Spiritual Preaparation for Teaching

In the LDS Church handbook Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, there was a paragraph on how Joseph Smith began his conference talks. Since they were often outdoors, it was often difficult for everyone to hear. Thus, the following paragraph, found on page 493 of the said manual:

"When the Prophet spoke outdoors, he often began his talks by asking the Saints to pray for the wind or rain to be calmed until he got through speaking. At a conference held in Nauvoo on April 8, 1843, the Prophet began an address by saying: 'I have three requests to make of the congregation: The first is, that all who have faith will exercise it and pray the Lord to calm the wind; for as it blows now, I cannot speak long without seriously injuring my health; the next is that I may have your prayers that the Lord will strengthen my lungs, so that I may be able to make you all hear; and the third is, that you will pray for the Holy Ghost to rest upon me, so as to enable me to declare those things that are true.' ” (History of the Church, 5:339; from a discourse given by Joseph Smith on Apr. 8, 1843, in Nauvoo, Illinois; reported by Willard Richards and William Clayton.)

For us, I would summarize as follows:

1. Pray for the proper teaching environment.

2. Make sure that everyone can hear you clearly. If this means you have to yell, then pray for the strength to yell.

3. Only teach the truth as manifest by the Holy Ghost.

Look Professional (Dress and Presentation)

I am reviewing some more student feedback for another candidate for the Physics Education Research position in the USU Physics department. I have only made it half way through the class looking at the first question. There are two really great points that I have seen so far:

1. Dress professionally. A student likes to learn from someone who looks professional. If I go to class in jeans and a t-shirt, the class seems to act as if they are jeans and a t-shirt. In other words, they don't feel that you take your work as seriously, so they don't take the material as seriously. Now, professional is different for each person. The candidate happens to wear good jeans, a nice shirt, and a blazer. I know my own father wears a shirt and tie. I have another professor, Dr. Schunk, who wears a sweater every day. Each person has a different way of looking professional. Find yours, and stick with it.

2. Present professionally. By this I mean make your PowerPoint Presentation (if you're using one) simple, straight-forward, and informative. We happened to have this same candidate speak to us in a colloquium last semester about presentations. He showed us that we really don't need to have our talk written in the presentation. If we keep a simple background and key words, then they don't get muddled in the confusion on the screen. They can see the concepts, and then follow what the speaker says. Whereas, if the slides are used too much, then it turns the class into a disaster. Going through the feedback of students, I saw many students on these lecturers who felt that the slides were too distracting, or that they were ineffective. I have only made it half way through the class with this lecture, but more than half of those students commented on his great use of PowerPoint. Simpler really is better.

"The Buffer"

I remember who was perhaps my best math teacher in my undergraduate schooling. It was his first semester at BYU, teaching ODEs. He had a very good method of teaching, including emphasizing that it really doesn't matter what the variable is called. He had some variables called ":D", or "sassy," or something random like that. This way, he helped us look a little more at what we were actually doing. His teaching was effective enough that once in a while, we would talk about the subject for 20 min, and he would tell stories for the other 30 min. Some could argue that this was a waste of time, but we found it effective. To this day, ODEs is still one of my favorite topics in mathematics.

But the thing I learned from Dr. Humpherys was the use of "the buffer." When we came to a part of a problem where we needed to calculate something, he wouldn't clutter up the board. Rather, he would go to the extra board on the side of the room (which he called a buffer, after the idea in computer programming where you store some temporarily important information and then delete it when you're finished). Then when he finished, he would go back and put what we calculated into the equations.

I am currently helping the USU Physics faculty as they interview candidates for the Physics Education Research position. Last week, as I was summarizing some student feedback, I read a lot of comments on how they liked how he put the important equations on the side. Or, in Dr. Humphery's terms, he used "the buffer." So, it's not just me. There's extra space on that board--use it!

Usefulness of Blogs

I just finished having a colloquium with Kim Obbink from Montana State University, working with Distance Education in the said university. She gave a lot of good information about connecting with students using technology. It was a very wonderful presentation. But there was one thing in particular that hit me.

A couple of nights ago, I began thinking about where I am in my education and what other great professionals have done. I realized that almost all great professionals have kept a journal as they study their field. So I thought that perhaps I should do that as well. But today, Kim gave me an idea that I thought would be great. After all, what good is the stuff I learn if it doesn't help somebody else?

One technology that I realized in today's presentation as useful for classes is a blog. I need to look into using a blog for the next class I teach. I figured that in the meantime, this idea is a great first entry for a Teaching Journal. I hope that this idea as well as those to follow become useful to some who browse through this blog.