I fail, you fail, we all fail!

I attended a meeting this afternoon as part of my "New Faculty Development Seminar" series and thought I would share with you a little of what I learned and discovered.

To begin his speech the presenter shared a story about a time when a graduate student visited him in his officer upon completing his MBA and prior to leaving to start his Ph.D. at a major university. During this visit the student mentioned to the professor, "All I see ahead of me are struggles; but when I look at you all I see is success." The professor said he went to his office door, closed it, and then pulled up a chair next to the student and looked him in the eye and said "I would be a failure and amiss to let you leave here thinking that." He then went on to share Jacob 4:7 with the student, "Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by his grace, and his great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things." He told the student that he had experienced a life full of struggles - that we all do - that's an important part of life. He continued by telling him "life is difficult; once we accept that, then we can transcend it. Most people don't accept that life is difficult, rather they moan about it. However, through our suffering we learn to distinguish between good and evil, and consequently experience growth and refinement. Therefore we must accept that life is difficult so we can transcend the struggles and realize our potential."

While listening to this professor I realized that when we are discouraged as teachers we should be careful not to simply/ quickly "adopt the newest instructional technology, rather we should master the fundamentals of good teaching." In essence that is a summary of what 276 has been all about. We don't (at least I don't) want students to necessarily look at us (me) and think "wow, this guy really knows it all, he's the smartest, most organized, etc." rather I would hope we want students that know “just being around you will change their lives.”

As we come to a close this semester I hope you understand that I know this has been a difficult semester, adjusting to a new professor, new major, among other things. I appreciate your patience and support. I do, however, hope you realize that I appreciate your efforts, and true dedication to learning, and your investment to refine your understanding, knowledge, and teaching skills. If you are discouraged and have any insight and or feedback for me regarding the class, or anything else please come and see me.

Here are a few other tid-bits I picked up today:

"Don't pretend to know all the answers, because you won't/ can't; but do trust that there are answers; your challenge and responsibility is to have the skill set and ability to find them, and to teach others how to find them."

"The best thing you can do for your students is to sanctify yourself."