We The Professors

STORYTELLING: THE PROFESSOR’S ANGLE

People say (I know, never start out by saying people say, but nevertheless, people say…and yes, I could document the people) that many new faculty enter classrooms being a bit uncertain and sometimes a little tenuous about what they might know and not know about teaching. In other words, their confidence is a bit lacking.

And students, well, students are a lot like dogs. They can sense fear. And some of them react to the profs fear by being sympathetic and helpful. Others see the fear and want to capitalize on it and dominate and gain the upper hand. And a big problem is that you have all those “dogs” watching you and waiting to sense the fear.

So what do you do? Run, hide, roll over or give in? Actually, the best thing to do is to tell yourself a story.

Because the story you tell yourself when you walk into the classroom, that story, determines everything.

• If you tell yourself you’re scared, you’ll be scared. (This is not the same as being nervous. Nervous is a good thing.)

• If you walk into the room like you own the room, you will own the room.

• If you speak assertively, you will be perceived as assertive.

• If you’ve practiced using the technology and seeing that it works, then you will be perceived as competent.

• If you gesture while you speak you will be perceived as outgoing and friendly.

• If you tell a sad story to yourself about your teaching, then you’ll be a sad teacher.

It’s the story in your head. The story that you told yourself the day you were hired. The story you told yourself when you walked in your new office. The story you told yourself when you wrote your syllabi. The story you told yourself in graduate school when you made the decision to teach.

It’s not about what they (students) think of you. It’s about what you (the professor) think about yourself. That little engine attitude of “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” goes a long way toward climbing that hill and succeeding. Yep, what you think about yourself is everything.

If you’ve not been telling yourself any story about your teaching life, or if you realize that you’ve been telling yourself the wrong story, then create a new story. And make that story the one you teach by.

 

STORYTELLING: A FURTHER ANGLE

I have written before in this blog about the power of storytelling. And each year as I watch the Academy Award presentation show (as I did last Sunday evening) I am again reinforced and reminded about a story’s power to impart meaning in the most powerful way possible.

And I am therefore led down the path of saying that all professors in any field can utilize the power of stories to better impart the knowledge of their disciplines more effectively.

I’m not talking here about having students write stories, although in many courses that can be useful and necessary. Rather I’m talking about the professor structuring his/her courses and presentations and projects and readings around stories. History is the most obvious example of using stories and a prof only needs to study the presentations of the documentary historian Ken Burns to see powerful storytelling.

Stories can be informational, emotional, funny, sad, tragic, poignant, differently structured, told in words or pictures or charts or graphs or video or in many, many other ways. But stories always have to be two things: memorable and interesting.

Through being memorable, stories allow thinking and learning to take place. Through being interesting, stories allow attention to be maintained.

Examples.

Psychology is the discipline of studying and explaining behavior and the workings of the human mind. And behavior is about stimulus and response. And every stimulus and its corresponding positive or negative or emotional or intellectual response can be told BETTER by using a story.

Literature is the study of story structure and using interesting and fascinating characters to fit into those structures, and thus to fascinate and create mind-blowing narratives that resonate and remain a part of us forever.

Mathematics, because of its abstract nature, is harder to fit into the story motif. But every application of mathematics to other disciplines is the story of problems and how those problems can be solved and why those problems need to be solved.  Many stories are structured and told to present and solve problems, whether those problems be crimes, or journeys, or social, or numerical.

Business and economics are case studies and societal stories, and can best be taught that way.

I could go on and on, and I hope that by now so can you.

Take your next class and:

• find a way to fit a unifying story into it.
• create a fascinating and interesting story that explains the material.
• structure the entire class and classroom environment around the concept of a story that is both interesting and memorable.
• allow students to structure stories that better explain concepts previously only explained by facts.

Just examine your own fascination with stories. Then imagine or re-imagine your course as a story. Then break the big story into many smaller stories. Then teach the course that way.

Awards are given for storytelling because people love stories. The subject you love can also be loved for its stories. You just have to structure the process and the stories.

No Oscars, but lots of rewards.

 

A DAY, A WEEK, A MONTH, A YEAR…A START

What if there could be a worldwide higher education re-imagination day?

On this day every college and university on the planet would individually sit down and brainstorm, discuss, debate, argue and create ideas and strategies and proposals for the future of higher education.

And then each college and university would organize and categorize these ideas.

And then each college and university would make plans to implement these ideas.

