Lynn Bell's Archive

Forty Years Ago

Forty years ago, Curry professors spent time over the winter break moving their offices from Peabody Hall into the brand new education building, later to be named Ruffner Hall. Over this year’s winter break I enjoyed some delightful moments listening to some faculty members as they remembered that early 70s winter. Much of what I learned is reported in the latest issue of the Curry alumni magazine [When Ruffner Was New].

Herb Richards

Herb Richards circa 1974

I couldn’t fit in all the anecdotes, though—especially those told by Herb Richards, who seems to remember everything through the lens of his quirky sense of humor. Herb technically retired last year, but honestly, they gave him some office space in Bavaro Hall, and I see him around more often than ever.

Herb told me that in the summer of ’73 he and Harry Strang (Professor Emeritus of Education) were charged with hosting Carolyn Callahan when she came to interview at Curry. The two gentlemen had not dined often at the Colonnade Club, where they decided to take her for lunch, so they had trouble locating it. Once they finally arrived, Herb says, “It was clear that not many women had been in there. It was very awkward. We were awkward.”

Ruffner clockThe clocks seem to have been a great source of amusement for Herb and some of his colleagues. He says there were 28 of them total in Ruffner—14 pairs mounted back to back in the hallways.

“Not long after the move in, the times on the clocks began to diverge,” Herb says. “It was rumored that no two clocks told the same story.” He remembers one professor’s wry comment, “There would be no point having so many clocks if they all said the same thing.”

Herb often worked on the weekends. One autumn Sunday he entered the building on the Emmet Street side to find the nearest clock dangling from its wire and shattered glass on the floor underneath. The damaged clock just so happened to synchronize exactly with Herb’s watch—8:35—while the clock down the hall did not. Someone had put a sign on the broken clock that said, “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”  (For those of who aren’t old enough to remember, that used to be the slogan for Timex watches.)

Herb also remembers that eventually someone put up a poster with four different clock faces drawn, each showing a different time. Underneath, the caption read, “Ruffner Standard Time.”

He doesn’t remember when or why the clocks eventually disappeared. I wondered if any of you alumni remembered the clocks at all. I did find a Corks & Curls photo that shows one clock in a Ruffner corridor.

Please use the comments box to send us your memories of Ruffner when it was new!

Check out photos showing the progress of the Ruffner Renovation on the Curry School Facebook page.

Update 4/1/13 from Kay Buchanan, the Curry Librarian:

Clock in old education libraryHere is a photo of the Education Library in 2009. Note the clock hanging from the ceiling (upper left). It was the last of the working back-to-back clocks that Dr. Richards mentioned. I am not sure if this is clock 29 or one of the 28 mentioned by Dr. Richards, but I do know it was the last of the clocks that worked.  That said, only one side was working, so we put up a smiley face on the other side that read, “There’s still time!” I’m betting the clock was removed during the 2013 renovation of Ruffner Hall.

  • Posted on:
  • March 19, 2013

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Ruffner Reminiscenses

The Ruffner Hall lobby stands empty awaiting the building's much-needed renovation.

The Ruffner Hall lobby stands empty awaiting the building’s much-needed renovation.

As all the furniture was being moved out of Ruffner Hall in December for its upcoming renovation, a couple of witty students wrote some poetry and shared it at a Fond Farewell to Ruffner Hall gathering for the Curry Community.

In the limerick category…

There once was an old
hall named Ruffner
From which residents moved all their stuffner
Everyone found space
in some brand new place
And nobody left in a huffner

by Peter Malcolm, doctoral student, Instructional Technology

And a collection of haikus…

Ruffner Hall red bricks
Bavaro so nice and new
Now out with the old

Curry School of Ed.
Scatter around UVA
Ruffner Hall is closed

Goodbye old Ruffner
It is time to renovate
Be back in three years

by Bert Jacoby, doctoral student, Instructional Technology 

Are you inspired to wax poetic over your memories of Ruffner Hall as we await its reopening in 18 months? Share your creative memories in the comments field!

View a slideshow of Ruffner Hall over the years.

Go to Renovating the Ruff, a blog with updates on construction work.

 

  • Posted on:
  • January 7, 2013

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Guest Post: Reading Matters

Suzanne Facone MacLehose (M.T. ’91 Engl Ed)

When we sit down to read before bed, two of my boys ask me if I’ll read with them. They’re old enough to read by themselves, and they don’t want to slow down to read out loud. Yet, they want me by their sides, on the same page.

