This professional statement was written for the nomination of Excellence in Teaching.

(Florida International University, 2003)

To be an excellent teacher requires that the many ingredients must come together in the right proportions. Some ingredients one can learn, but I believe, that certain ingredients may be a gift or special ability. This is true for any kind of profession. If you want to attain a high level then you need to have a talent for that field. If we consider sports, for example, even though you lack superior ability, you can reach a reasonable proficiency through rigorous training with the help of a good coach. In teaching there are fundamental requirements that are entry tickets for the profession. I will try to summarize these basic requirements below.

Most importantly you have to know your subject very well, and then you must convey your mastery of the subject sequentially and logically and, if it is at all possible, you should convey ideas in an enjoyable, easily digestible presentation. There are ground rules of classroom teaching that should be followed this would include: Talk to the class not toward the blackboard, and be mindful when students put down their pencil to get an idea of the best pace to follow for key ideas. Also one must develop a proficiency at simple drawings, operating the laboratory equipment, and having a working familiarity with the assigned textbook. These are learnable skills.

After subject mastery, perhaps communication is a most crucial skill. You have to develop a good rapport with your students, one which will encourage them to feel comfortable to ask questions but also eager to listen to the answers. As part of the communication process you have to map out where you want to go and what your goals are, making sure that the students clearly understand the classroom objectives and the means to achieve those goals, the minimum requirements, etc.

The effective teacher is fair and transparent. The standards have to be set up in advance and apply equally to everybody. You have to be able to justify how you will grade student work and stick to your rules, and yet you must be open to their opinion and input, and not be afraid to make modifications or correct your mistakes.

Treating every student uniformly, even with the best intention, is sometimes very difficult. If a student expresses great interest you should not spend more time in the class with him or her than with the others. That is what office hours are for: for those with greatest interest and curiosity, and those who may be less capable and require time after class.

One of the traits of a good idea that may be harder to earn that those mentioned above are that you as a person along with your standards and requirements have to be accepted by the students, because you have assumed a leadership role. There is no recipe how to achieve this but you have to get to this point very early on and this has to be done with a fair amount of finesse (non aggressive). I had a very difficult group of student who rejected authority. It was a lecture and I had more then hundred student in the class and I could barely reach a minimum level of order. One day one of the leaders of the students fell asleep in the fifth row. I noticed and I broke a little piece of chalk, targeted him, and successfully and hit him. He woke up and everybody started to laugh. After this minor victory, I could do whatever I wanted with this group; somehow we connected and I gained their acceptance. I do not think anyone could predict this small incident will change the attitude of the whole class towards me and my subject but it did. Sometimes things just happen.

Prevention like in crime is extremely important in teaching. You have to tell and give feedback to the students how they perform right from the beginning. If they fall behind you have to warn them in time when they still have a chance to catch up with the class.

Other important traits are humility and understanding. You never know what might be the reason a student is late, especially at a commuter college. Of course this disturbs your class and takes away time form others so this should be the exception. We tend to have a short memory and forget how we struggled when we were students and juggled work and family responsibilities in order to attain academic success.

I have learned that an effective teacher cannot target the whole class you have to find some kind of optimum level. Like when you make the decision how fast you should proceed you might want to target about 80-85 percent of the students. You will never satisfy everybody. It is unfortunate but you have to accept this fact. There will be students always who will not make the grade. It is a tough decision, but you have to gear your presentation to an optimum level so as not to bore the best students.

To be an excellent teacher is some kind of magic and it is almost impossible to describe what you need for this. However you can try to move towards that direction by using standard rules and reach a decent level