And then every college and university would submit these ideas to an organization specifically created to re-imagine the re-imaginings and to categorize and distribute the best of them.

And what if, instead of a day, this worldwide higher education re-imagination event was a week, or a month, or a year?

And what if the present and future of higher education was actually changed by the energy of the ideas and the plethora of ideas that could genuinely and significantly and, yes, passionately generate international discussion. And what if this discussion was not just endless rhetoric that goes on forever and ever, but discussion that lasts a short time and results in genuine change.

It could happen. It needs to happen. Maybe not at every school, but certainly at many, many, many schools.  After all, the future is getting closer and closer.

All that’s required is a team of energized dreamers to organize and implement these events.

 

TESTS DON’T MEASURE WHAT REALLY MATTERS

Came across a list recently on this site that shows personal qualities not measured by tests.

It’s a brilliant set of qualities that every professor should know, should post, should discuss, and should encourage in everyone.

Just because it’s higher education doesn’t mean these sorts of terms cannot be talked about and taught.

Here are the qualities.

CREATIVITY

CRITICAL THINKING

RESILIENCE

MOTIVATION

PERSISTENCE

CURIOSITY

QUESTION ASKING

HUMOR

ENDURANCE

RELIABILITY

ENTHUSIASM

CIVIC-MINDEDNESS

SELF-AWARENESS

SELF-DISCIPLINE

EMPATHY

LEADERSHIP

COMPASSION

COURAGE

SENSE OF BEAUTY

SENSE OF WONDER

RESOURCEFULNESS

SPONTANEITY

HUMILITY     

 

READING AND MORE READING

Remember when the Harry Potter books came out? Kids young and old and older were lined up to get them and to read them. They were a phenomenon like no other. And it was all about reading. And it was great.

Yep, we all know students don’t read enough books. It's no longer a Harry Potter world. Not in high school, and certainly not in higher education. Sure, your students may read the textbooks, but it’s a relatively unique student who reads regularly for pleasure. And any teacher at any grade level knows that reading has as many benefits as almost any other educational activity. 

So, here are two ideas to help students in higher education not only read more, but to understand the pleasure, enjoyment and life benefits of reading books.

(1) Many colleges and universities have incoming freshmen read a book before arriving. Then the author often speaks during orientation and the book is subsequently discussed during the semester. That’s a great idea and should be an activity done by every higher educational institution. But why not expand the idea and have students read a book during each of their courses that is related to the subject of the course? Not a textbook, but a kind of pleasure book. A book to show students that there are great and popular books written about biology, psychology, mathematics and media. Sure, students will have to read five books if they take five courses, but…well, but why not? It’s a long semester. And what credit is this reading worth? Either extra credit or as a regular assignment with some writing and discussion.

(2) Why are there not campus reading groups? Why not required campus reading groups? Every student must belong to a group that includes 10 other students and a faculty member. A book is selected, read and discussed. Then another, and another throughout the academic year. Groups change every year and can often be organized by majors. How is credit for this activity given? It isn’t. Upon their entry into the university each student signs an honor-code-like agreement that requires their participation in this activity. Then let peer pressure and fascinating books do the rest.

Can books be required reading if they’re not attached to courses? Certainly they can. A process simply needs to be worked out that makes the activity interesting and enjoyable enough to achieve buy-in. Do students have to pay for the books. No, they should not have to pay for these books. They should be provided free either as an e-book or a print book.

What about the argument that there is enough for a prof to do without these extra books and groups to occupy their time? This is simply not a valid objection. The whole higher education enterprise is called education. Helping students find ways to become citizens who read regularly for pleasure is just another part of the educational process. It’s an important activity that simply must be done. If a course has too much to cover for reading to occur, then cover less and make time for the reading. Higher education includes understanding time management, for both faculty and students.

Hate these ideas? Do not want extra reading. Do not want to do this kind of thing. Then shame on you. Yep, shame on you.

 

DISCUSSION, DIALOGUE, QUESTIONS, READINGS AND BEGINNINGS

Often faculty have the problem of simply not being able to begin a meaningful discussion in a class. Where do you start? Do you call on students? Do you ask a question and hope for the best? Are your students so used to the fact that you lecture that they just feel like they do not need to answer questions or talk? Or maybe you’re one of those profs who ask a question, wait 10 seconds, then answers it yourself.