Reading is funny that way. While we are alone in our heads as we read, we often want someone to live with us through what we read on the page.

I remember gifting a friend with Bridge to Terabithia, begging a friend to read Pride and Prejudice, and giving in to a friend who wanted me to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  Though the experience of reading a text is a personal venture, we want to share these books with the people we love best. And we want them to love ”our book” too—to connect with what made us live larger, laugh out loud, feel more strongly, become more alive.

One afternoon, I released my students from our classroom to venture about the school to talk about books with anyone they could find.  This act of talking about books brought our reading community alive. There’s something about finding someone who has shared our experience— who has read about Captain Ahab, listened to Elizabeth Bennett, loved with Jane Eyre–that makes us light up. Perhaps it’s because we have such powerful feelings, and we celebrate when someone can feel what we feel—even when reading on our own is so vital.

Many evenings we pile on to the couch to read our “own books.” Last night, I picked my head up from my page and looked at our family reading. It was a rare moment of quiet, though, like a seismograph, I could feel the powerful movement under the surface.

I also witnessed this powerful shared silence in my English classroom when we spent a class period reading a “great” book we felt we had missed along the way.  After reading for the better part of the period, I asked the students if they wanted to comment on their reading experience. One student explained, “When you said, ‘Let’s read,’ it sounded like church when the priest says, ‘Let’s pray.’” Yes, there was a special quality in the classroom—an almost holy connection we shared. While I know how fulfilling it is to talk about books, I was reminded how powerful the simple act of reading together could be.

I notice in my adult life that a lull in conversation can be bridged by the question, “Have you read anything good lately?”  My son calls his far away grandfather to talk about The Hardy Boys. Reading helps us to talk with one another and, as we talk, we figure out what is important to us.

My six-year old son and I were reading together a story about a city dog and country frog who became friends. The words were simple and the pictures beautiful. We read about the frog and dog in summer and fall. Then, when we got to the section “Winter,” the dog was alone in the pictures.  My son could not continue to read the story. He took a short breath and held it as his eyes filled with tears. He could read no more, a visceral reaction to the realization that the frog would not return.

Together we sat on the couch and cried—both moved by the place that book took us. My six-year-old could not articulate adequately what he was feeling about the book—though we both knew the feelings were real and powerful.  What we could do, though, was to sit together and figure out how to respond to life and how to live—what really matters.

Not every book is for everyone.  Yet, like a workout that is often hard to start and hard to get through, rarely will we say that we wished we hadn’t read a book once we’re done.

“Only connect” is E.M. Forster’s epigraph to his 1910 novel Howards End.  As I read that book, I kept looking for those words to emerge—to find on the page the place where “Only connect” would become clear. What Forster is telling us is that we must—and we can through reading—connect, especially in a world where we text rather than talk. Perhaps sharing this act of reading can be our talisman—a way for us to connect with each other as we purposefully explore what is important to us as individuals.

Along the way, won’t it be lovely when we find someone who is on the same page?

Suzanne with her sons

Suzanne has been teaching English at Darien High School in Connecticut since 1995.

 

  • Posted on:
  • April 23, 2012

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Guest Post: Kira Jordan

My First Year as a Teacher

 

My first memory of becoming a new teacher is the distinct, literal sense of skin burning. After being hired 2,000 miles away from home, the Florida sun and humidity seemed brutal just walking within the courtyard of the school complex. The principal and I stepped into the building that was to house the new charter middle and high school— an old, open-style building—only to find dripping wet walls and missing stairs. “This will be your room,” she said, turning on the single fluorescent light. One chalkboard hung off of the wall; broken desks stood like hunched old men in the center of the floor. I swallowed hard and thought, was this what all my years of schooling and training had led me to?

A few short weeks later, I found myself sitting in a cafeteria full of other new teachers. The founder of the charter school system stood before us, his back straight and smile bright. I expected the same old “go get ‘em” speech I had heard in so many teacher-themed movies. Instead, as he spoke, he began to click LEGOs together into a tiny, solid wall: “Imagine this is a good education that every child deserves. Now imagine, for instance, I take this brick out…and then a few more. What happens to that education?” The wall looked like Swiss cheese. “It is your job—no, your mission—to make sure this doesn’t happen. If it has, you have to teach like never before. Each child is a precious gift.”

In that instant, he had my immediate respect. This man that I had never met had brought me to examine a wonderful, challenging reality: The task of teaching is not just about how much effort you have put into becoming a teacher, but how much effort you put into making sure each child receives the best of that training.

