus, you’ll find chapters on:
- Group work: How to design cooperative learning exercises that emphasize individual accountability more than collaborative learning
- Discussions: Quality advice on how to facilitate consistently satisfying classroom discussions
- Writing: How to encourage students to engage with the course material effectively through a variety of writing assignments
- Technology: An overview of technological tools including electronic journals, distance learning, PowerPoint, and the World Wide Web
- Critical thinking: Critically important reflections on resolving the mixed messages of “Question authority” and “Trust me, I’m a teacher.”
- Grading: Dealing with plagiarism and cheating, alleviating exam anxiety, and resisting grade inflation
- Motivation: How to construct learning experiences that capitalize on different types of motivation
Plus, insightful chapters on student work beyond the classroom; student ranking of teachers; reconfiguring the privacy of teaching; and the scholarship of teaching.
Are you ready to re-discover your love of teaching and learning?
Sincerely,
Maryellen Weimer, Ph.D.
Editor, The Teaching Professor
P.S. If you’re like most college teachers, I already know two things about you.
First, you’re a master of your chosen discipline.
Whether it’s English, chemistry, theatre or mathematics, you love to learn and share your knowledge with others. If there’s one indisputable characteristic of teachers, it’s that we never get tired of learning and teaching.
And second, we love talking about our profession and sharing all the tips, techniques and wisdom that we’ve acquired about how to be an effective teacher.
These two enthusiasms — our love of learning and our love of sharing our professional experiences with colleagues — converged some 20 years ago in the creation of The Teaching Professor, the newsletter devoted to the art and science of better teaching.
Now you can have The Best of The Teaching Professor to read and enjoy again and again.
Think of it as a legitimate crib sheet for an overall view of teaching in higher education.
Or think of it as a beacon of hope for your own teaching that will inspire your optimism and help you facilitate student learning.
Or think of it as a guide for the metaphorical gardener, builder, bricklayer, musician, coach, fisherman, master chef, ringmaster or Sherpa guide…to help you through the challenges of teaching.
Whatever your favorite metaphor, I urge you to order your copy of The Best of The Teaching Professor today.
If you have any questions contact Customer Service at 800-433-0499 or (608) 246-3590 or email us at support@facultyfocus.com.
