Those in the teaching profession, whether it is in Elementary or Higher Education, continuously reinvent our teaching methods. If you are like me, I'm always changing and tweaking my teaching methods, lectures and their delivery, and most importantly for me at least, learning new ways to incorporate technology in the classroom. The subject I teach, Microbiology, is not the easiest for a freshman to understand, unless it relates directly to his or her daily life; if they can 'see it happening' every day, it suddenly 'clicks'.
How to make somebody understand about microbes when they can't be seen unless we use a microscope? Which then brings us to the actual understanding on how to properly use (and care for) a microscope. It is quite a challenge sometimes to teach a student not to rely on memory alone to learn a subject. For that I use countless metaphors, analogies, and examples that can be taken out of a daily commute… such is the beauty of Microbiology… it happens around us 24/7!
Believe it or not, and don't ask me why, my course doesn't require a prerequisite other than Rhetoric. Although I'm currently working on changing that, in the meantime I have to deal with students with little or no biology background. If all my students would be in the same situation, without any biology background, then it would be easier to deliver the course at one same level. However, I do have students with more than one general biology course, and that makes it a bit more challenging to deliver a course that is not so esoteric for beginners or boring for students with more biology background.
Ultimately, we find ourselves learning more than just our discipline to keep our courses 'fresh', interesting, engaging, challenging and worth our students' time and money. We do, indeed, become renaissance men and women.
How do you reinvent yourself every semester? What new tricks do you learn (and where)? How do you improve upon your own teaching methods? I'm always looking for something new and exciting to try in my class, so leave your comments and suggestions for everyone to see.
I hope you had a great holiday and have a great semester everyone!
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