That message was fresh in my mind as I welcomed my first set of students to the classroom. Once in heavy disrepair, the combined work of parents, teachers, and even students had made the building and classroom seem more like a place to learn and grow. As my colleagues became more like family over the course of the year, I grew more thankful for the opportunity just to be around a group of educators that had the same goal in mind—teaching our future—with love (and a bit of insomnia).

Even on days that seemed impossible, the true test was keeping myself in check for the sake of teaching the children—a lesson in humility and compassion. Could I remain calm when a ninth grader used inappropriate jokes in class? How could I deal with the occasional visit by our friend Mickey the Mouse during seventh period? Would the rain ever stop coming through the ceiling? These were things people dealt with everyday around the world. Now, in my classroom it was no longer okay to leave the hole in the wall, but fill it with the ideas of respect and humility for those who had even less while dealing with much more.

By the end of school year, despite the trials and frustrations of being a first-year teacher, I felt happy and fulfilled not just by what I was doing, but in the growth I saw in each of my students. They had worked so hard during the school year. Essays went from average to excellent, effort was taken to earn an A rather than being content with a C. I am more proud of the students and staff than I could ever have imagined.

As I cleaned the chalkboards and stacked the desks for closeout, I stopped and thought about how my ideas about being a teacher changed in the past year. It wasn’t about the building, or the meticulous over-planning as it was when I first arrived.

As cliché as it may sound, teaching is about learning to share, grow, and learn with others. It is about learning to love idiosyncrasies and helping wherever and whenever you can. Most of all, it is about watching your students become masons as they learn to help build their own educational foundations.

This year Kira (MT ’09 Soc Stud Ed) is teaching social studies at Washington Lee High School in Arlington, Va.

  • Posted on:
  • March 2, 2012

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Guest Post: Alumnus Peter Smerick

An Unconventional Career Path for a Curry School Graduate

Many graduates of the Curry School of Education have successful careers as public or private school teachers, school principals and superintendents, and as college professors.  My career path was different.

Twenty-five years ago, at the ripe old age of 43, I earned a Master’s of Education Degree in the field of Instructional Technology from the Curry School of Education. While working towards this degree, I was employed as a FBI Supervisory Special Agent assigned to the FBI Laboratory’s Forensic Science Training Unit, at the FBI Academy, in Quantico, Virginia, as an Instructor. Twice a week, for several years, four of us FBI instructors enrolled in the Master’s Degree program would drive to Charlottesville to attend evening classes with students half our age.

We were particularly interested in the field of Instructional Technology because it focused on effectively using media such as slides, films, video tapes, photographs, and audio recordings for classroom presentations.  Our students were adult learners consisting of seasoned police officers from around the world attending the FBI’s National Academy.  The National Academy was and remains the flagship of schools for mid-level law enforcement officers who hope to advance their careers within their respective agencies.  All students attending this 10 week school were required to take a course called the Management of Forensic and Technical Services.

Many of these students balked at taking the course since they held management positions and were no longer involved in processing crime scenes.  As instructors, we faced the prospect of teaching 20 forensic science topics to individuals who, for the most part, had little interest in forensic archeology, forensic anthropology, mineralogical evidence, etc., and crime scene management techniques.  Our dilemma: How do we convince these managers that this course is valuable for their career; and how do we make some very basic topics interesting so the students looked forward to coming to class?

One approach advocated by the Curry School was for the instructor to “walk in the shoes” of the student and ask the question: “What’s in it for me if I take the course?”  I answered the question regarding the value of the course by remembering the leadership skills I learned in Vietnam as a 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Army Combat Photography Officer.

RULE #1: As a supervisor, you are responsible for everything your personnel do or fail to do.

RULE #2:  If you take care of your people, they will take care of you.

Consequently, when I taught “Crime Scene Processing Techniques,” I introduced cases where the investigators and evidence technicians mishandled the crime scene and discussed the impact their failure had on the investigation and the reputations of their supervisors.  I then presented cases where the CSI personnel acted professionally.  My message: If you don’t know what your personnel are doing, how can you measure their performance?  If your employees know you have knowledge of their expertise and you express appreciation for their efforts, they will work more diligently in the future.  Sometimes, fear of failure can be a tremendous motivator for a student to learn.