Regardless, there are many, many, many reasons to have meaningful discussions in most courses. Here’s how I have done it.

I assume that in your courses students have regular readings between classes, and that you expect them to come to class having done the reading. I’m also assuming the class has not too many more than 25 students.

Here’s what you do.

Walk into the classroom a few minutes early. Sit somewhere in the classroom and arrange your seat so that the class can sit around you, or at least that all of them can arrange themselves to see you. DO NOT SIT IN FRONT OF THE ROOM.  Make miscellaneous small talk with students as they enter. Be genuine. Do not fake it or force it.

When class time arrives, read a short and fascinating passage either from the reading or just a passage related to the subject of the class. (If you usually take attendance, do it later in the class.) Don’t make what you read more than two or three paragraphs. Then, ask a great—not just a good--discussion question related to what you just read. Make the question you ask something you have spent time on to make certain it is interesting enough to generate discussion. Then, wait. Make eye contact as you look at the students. Wait for an answer. Sometimes I have requested the answer also be in the form of a question.

Then move forward, waiting for other students to respond with either comments or questions. Ask questions of your own and make comments as though you were just a member of the class. But always remember that your job is also to be in charge, to keep the discussion going, and to maintain adherence to the topic.

Keep things moving quickly and significantly for 30 minutes. Then pass out note cards and ask students to summarize the key points made in the discussion. Then end the class conversation by discussing the summaries, or by providing your own perspective on the day’s topic.  But do not walk to the front of the room. Maintain your position within the confines of the class. Use your comments at the end of the class to create closure and to serve as what a teacher is, an authority figure on the understanding of the topic.

The keys to success in this type of activity are beginning with a reading and asking questions that do generate discussion. Take time to come up with things that are exactly right.

Finally, it’s obviously not necessary to do this kind of discussion during every class session. But, every few weeks it can be totally worthwhile.

  

SETTING THE HIGHEST EXPECTATIONS

The beginning of a semester is a time for every professor to make a statement about the quality and the expectations of his/her academic program and the specific course the students are taking.

Here’s an example of one such statement that, with slight modifications, can be used by any program. When I used it, I did so on the first day of the course. I first read and discussed it and then distributed it as a written document.

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This academic department is committed to teaching you how to be an educated person/professional in the area(s) of (your area here).

• Our mission is to train professionals.
• Our standards are professional.
• Our expectations are professional.

We want you to be good time managers, good team members, good writers, good speakers, and good students. We want to teach you how to be those things and we want to be sure you succeed in this department.

As a member of this course, the department and I will have high expectations for you. We will expect you to treat this class just as you would your first job. We will expect your best effort and we will expect your best work.

We will expect you to attend every class and let us know before the class begins if you cannot attend. We will expect you to participate in each class, to ask questions, to contribute to the discussion, to be present in spirit as well as in body.

We will expect you to read often and to write and to speak well. We will expect you to remember the things you have learned in the classes that came before this class.

We will hold you to high standards of academic practice in terms of integrity and ethical principles. 

This course may be harder than any course you have ever taken.

But at the end you will have the satisfaction of having met professional standards and of being one step closer to achieving what we hope are your goals and dreams.

It is possible that you may not succeed because you do not fully understand our expectations. You should understand that everyone in this program knows we are not one of the best programs in the university. We know we are THE best in the university and we will expect the best from you.

Those of you who do not believe they can succeed, those of you that choose not to succeed, and those of you who will not put forth the effort to succeed should leave the classroom now. Otherwise, take out the pen and notebook and the assignment I asked you to bring to today’s class.

 

NO NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

I won’t. I won’t. I absolutely won’t do New Year’s resolutions for professors. No one other than the professor herself should write personal resolutions. And New Year’s resolutions for professors are probably better made in August than in December.

So, this year do not make resolutions about your academic life. Just make a promise.

Be the type of teacher you naturally are.
And resolve to make yourself better, not different.

And yes, I guess that is sort of a resolution. Sorry.

 

MISCELLANEOUS COMPENDIUM OF OPINIONS

Creativity is a form of knowledge. Creativity cannot be evaluated by a grade, only encouraged by a teacher/mentor. Do not penalize the creative student for your own lack of creative understanding.
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Here’s how to know if you’re on the right track: if students attend your classes because they want to, not because they’re forced to. If at the end of the semester, they tell you they will miss the course and not just you, the teacher.
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Hiring great professors is not really a search for talent. It's a search for attitude. In our departments we ought to be having a war for attitude. A school filled with motivated, connected, eager, learning, experimenting, ethical and driven people will always defeat the one that merely has talent. Every time.
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Your job isn't only to teach, it's to matter to those you teach, to make a difference. That’s what success is.
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“At the grueling Iditarod, there's a prize for the musher who finishes last: The Red Lantern.

