This post is available as a podcast here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/s-p01/episodes/Teaching-e2eg497

I mentioned that I find the greatest meaning in my connections with people – I think this is a large contributing factor to my love of teaching. Teaching is one of the most fulfilling things I do. I don’t just get to share knowledge with people, I get to help them find meaning in their lives. I get to connect with them, learn about them, and guide them down a path of their choosing. Teaching is fulfilling because it isn’t just what I can do – it’s really about what they can do. The group of people before me in a classroom bring much more to the room than I do, and it isn’t just in numbers.

Why do I teach? I teach because I love knowledge and I love sharing it with people. I teach because I feel the pride in people when they master a new concept. I teach because it’s fun. I teach because I love being the center of attention (I might as well embrace it.) I teach because it’s my place to showcase all of my work to help those coming after me. I teach because I love collaborating with people on a common goal.

What is teaching? Teaching is a sharing of knowledge with a future generation. Teaching is the means we use to speed the process of gaining knowledge. Teaching is an opportunity to serve as a mentor; to be an example. Teaching is an investment of one’s knowledge and person to help the future be better than the past. Teaching is a service to our society and our future. Teaching is a key in our structure of education.

My grandmother was a teacher. I sometimes envy the fact that she got to teach about child development and home economics. Those are fun classes. I teach math. A lot of math students do not believe that math is fun, despite my attempts to convince them. I think math is fun. I like puzzles, and most math problems are just mathematical puzzles. Anyway, students engage best when they enjoy the topic they’re studying. So, teaching math is tough sometimes.

I’ve read before that student evaluations are a popularity contest. I kind of agree. The more friendly and available I seem to my students, the more they like me, and then I have better SRIs. However, I don’t change my difficulty. I’m not an easy professor. Students cannot pass my class without learning something. I’m an intimidating professor; students have told me they were afraid to take my class. Why did they tell me this? Because they took my class and they ended up loving it and me. Why? Not because it was easy, but because they knew how much I cared. Because they connected with me and my love of the topics. Teaching isn’t about being popular because you make the students happy. Teaching, to me, is about helping the students grow and learn while connecting with them in the process. That’s why I love teaching.

My story this week is about the time I starred in a web series (it didn’t take off…)

When I finished undergrad, web series were becoming a thing. My first husband majored in computer graphics and wanted to make movies, etc. I was doing Shakespeare in the Park and performing as much as I could, so we decided to pull a group together and make a web series. The web series was about a girl, named Cass Divine, who was just a normal college student that didn’t know what she wanted to do with her life. Only, some supernatural beings were doing an experiment with the earth (I think this was sparked by Douglas Adams’ writings) and they needed some measurable results, so they picked Cass as a test subject. The results were fun to film.

I was in grad school at the time, but I think I passed as a college student. My acting was terrible. I tried, but I was clearly made for the stage, not film. We had a lot of fun hanging out with a crew of friends that came together to make a silly thing. There were explosions, voices, manipulation, and a lot of silliness. My best friend played a hobo named Hobo Kenobe in the script. He was teaching me to outsmart the supernatural beings… at least that was the plan. We never finished the first season. The editing took a lot of my husband’s time, and we both ended up getting sucked into other projects. Honestly, I went back and rewatched that series – loved it – but I found the most joy in the behind-the-scenes film from our time together as a crew. Why? Because the most important parts of my life were spent with good people, and that was a great time in my life with a group of really great people.

Teaching comes in many forms – may you share the best parts of yourself in your teaching, wherever it shows up in your life.

Love, -S.