Posts tagged ‘teaching’

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February 8, 2011

when the teacher becomes the student (or, women as leaders)

Urban Entry isn’t the only class I’m teaching this semester. It’s a class I’ve been looking forward to teaching for over a year, so it’s the one I tend to gush about. And discussions on race and solutions to the plight of urban America get me fired up, so there’s that.

*get back on track, dude*

Yeah, so I’m also teaching a Leadership and Administration class. The class consists of a solid and diverse group of students, and it’s been fun exploring concepts of leadership with them. The way I had the class set up initially however, we almost missed a vital area of discussion.

Women as Leaders.

Fortunately, one of the students at the college posted a great TED Talk in her Twitter feed.  It’s by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and explores at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions. The talk is so good that I’m willing overlook the fact that she helps run one of the most egregious privacy violators on the internet.

The topic of Women as Leaders is near and dear to my heart. Primarily because of my wife’s journey to balance her life as a professional and a mother. But also because of the experiences I’ve had with women who are called into ministry. In seminary, in churches, everywhere.  Like in a lot of fields, it’s just harder for women in ministry to get respect and have a voice in the game.  Even in denominations that affirm women in ministry, it can be an uphill battle.

So we are going to spend an entire week (and by ‘entire week’, I mean ‘two 90-minute sessions’) of our Leadership and Admin class talking about women in leadership. The class is required to watch the Sandberg talk and write a reflection on it. And the students must also review the Evangelical Covenant Church’s Called and Gifted material which I think is particularly well done.

I hope three things come out of the week. 1) I want to be honest with the ladies in the class regarding the challenges they will face as women in ministry, 2) I want the ladies to be affirmed in their callings and 3) I want the guys to have an awareness of what ministry is like on the other side of the gender line. Even if students chose to be a part of denominations that don’t ordain women, I think there can be improvement in the voice that women have in churches. I hope it ends up being a healthy and constructive dialogue. Granted, in Christian circles it also has the potential to blow up faster than an unholy union of Diet Coke and Mentos, but I’m praying for the former.

Renew and Restore

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January 25, 2011

teaching, take 2

Today I teach my first class of the semester.  I’m excited about both of the classes I have on my slate this Spring (Leadership & Administration, Urban Entry). They are classes I’m passionate about, and they also give me a chance to improve my professorial game. And yes, there is plenty of room for improvement.

When I got last semester’s class evaluations back yesterday, I had mixed feelings. My overall scores were decidedly average.  In fact, there was a little chart in my packet that had a line down the middle marking the average score.  All of my scores were either right above or right below that line.

The scores were fair.  I’m not mad about them. In fact, I had some of the same beefs with my own teaching over the course of the semester. And at the end of the day, I hate being average.  It’s part character flaw (ego) and part virtue (pursuit of excellence).

Now the issues are whether or not I learned from that experience, and whether or not I have the dedication and tools to be more effective in the classroom. A part of me has always felt as though I’d like to be a professor some day.  But to do that I’m going to have to put the following points into practice:

  • I need to grade harder – I was too lenient and gracious last semester. Shockingly, this didn’t come through in my evaluations.  Just something I noticed on my own. The leniency and grace came from the fact that I was aware of the fact that I was learning the ropes as a lecturer and not hitting on all cylinders. As I get better at teaching, my standards for the work of the students will rise.  Probably a bummer for the students this semester who probably were getting more favorable scouting reports of the workload/grading in my class last semester.
  • I need to use an outline, but not Power Point – Using Power Point presentations was a mistake. It was dumb, because preaching from notes is my worst mode of presentation. An outline will pace me well during the class (tough to do over 75 minutes of lecture), and make it easier to follow along. But it will also keep the students more alert as they will have to focus on my words, rather than the words on the screen. It should help discussion as well.
  • I need to give more small assignments throughout the semester – One of the hardest things to get students to do is keep up on the reading.  And when they don’t, it’s harder to have class discussion.  My tactic of quizzing didn’t work very well last semester, so I’m moving to giving at least one small assignment each week that can serve as the basis for class discussion.
  • I need to explain concepts with more depth - I introduced some pretty deep concepts in the Basic Christian Doctrine class.  I would have been well served to explain those concepts slower and with more detail.

If you’re interested in seeing how I progress, I suggest attending my Urban Entry class from 1:00pm – 1:50pm tomorrow.  We’re kicking off the semester with some Mos Def . I’m jazzed.

Renew and Restore

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