I think that high school teachers make very good college level teachers for exactly the reason you described.
When I was an adjunct, we had to conduct peer observations, and it was very much as you mentioned.
Someone once took great pains to point out to me that although my students were calling me professor, I was actually, an assistant something or other.
I guess titles are very important to some people.
I'm always a little disheartened when I take a class at the college level—I watch professors do things that would lead my kids to eat them alive. Don't get me wrong; they're smart, very educated people, but knowing the tricks of the trade? Many don't.
What I always find amusing is when my kids come back and mention how great their teachers are and how much they're learning. It's not the teachers that have gotten better, it's the kids. High school teachers get them all—like a hospital emergency room, and it's amazing how many we save—and tragic how many we lose.
That would be worth charging admission!
The problem is that many professors see themselves as researchers rather than teachers. And the graduate assistants who are given classes to teach in college? I felt like just setting my money afire for all the good those classes did. Yech.
I am an adjunct too. You will see full time faculty refer to you as "lecturer" to maintain their status.
You didn't strain your larynx too much by raising your voice, did you? Hope not!
I have to defend my co-teachers a little. They are very bright and competent. They are highly knowledgeable and I wouldn't hesitate to ask them questions if I were confused about something.
I think, though, that I'm a little more focused on motivating and involving students than they are. I'm a little more vigilant about what's going on in class and perhaps just a little more suspicious than they are. My students are a little bit older and more serious, in general, than my high school kids.
But it's good to be careful. I once caught a student with a cheat sheet for our placement test. I don't think my full-time colleagues would have snatched the thing from his hands as I did. But I'd seen his like many times before--many more times than college teachers.
I really don't mean to disparage college teachers, though. I really think my colleagues are very good. I'm just saying there are some things we're good at, some things we do that they don't, and they ought not to be discounted.
Different environment. I noticed that when I watched the Douglass High documentary. What we call discipline problems are, er, not (comparatively). The students are held accountable more at the university for their success or failure. And recall that in no field is a PhD a teaching degree. Even in ed, a PhD entails very little teaching.
As for the voice, I've never had students sleep in my class. But I got this comment on ratemyprofessors:
"Great Guy. Besides computer security, try asking him about the switch to PeopleSoft and onestart. IT DRIVES HIM CRAZY, he loves to talk about it. Or ask him about his new home. He is a great guy, dont sit in the front row. The man should be given an award for the volume of his voice."
When your audience is 250 students in a lecture hall, you have to be heard up in the rafters. And I have never needed to use the microphone.
I'm impressed, Prof. You seemed pretty soft-spoken to me.
I was an adjunct teaching computer programming courses at Brooklyn College. The CIS dept had a strict policy for the intro course - for each class a program was late, we deducted 5 points. It really worked and very few were late. But some of the excuses we got from those who did hand things in late almost met the "dog ate my homework" criteria.
Anyway, there were of us - NYC public school teachers - 2 elementary and 1 middle school - in a department of computer scientists and buisness computer teachers and other than a few profs,I felt we were the best equipped to teach the beginning level courses because we could break things down to a level that made sense for the students. We also brought the kind of approach to teaching that NYC is talking about.
Eventually, the college these courses over to grad students as a way to help support them financially.
My sweetie went back to school a few years back and when he told me that the profs didn't know what to do about the disruptive students in the back, I was shocked. I can think of a few things...
Thanks for demonstrating what quality teachers are at EVERY level. It builds all of our reputations!
It's kind of disturbing that college level students are being disruptive. You would hope that they would have learned some self discipline by the time they get to the college level.
It is not just self discipline. There is a BIG difference when you are paying for your Education.
Commenting by HaloScan
