from Inquiry, Volume 1, Number 2, Fall 1997, 61-63
© Copyright 1997 Virginia Community College System
Abstract
One way to find creative
teaching solutions to age-old problems is to attend the Virginia
Master Teachers Seminar.
What do a novice community college teacher and a 20-year veteran classroom teacher have in common? They both want their students to have successful learning experiences. They want the experiences to be fresh, challenging, engaging. After 20 some years the veterans are tired of doing things the same old way, and the novice doesn’t want to burn out too quickly by being too enthusiastic and innovative. (Can a teacher ever be too innovative or enthusiastic?). One way to find creative teaching solutions to age-old problems is to attend the Virginia Master Teachers Seminar. For anyone unfamiliar with the program, the Master Teacher Movement was originated in 1962 by Roger Garrison at Westbrook College in Portland. Since then the seminars have been held in several states including Virginia. The “sole aim of the seminar is practical exploration of ways to improve teaching.”
The seminars are held each summer, usually in July, on the campus of Hampden-Sydney near Farmville, Virginia, and are sponsored by Southside Virginia Community College. Teachers from various schools, backgrounds, and disciplines gather to share innovations with each other, thus enhancing everyone’s teaching skills. The 1996 Seminar was host to twenty-seven participants representing five states and sixteen community colleges. There were twenty classroom teachers and one librarian (the author) from the Virginia Community College System, four teachers from the San Diego (CA) Community College system, one person from Florence-Darlington Community College (SC), and one person from Southern Maine College. We gathered at Hampden-Sydney College during the week of July 14-18. Our seminar guru was Terry Whisnant, Professor of Behavioral Sciences at Southside Virginia Community College.
I am a full-time professional librarian at NVCC with more than 20 years’ service. As one of five full-time professional librarians at the Alexandria Campus of Northern Virginia Community College, I am expected to teach scheduled bibliographic instruction classes for all disciplines. In addition, during each intersession we offer a one-credit course (LBR 105) in bibliographic instruction. Since the aim of the seminar is the “practical exploration of ways to improve teaching,” my expectation in attending the seminar was that innovative applications of classroom techniques could be used in a non-classroom environment such as the library.
As a seminar participant, I was expected to develop a portfolio of practical teaching strategies/innovations, enter into roundtable discussions concerning classroom problems (and suggest solutions!), and participate in a mock teaching session which was critiqued by seminar participants.
The first night all attendees participated in the “My New Best Buddy” icebreaker. We paired up with someone we didn’t know, which wasn’t difficult because hardly anybody knew anyone else except for the four participants from the Alexandria Campus of NVCC. We spent about 10-15 minutes talking to each other and then had to introduce that person to the group as our “new best buddy.” That effectively solved the problem of getting up in front of everyone and saying, “I am...I come from...I do...I like....”
Each day there were small group sessions covering ethical and behavioral problems in the classroom. We were divided into groups, assigned a group facilitator, and sent to a meeting room. Each group had to respond to the same three problem situations and then present their opinions to the entire seminar. Team facilitators were rotated for the small group activities, and groups were changed so that we spent time with different members of the seminar management team as well as with different seminar participants.
On the last full day of attendance, each seminar participant had about 15 to 20 minutes to present a “mini-lecture” to his/her group. The group leader kept the time. After the presentation each participant was asked to give only positive feedback; constructive (not destructive) criticism could be given to the individual after the session was over. For my teaching session, I modified the presentation we give to English 111 classes on how to do research for term papers using the various sources available at the Alexandria Campus Library. Each participant could use any teaching tool that would make his/her presentation more effective. I brought several of the transparencies we use to explain how to use the catalog to find material.
Part of the success of the seminar was that we were away from our daily routine, but we were with colleagues who had the same goals. We had the opportunity to share what works (and doesn’t) in our classrooms. There was ample time to network with the other participants and to talk with the team leaders. Everyone was accessible. Hampden-Sydney even provided us with our own dining room so there was always someone to chat with while we were eating. As much as I would like more people to be able to share this experience, the seminar would not work, for example, as part of NVCC’s fall inservice day program. It would be difficult to condense five days of interactive, experiential learning into several hours. And where could several hundred teachers, counselors and librarians go to get away from it all without actually getting away?
What did I learn as a result of my participation in the seminar?
Good classroom teachers are constantly trying to find ways to present the same information (their “lectures”) in different ways. Why just lecture to your students for 50 minutes three hours a week and then have them regurgitate the same information in a different format on a test? Why not try a modified lecture that might fit “cooperative learning” into your existing style? “Lecture 15-20 minutes; take 3-5 minutes to pose a question, or 3-5 minutes to have students work a problem and discuss it with a partner, or spend five minutes with a partner to discuss the highlights of the lecture and write them down.”
Here are some other insights from the seminar.
Teachers teach teachers. Out of all the “innovations” presented I do not recall any two being exactly alike.
Diversity leads to creativity. One way to “get away” from straight lecturing is to introduce role-playing as part of a classroom activity. Role-playing can be used as “an in-depth, planned project or as a spontaneous method to illustrate a point. Role playing allows the students to invest themselves in the topics. It generates a thought process which cannot be achieved any other way. Once students explore the subject matter in this manner, they own it for life.”
Teachers are thieves.You could say “collaborators” if that makes you more comfortable. Teachers “steal” ideas/materials from each other, other people, anyone who has useful techniques to get information across to their students.
We are all English teachers first no matter what our subject is. One of the innovations offered from a humanities teacher (Gay Lynn Tonelli, SVCC) involved “the carefully planned pairing of humanities and English composition classes.” This was a direct result of a student complaining that the humanities teacher “discriminates against people who can’t write” when his essay was returned to him with a poor grade. Her requirements for essay exams and research papers “did not dovetail with the minimal writing skills needed to enroll in my class.” Among other requirements, the syllabi included reading and writing assignments in the English class which complemented and reinforced the focus of the humanities class: a single set of essay tests and a single research paper which satisfied the requirements of both classes, but which were graded according to different criteria.
Would I recommend participation in the Virginia Master Teachers Seminar to other librarians and teaching faculty? Yes, with one reservation. Make sure Terry Whisnant is leading the seminar. Terry provides the “spark” for the five days, but the energy for the seminar comes from its participants. And, yes, it will be “a refreshing, enriching and pleasant memory for years to come.”
Jean E. Hogan is Public Services Librarian at the Alexandria Campus of Northern Virginia Community College.