The second question on how to make the topics more interesting was resolved by having several brainstorming sessions with my fellow FBI Academy faculty members comparing instructional techniques we had used in the past. One of our group assignments was to create a 10 minute instructional video on a topic of our choice.  We decided to produce a video about Ballistics and Firearms Identification.  A part of the video featured a demonstration of the bullet recovery tank where a weapon is fired into a stainless-steel tank, 10 feet long and 5 feet high, filled with water.  The water absorbs the velocity of the test bullet and enables a Firearms Examiner to compare this undamaged bullet with one discovered at a crime scene to determine if the same weapon fired both bullets.

After the instructor fired the test shot into the tank, we drained the tank and another student climbed inside.  We then resumed filming the instructor explaining the procedure.  At some point during the instructor’s lecture, the lid of the tank slowly opened, a hand emerged and delivered the bullet to the instructor, who continued to speak as if nothing unusual had happened.  In reality, there would never be a person in the tank when a shot was fired, but the shock effect on the audience was profound and after the laughter subsided we had the full attention of the audience.

The moral of this story is that if you can introduce humor or something unexpected into your presentation, you can retain the attention of adult learners.

After serving several years in the Forensic Science Training Unit, I became one of the original FBI Criminal Profilers. As a Criminal Profiler, and now as a retired Agent and member of the Academy Group Inc. in Manassas, Virginia, I have trained law enforcement officers from around the world in the art of Criminal Profiling Techniques. As a police instructor, I am confronted with a different instructional problem:  How to provide meaningful training to both inexperienced and experienced homicide detectives simultaneously, when I was never a homicide detective. Once again, I rely upon an instructional philosophy advocated by my professors. Before any presentation it is imperative to conduct a “needs assessment.” I learn everything I can about my audience, i.e., what is the ratio of experienced to inexperienced homicide detectives, how many represent large police agencies versus small town departments, and how many of my students are women, etc. (experience has taught me that female detectives frequently have greater intuition and insight than their male counterparts).

One technique which has proven to be effective is getting students involved in their own training.  It would be very easy to tell countless war stories about unsolved cases that were resolved by using Criminal Profiling, but presenting these cases to the class to analyze in small groups has proven to be a very beneficial approach.  Detectives with varying degrees of experience from large and small departments can work together, share ideas, and the cumulative effect is the increase in knowledge about criminal behavior by every student.

For over 40 years, I have had the privilege of training law enforcement officers in a wide variety of topics.  I continue to learn from my students and consider it an honor to give something back to the law enforcement community that serves us all. My master’s degree in Instructional Technology has been of tremendous value to me in my unconventional educational career path.

  • Posted on:
  • February 7, 2012

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Guest Post: Alumna Lynne Noble

Today’s guest post is by Lynne Streyer Noble (M.Ed. ’74, Ed.D. ’80 Elem Ed), professor of early childhood education at Columbia College in South Carolina. Noble is a Fulbright Scholar. Read her blog about her 2011 trip to Mongolia.

Become A Global Citizen

J. William Fulbright wrote, “In the long course of history, having people who understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine.”  His legacy is a myriad of programs all designed to provide that global understanding.  I would commend to all Curry School grads any of the Fulbright programs available to you.  As graduates of UVa, I know you are life-long learners, full of curiosity about the wider world, and you have a lot to share, as well.  Fulbright programs offer you the opportunity to satisfy all these characteristics.

As I write this, I am sitting in my apartment in Ulaanbaatar (UB), Mongolia nearing the end of my six-month tenure as a Fulbright Scholar at the Mongolian State University of Education.  This has been an amazing adventure – each day brings new places, new people, new ideas, new possibilities. My colleagues and I revel in the opportunities to teach each other.  Together, we work on English and Mongolian.  I introduce new teaching methods and they “Mongolize” them, as they call it. I show them how to teach the application of theory to the classroom, and they then eagerly develop their own activities.  I try to get them to plan ahead, and they try to get me to go with the flow.  We have accomplished a lot, including signing a five-year agreement to exchange faculty and students between my Columbia College and the MSUE.

I have been involved in teaching, research, writing and, of course, learning.   I have been able to travel to the north, south, east and west of UB – sometimes for business (teaching) and always for pleasure.  Family, friends, colleagues and students have visited me here – after it warmed up, of course! They share my love of Mongolia.

I have also had the chance to see other Fulbright programs in action.  There are a number of Fulbright English Teaching Assistants here in UB, recent college grads who are able to live abroad and teach English, while honing language skills, increasing knowledge of the host country and continuing their own research and study.   In addition, our Embassy me to participate in reading applications from and conducting interviews with Mongolian professionals wishing to pursue a Master’s degree at an American institution.  I know that the women and men we chose for this opportunity will make a positive impact on their American hosts, and will come to be important players in Mongolia’s future when they return.