Failing to finish earns you nothing, of course. But for the one who sticks it out, …there's the respect that comes from finding the strength to make it, even when all seems helpless.

Most parents (and most bosses) agree that this sort of dedication is a huge asset in life. And yet, …I can't help but notice that schools do nothing at all to encourage it.”

--Courtesy of Seth Godin, Sept. 5, 2013

 

DON’T TRY TO BE ORIGINAL

This blog preaches a lot about change, but perhaps not enough about originality. And maybe that’s because nothing is original anymore. And obviously there is a great argument for saying that everything has been done in terms of ideas and initiatives and that any new efforts do spring from a place of replication.

But then again, it’s not important to be original.

It’s only important for you to improve on original.

Don’t just cut and paste a good idea, project or concept. Take it and run with it, making it your own, putting your stamp on it, adding more value, building your own version of better onto someone else’s version of good.

It might be a course assignment, a way of completing a project, a use of technology, a method of mentoring, an advising technique, or an approach to leading a department or a college or a university. Just make it your own.

Don’t try to be original. Just try to succeed in owning an idea and loving the fact that you made a good thing better.  

 

TO ENCOURAGE, TO PUSH, OR TO EXHORT: IT’S OUR JOB TO FIGURE IT OUT

We’ve all had them in our upper division senior level classes. Those students who are consistently excellent and who aspire to greatness and who we know could actually achieve that greatness. They are those students who really want to become and who could become the best of the best

But how hard should we, their professors, push them?

• Perhaps we give them a kind word and a gentle nudge.
• Or, perhaps we have an honest talk with them about their true horizons.
• Or maybe we push them as hard as we can with detailed evaluation of their work, with a demand for excellence beyond the excellence required of others, and with the extra and difficult work that will help them grow further than even their own expectations.

Yes, we want them to see and to understand how absolutely excellent they can be. And we also want them to understand the incredible effort necessary to be excellent and the devotion to career that it will demand.

And we want to encourage them about keeping the drive and ambition that they currently have. We want to nourish it.

But we don’t want to go too far. We don’t want to discourage them, or burn out their enthusiasm or their ambition. We don’t want to drive them beyond their own present boundaries and their own necessary growth to the land of “too-difficult” and “I can’t do it.”

• But to be great in any field does require aggressive pushing.
• It does require encouragement that is more than gentle.
• It does require an explanation in undiluted words telling them how good they can be and how much it will truly take to make the world beyond their dreams actually become a reality.

Average students are easy to teach. Poor students are a challenge because they require constant motivation. Good students take time to teach but make teaching the rewarding profession it is.

But the students who can be truly great are the hardest to teach because we have to make the greatest number of decisions about how exactly to teach them.

And the key reason it’s so difficult is that we encounter so few of these students and each one is a magical individual that requires exclusive nurturing.

But it unequivocally is our job to do it and to figure out how to do it. Because we are teachers whose very job it is to recognize greatness and to help it happen. Not every student has the potential to really change the world. But those who do deserve our absolute best teaching and our absolute highest level of honesty and assertiveness and help.

 

CONCEPTUALIZING THE FUTURE AND MAKING IT WORK

I don't often say this, but I consider what is written below to be an extremely important post. If you enjoy it and, I hope, agree with it then please share it with others at your school. The more people in higher education who understand the necessity of what is said, then the closer it can become to actually being accomplished.

Next post will be December 1.

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Would it work?
Is it a crazy idea?
Is it different from the way it has always been done?
Is it risky?
Would it dazzle?
Would it improve a situation?

Is it worth spending minutes, hours, days and weeks getting right?

The innovation space in higher education teaching is relatively small. While there is so much discussion about new techniques, new formats, new tools and new activities, most profs still primarily sit or stand in front of a class and talk.Flipping the classroom is in its infancy and may never grow at all into a significant method. Online classes are so varied in how they’re done that they are virtually indefinable. And many profs are simply uncomfortable doing things they’ve never done.

