The book opens with this paragraph:
"I am a teacher at heart, and there are moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy. When my students and I discover uncharted territory to explore, when the pathway out of a thicket opens up before us, when our experience is illuminated by the lightning-life of the mind – then teaching is the finest work I know."
The question I would like to pose to you in this post is this: When have you experienced this kind of joy in your own teaching?
I have a number of these but I will share the most recent. It occurred this week at The Loop in Embry Hills Shopping Center. We were having a meeting of the Officers and Committee Chairs of the Cecil B. Day Campus Chapter of Habitat for Humanity. While waiting for our food and without a prompt from me to the students about how the just completed term had gone for them, a couple offered some comments.
One student told me that what we had done together was her "favorite part of the course." She told me that she saw a number of ways that what we had learned had applications to practice and to patient care. A second student told me that she understands and appreciates why we do the activities that we do in class. She said that they do, in fact, help her to learn. She said that she wanted me to know that even though some students complain about having to do things in class, she believes that the efforts are of great benefit for learning. She said that the class activities help her to see that I care about learning.
I want to hear your stories of the kinds of moments about which Parker Palmer speaks. For me, your sharing of these experiences also brings me joy. For me, hearing these stories helps me to move away from that question that I ask myself sometimes about finding new work and even finding something that I can actually do successfully. I look forward to your sharing.
4 comments:
I had two "aha" moments this semestery---one, a P4 student came to me and said they didn't realize how much they had learned during their Cardio-Renals courses and why the clinical guidelines were so important until they got to APPE experiences. Then, they said they pulled all the references we discussed and how valuable the information they learned was and its applicability to patient care. Also, after graduation this year, I had a student come to my office and thank me for personally investing in them for during their second year and my career/personal counsel that was provided.
I was called to librarianship, so teaching is all very new to me. My best moment so far was presenting a health literacy class to the PA students. I had already done 4 or 5 classes with PAs and PharmDs but wanted to be more interactive and less "sage on the stage". I manged to pull together a good idea at the last minute before class that involved each student. When the activity ended I realized I'd been completely "in the moment" and not nervous or trying to lead the students to a certain outcome. I had been experiencing learning WITH them instead of teaching AT them. It felt great!
All of teaching is a "favorite moment", otherwise, why would we teach? But I have two most favorite moments that are separate from the day-to-day pleasures.
The first is at the end of the course, when I calculate the grades and see a near perfect bell shaped curve emerge, with some well earned A's, many more B's and C's by students who also worked hard but perhaps didn't get the grade they had hoped for, and less frequent but necessary F's, identifying students whose deficiencies might cause problems later on had they not been identified.
The second moment is reviewing the stats and reading the comments from the student evaluations, always a learning moment.
It is definitely reassuring when APPE students reflect back on the didactic activities and express gratitude. One of the cool aspects of being an APPE preceptor and a faculty, is witnessing the "APPE epiphany" or "light-bulb moment" in the 4th year's eyes. When the weight of reality starts to flood into their conscious mind, and I hear the markers of self-realization of clinical competency and knowledge start to surface into their unsolicited comments of their performance on APPE tasks. It's at that time I know they have gained insight on their own relevancy to pharmacy practice, and acknowledgement of the high expectations. That's when I turn and say "Welcome".
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