All educators have the opportunity to participate in the Fulbright-Hays program.  In 2004, I was fortunate to be chosen as a group member for a month in Lithuania, Latvia and St. Petersburg.  In our group were faculty from several colleges and universities, and many public school classroom teachers – all grades, as well as school administrators.  Faculty from local universities in the cities we visited delivered lectures, hosts arranged wonderful traveling experiences, and we made connections to our own fields of study as we went.  Some were gathering folk tales, some were accumulating musical instruments, and others were focusing on the history or current social status as fodder for courses.  I pursued the current role of women in these countries in order to develop a seminar for our honors program. And, of course, I took special note of educational policy and practice in each place.

School teachers, in particular, have the opportunity to participate in the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program.  This is a direct exchange of job, house, etc. While living in Northern Ireland in 1996, I met a teacher from New York who had “exchanged” with a teacher in NI.  We were both taking bodhran (drum) lessons, and she was thoroughly enjoying and being challenged by her new teaching and living situation, as was her exchange mate, then in America.

Fulbright was clearly ahead of his time.  He recognized the need for global understanding – real hands-on experiences, not just academic knowledge.  He made it possible for, by now, thousands of educators to be exposed to new and inspiring cultures, forge strong and lasting relationships across the world, and use knowledge of these places and people in their work. You already have the distinction of being a Curry School graduate.  Now, I strongly encourage you to take the opportunity to become a global citizen and pursue participation in a Fulbright program.

Lynne’s post was submitted last June to the Fall 2011 Curry Alumni Writing Contest. To submit an entry in the next contest round, go to curry.virginia.edu/writing-contest

  • Posted on:
  • January 25, 2012

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Curry Faculty on Effective Postsecondary Teaching

Since our new president Teresa Sullivan is such an avid proponent of the scholarship of postsecondary teaching and learning, it’s a hot topic around U.Va these days (see recent newsletter article).

We decided to check in with some Curry faculty members who are recognized as good teachers. You may enjoy some useful insights from these familiar scholars who know about and contribute to the literature on teaching/learning and who work hard to practice what they teach. (Read who participated and how they were selected here.)

At the end of this post, if you are a teacher, trainer, or coach, please tell us how you evaluate your efforts.

Influences on Postsecondary Teaching

Seven of the eight faculty respondents have worked either as K-12 teachers or administrators. Most responded that the school setting had the greatest influence on how and what they teach now. Here are a few of their responses on the subject:

As a mathematics teacher educator, I believe…doing mathematics requires learners to explore, investigate, represent, use, describe, justify, and verify. This list of verbs represents mathematics teaching and learning as a process of “making sense” and requires active participation among learners.  In order to “do” mathematics in my elementary mathematics methods course, I employ instructional strategies that require students to work collaboratively, reflect on their experiences as learners of mathematics, and think critically about the act of teaching mathematics.
Robert Berry

Research in social studies education indicates that effective social studies teachers know their students well, know how to connect social studies content to students’ lives and make it relevant, understand the nature of the discipline, and teach in engaging ways that teach students more than content, but also the skills necessary for active, engaged citizenship in a multicultural democracy.  That research informs my practice – I try to model what that looks like in practical terms on a day-to-day basis with 6-12 students.
Stephanie Van Hover

My special education background and training developed my understanding that you don’t teach until you understand students, so I always begin my classes by getting to know the interests and backgrounds of my students so that I can match readings/projects/assignments to their unique circumstances. I try to individualize my course for every student.
Pam Tucker

 I learned while teaching high school science that respect for your students and high expectations go a long way. It’s also important to make sure every class is engaging at some level. If I don’t find a lesson I’m teaching to be interesting and engaging, there’s no way my students will find it that way. I work hard at finding ways to make the less exciting topics more engaging and fun.
Randy Bell

 Many of the ideas I teach in public schools, such as cooperative learning strategies and project-based learning, I also used in my classes at the university…. [For example] in preparing principals, I was able to take assessment data from various schools, using pseudonyms, and have students take the common set of data given them, prepare school improvement plans, and then defend their plans in various small groups in class.
Robert Lynn Canady

Assessing and Improving Their Teaching

Ann Boyce said she assesses her teaching “through systematic and peer input from doc students and BSEd/MT and PGMT students.” Most of the professors said they consider student evaluations to be one helpful form of assessment of their teaching but not the only one. Sara Rimm-Kaufman and Robert Berry have worked with the University Teaching Resource Center. Several professors have had their teaching observed and videotaped.