But what about finding new innovations—new ways of teaching that aren’t performances or lectures or group work or anything that is now done? What about ways that don’t remind traditional students that college is just more of the same “school” that they have disliked or hated or been bored by in the past.

How do we get the ideas, concepts and designs that will take higher education from point A to point Z?

• Perhaps the innovative course becomes just sitting around asking and answering questions.
• Perhaps the design becomes drastically altering course time patterns.
• Perhaps it’s the concept of scrapping the stand-alone course in favor of course groupings that are offered back-to-back-to-back.
• Or perhaps it’s just saying that the present system does not work the way it should and sitting down with a few others and figuring out ways to change the future. Ways that dazzle, ways that are not the ways of the past, ways that are risky or even a little crazy.  Ways that definitely do improve the situation.

And yes, education always does have to educate. But it cannot be your father’s way of educating. The ways of the one-room higher education schoolhouse just do not work. And that means that right now there’s an unmistakable need to create different ways.

And getting there is hard work.

Here are two brief examples to show you there are other ways.

Lots of higher education pundits discuss the use of guest speakers in courses. Guest speakers can be a new voice, an expert voice, a voice that says the same things you say but in a more authoritative and somehow more credible way. But most guest speakers are local in-the-flesh people brought into a class to talk.

Yet today’s technology makes the concept of guest speaker far broader. Using Skype or Google Hangouts or other related software and using today’s projection technology it is easily possible to bring guest speakers into your classrooms from anywhere in the world. All it takes is coordination, connections and the confidence to make it work.

And don’t just use one guest speaker. Take advantage of the many voices available to you during as many class sessions as possible. Few students would expect or reject an economics course taught by you with guests from Harvard, Switzerland, the U.S. Department of Economic Development, the Cato Institute and the London Centre for Economic Policy Research.

A second idea is along the same lines. There are a couple thousand TED talks on every topic imaginable. Why not begin each class session with a relevant TED talk that opens the door to the concept(s) of the day? Use each talk, which is really like having a knowledgeable guest speaker, as a springboard to questions, to discussions, to having students prepare and deliver relevant talks of their own. The sky’s the limit on their use.

These are ideas not for you to necessarily adopt, but rather to demonstrate that the whole objective and design of how to educate and how to teach and how to inspire can and must evolve.  It’s not an impossible task and it doesn’t have to be done all at once, or even alone.

But it does have to be done. Otherwise, the future is just another version of the past. And the past just isn’t working anymore.

Come up with ideas and innovations that are worth spending minutes, hours, days and weeks getting right? And be willing to do everything it takes to get from concept to reality. 

 

POTPOURRI FOR NOVEMBER

Ideas to ponder and to connect to higher education. From performance reviews to delighting students to forgetting technology to amazing resumes. 

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A post from the blog of the venture capital firm, First Round Capital. 

"When Carly Guthrie was running HR for Per Se, one of the hottest restaurants in New York, the General Manager gave her a piece of advice: “You know, Carly,” he said. “If we’re doing our job as leaders, a performance review should only be two columns: Column A is what you do great and Column B is what you do not-so-great. Now, here’s how we move things from Column B to Column A.”

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Warren Buffett, American business magnate, investor and philanthropist:

"If we are delighting customers, eliminating unnecessary costs and improving our products and services, we gain strength. But if we treat customers with indifference or tolerate bloat, our businesses will wither. On a daily basis, the effects of our actions are imperceptible; cumulatively, though, their consequences are enormous."

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John Lasseter is Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios and Principal Creative Advisor, Walt Disney Imagineering: 

"Technology is amazing and it is getting better all the time. The tools are remarkable. But the most important thing is, as you are deciding to learn about computer animation, forget the technology! The technology never entertains an audience—it's what you do with the technology. Therefore, the most important thing to learn is learn the basics...learn the fundamentals...of art...of drawing....color theory....principles of animation..."

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From the blog of Seth Godin, American author, entrepreneur, and marketer:

"References available upon request

Of course your references are available upon request. What are you going to do, refuse? 

If your references are amazing, don't offer them on request, include them. If they're not stellar, do better work and get some stellar references. Give me names and phone numbers and actual testimonies."

 

INTRIGUING, ENCHANTING, CAPTIVATING AND ENTHRALLING

A great professor is not a teacher who makes great presentations and whose classes are interesting.

A great teacher is a teacher who makes the course content fascinating through telling the stories of the subject matter.

