Students choose Hellmann for Teaching Excellence Award

It’s humbling. I know there are a lot of great teachers on our faculty. But it’s always nice to see evidence that what you are doing is working for the students.

Preparation followed by spontaneity. I never use old notes. I prepare each class meeting through fresh study of the material, and I outline on paper in detail how the meeting is to unfold. But once I walk into the classroom, I look for opportunities to create dialogue by asking questions and inviting comments. For me the classroom works best as a conversation.

I keep learning from other instructors. When I was struggling as an apprentice-teacher while a student in graduate school, I began carefully observing how my most successful professors managed to foster discussion in their graduate seminars. Back then, however, there was no such thing as a course syllabus passed out on the first day of classes. About ten years ago, a recent graduate student out of Ohio State shared with me a couple of the syllabi he had put together at his first tenure-track position. I saw then how to present a clearer and more exciting course structure. When you’re young you learn from the older and experienced, and when you’re older you learn from the young and newly trained.

Sharing the passion I have for my subject area.