“I look for ways I engage students,” Berry said about videotaping himself. “That is, I observe my movement during instruction, observe whether I dominate in one space of the classroom with my questioning and interactions, and observe to see if I use questions both for conceptual and procedural understanding.”

Our professors reflect on their teaching in other ways as well:

I’ve used mid-semester assessments of my teaching strategies and explicitly asked students if the strategies are working or how I might improve them. I also use end of course feedback on assignments, pacing, and activities to constantly revise and improve my courses.
Pam Tucker

Assessment of my teaching consisted primarily of informal assessments made by talking with students, often after they had completed their program and were employed in an administrative position.
Robert Lynn Canady

 These professors assess their teaching indirectly through their students’ learning. As they observe student teaching, Ann Boyce noted, our teacher ed professors have opportunities to see how preservice teachers are applying their learning in the classroom. Professors also receive feedback about how their students are doing from clinical instructors, graduate student supervisors, and school administrators. Mentors and school administrators provide feedback on students in our administration & supervision program, as well.

Here are some of other ways professors assess student learning:

I observe their engagement and consider the way that they describe the material to me.
Sara Rimm-Kaufman

In addition to classroom assignments and tests, I have conducted research on students’ learning of certain overarching scientific concepts, such as the nature of science, and their ability to teach those concepts in the classroom.
Randy Bell

I use case studies quite a bit, which require explicit application of concepts introduced in class discussions and readings.
Pam Tucker

I follow backwards design when I put together a course – develop objectives, design assessments that show me how students are progressing (or not progressing) toward those objectives, then plan the weekly class meetings. I have a big final project but break it into “chunks,” so I can give in-depth, ongoing feedback so students have a chance to resubmit work until it meets or exceeds expectations.  Learning to teach is a complex process involving continuous reflection and change–I want my class and assignments to show that.
Stephanie Van Hover

One way I know students learn is when they have an “aha” moment…. Often students come to learn mathematical procedures but do not conceptually understand why procedures work.  A classic example is when we do division of fractions; many students know to invert and multiply but do not understand why they invert in multiply. ”Aha” moments often occur when they discover why things work mathematically.
Robert Berry

I’m a fan of formative assessment.  We try to ask students to apply ideas regularly.  Then we review their work, provide feedback, make opportunities for students to revise work that’s not quite on target, and change classroom instruction as a result of what we see. Simple things like exit cards provide a useful window into student understanding.  Of course, good classroom conversations can be really instructive about student understanding as well.
Carol Tomlinson

Secrets of Good Teaching

Finally, in a nutshell, here are some ways our professors characterize good postsecondary teaching:

Knowing the material. Knowing the students you’re teaching.

The best lesson I learned was from [recently retired professor] Jerry Short: Teach just a few key principles with many, many examples of each principle.  (The tendency is to do the reverse—teach lots of principles with one example each.)
Sara Rimm-Kaufman

Success comes from teaching human beings, not from teaching content.
Carol Tomlinson

Conceptual anchors, connecting knowledge for deep understanding, and engaging multiple perspectives.
Robert Berry

Caring about your students.  Organization.  Preparation.  Reflection.
Stephanie Van Hover

Respecting students as adult learners who can define their own learning objectives if you give them the structure and support.
Pam Tucker

Being very knowledgeable of content, including having more than textbook knowledge; being able to make the content relevant; having the ability to engage students during class.
Robert Lynn Canady

Please join the conversation! Go to the reply box below and tell us how you assess your own teaching/training/coaching.


Participants:

We invited Curry professors who have received an All-University Teaching Award to participate, as well as those who have received a Curry Foundation Outstanding Faculty Award in recent years. Eight professors responded, including one professor emeritus.

All-University Teaching Award Recipients who responded:

2010-11 Robert Q. Berry, III, Elementary Mathematics Education
2008-09 Stephanie D. van Hover, Secondary Social Studies Education
2007-08 Carol Tomlinson, Educational Psychology/Gifted Education
2006-07 Randy L. Bell, Secondary Science Education
1990-91 Robert Lynn Canady, Professor Emeritus, Administration & Supervision

Curry School Foundation Outstanding Faculty Award Recipients who responded:

2011 Sara Rimm-Kaufman, Educational Psychology/Applied Developmental Science
2008 Pamela D. Tucker, Administration & Supervision
2007 Barbara Ann Boyce, Health and Physical Education

  • Posted on:
  • January 13, 2012

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