Throughout the years people sat around campfires, in Bedouin tents, around conference tables, in living rooms, and in countless other group settings and told the stories that created the oral and written history of everything we know. And those stories were constantly shared and retold.

Why?

Because they were interesting, creative, educational, passionately told, and endlessly sharable.

Students can absorb facts, can memorize lists, and can write essays. But great stories can make them truly remember through captivating, enthralling, intriguing and enchanting them to understand and to appreciate and ultimately to engage with the course content.

Great teaching is all about stories. And in every course in every higher education institution in every country in the world, there are always occasions for stories.

 

EVERYTHING HAS TO BE POSITIVE

If you were asked to take a student interested in attending your university to visit a class in one of your courses, how would you explain the course to her (and perhaps her parents) as you walked across campus?

What about a faculty candidate? How would you describe your course to him?

In both cases, would you focus on describing the course content, or the students, or how you teach the course, or just an insignificant one-sentence overview?

Would you use focus on using positive words rather than negative words? Would you have to apologize for the condition of the classroom? Would the majority of your students appear to be students actively interested in education and learning? Would you have to apologize for your students?

If you had not had a heads-up about the visit to your class, would your visitor still have a good understanding of the educational experience by attending your class?

Are you even the person your program should be asking to do this? If not, why not?

So many questions. So worth asking. So worth thinking about.

Because you never know what those people, students or faculty, interested in joining the culture that is your school will focus their decision on. And you want to give them a positive experience in every detail of their visit.

 

FINDING YOUR OWN CONNECTION

One of the best professors I ever had was a man whose name I unfortunately can’t remember.

It was a long, long time ago before the Internet, even before desktop computers. It was my first semester in graduate school at The Ohio State University. The course topic was communication theory. It met for three hours each Monday night.

On the first night of the course the professor, a handsome 40-ish guy dressed in business casual, entered the small classroom and sat on a stool in the front
of the room. There were about 25 of us. And for the next two and a half hours he talked, mesmerizing each and every one of us with information about the basics of, importance of, stories about, and research into communication theory. He never moved from the stool, never wrote on a board, never held anything in his hands and did not bring anything to class. Yet not a single person in the class that night came away with anything but awe…at both his knowledge and his ability to impart that knowledge in an almost hypnotic way.

Even years and years and years later I have never forgotten that night and the15 subsequent nights of that course.

He was a great teacher. He connected with the subject matter and with the students. He was involved. Yet he did not pace around the room, did not stand up, did not raise his voice in incredible enthusiasm. But he connected.

Every teacher is a performer. But every teacher has to find her own way to perform and to connect. She doesn’t necessarily have to be an evangelist seeking to convert the unconverted. She just has to use the skills she has to bond student to subject.

It does still involve passion and enthusiasm, but driven forward by a style that is the professor’s own. The unknown professor above had a speaking style that was quiet. But it was not a monotone delivery. It was sincere and it was intelligent and it was incredibly interesting…to listen to and to watch. There was amazing intensity in him for his subject and that intensity spread to every student in the course.

Setting a high standard for yourself is the first quality of a great professor. Finding those characteristics and ways to connect that are purely personal to you as a presenter of ideas and information can make you an even greater teacher.

 

THE EXPRESSION OF ANGER. THE ART OF NEGOTIATION.

How does a professor express anger in a classroom? Anyone who teaches knows that at some point in every course the professor gets extremely annoyed and/or displeased.

Perhaps he/she says this.

“I am an expert in the subject matter of this class. I am intelligent and have spent my entire life up to this point training my mind and honing the skills necessary to impart my knowledge and expertise. I have written and published articles and books in my field.  So I may, just may, have something interesting and enlightening to say. As students of mine I should tell you to sit down, shut up, and stop acting like this is high school. This is college and it is your responsibility to be a college-level student. And right now, that’s what I feel like saying.”

But that cannot be all that is said. In a higher education classroom anger means that, along with that anger, some negotiation must occur.

This can be said:

“But, I’d rather we all think for a few minutes about the words of former President John F. Kennedy, who said: “We cannot negotiate with people who say what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable."

I will not tell you that my rules are the only rules and that your desires have to be negotiable. That’s not the way the world works and it shouldn’t be the way this course works. But, I could also say that life is unfair and sometimes you just have to live with the consequences. But that would only be my anger talking. And then we both would simply leave the classroom saying the words from the film NETWORK: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” And that’s not what either of us wants.”

Students should know that sometimes you, the professor, gets angry. Show it. Prove you’re human. Be honest about the fact that you’re pretty annoyed. But the moment of truth is really the idea of where do we all go together from this point.

Then, like a leader talking to an employee you should discuss in a give-and-take, but hardnosed, way the things that should happen. Don’t feel like you need to win all the points in the discussion. But do expect the respect and the attitude of unbridled cooperation from your students.

Expressing anger is one of those things in higher education that most professors avoid. Being angry, even occasionally, can label a prof. But it has to be okay to be the kind of teacher and colleague who can say what needs to be said. Don’t be afraid to express yourself.

 

IS A GOOD JOB GOOD ENOUGH?

In the current film Whiplash, the lead character, a hard-driving, almost vicious teacher, shouts to a student: “There are no two words in the English language more harmful than good job.” Watch the trailer here and you can see how powerful his delivery is.

In higher education a good job is usually a grade of “B.” Professors encourage students to be happy with a “B.” Working for and receiving a “B” is not considered negative in any way.

But the teacher in the film is saying that an excellent job, even a close-to-perfect job, is the only thing that should be sought. Now my guess is that anyone reading this is saying the film character’s admonition is ridiculous. A’s, B’s, and even an occasional C are fine. A grade average of B is more than good. Good job is a great thing to say to a student…or, for that matter, to anyone. Movies with lines and teachers like that are just inconsequential entertainment.

But wait a minute.

Perhaps a good job really isn’t good enough. Perhaps the aspiration by students or faculty to seek the words good job is not an aspiration worth aspiring to. Perhaps a good job is not the job anyone should desire to do. Because good job is just that: a decent, respectable, satisfactory effort. But it’s not great, not excellent, not the best. It does not make anyone feel really wonderful, only adequate.

In your job as a professor, do you really like your dean or department chair telling you that you are doing a good job? On evaluations by your students, do you want them to say you have done a good job?

My guess is that your answer is kind of a yes-no response. My hope is that your answer would be no.

The words good job are not harmful words, just words that lack an adequate aspiration. 

 

SINATRA: ADVICE FROM AN ENTERTAINING SAGE

Professors are not just teachers. They are also presenters, and while they don’t always lecture, they are always disseminators of information and insights. And who better and more unlikely to learn from about this than Frank Sinatra. Yes, Frank Sinatra, the singer, the man known by some as a legend.

In a 1963 Playboy Magazine interview, Sinatra said: "When I sing, I believe. I’m honest. If you want to get an audience with you, there’s only one way. You have to reach out to them with total honesty and humility.”

He alluded to the fact that people do not connect with indifference.

“This isn’t a grandstand play on my part; I’ve discovered—and you can see it in other entertainers—when they don’t reach out to the audience, nothing happens."

He attributed his success to involvement.

"I think it’s because I get an audience involved, personally involved in a song—because I’m involved myself."

There are many ways to apply what Sinatra says to your teaching and I’ll let you figure out your own specifics. But I do think his advice is inspired and can lead you toward coming a bit closer to making your classroom persona complete.

 

WALKING THE TIGHTROPE

In every field, there is usually the “them vs. us” state of affairs.

• There are employees (us) vs. management (them).
• There are taxpayers (us) vs. the IRS (them).
• And there’s Democrats (us/them) vs. Republicans (us/them).

And then, of course, there are professors (us) vs. students (them).

From my experience students almost always initially perceive the professor as “them.” And the best profs look at that way of doing classroom business as a good thing. Because those professors who are constantly the students’ friend and kowtow to most student wishes are often the weakest profs.

But there’s also the bureaucracy of the university. There are all those rules and regulations such as drop/add deadlines, graduation form completion deadlines, scholarship application deadlines, study abroad deadlines, etc., etc. And honestly, some of those deadlines are realistic and some probably could be a little earlier or later.

But as a professor, whose side are you on in the bureaucracy debates? Do you side with your students against the bureaucracy, or are you an ambassador for the school and stand up for things as they are, even if you do not necessarily agree?

It's actually very hard to know how to walk that tightrope because most students will automatically look at you as "them." And if you align too often with students then you often begin to look a bit less like management/teacher and a bit more like a friend/accomplice. And you look less like someone who likes where you work, and more like just another chronic complainer.

These are often problematic areas in higher education, but definitely do require pondering on the part of anyone who teaches.