It’s not very often that I find someone that I connect with on a deeper level. Even less often do I find a teacher that pulls off this difficult feat. The purpose of this post is to thank my university professors who went above and beyond my expectations.
Before I start, don’t let my headline fool you. I know that many other teachers care, these are simply the teachers that seemed to break the mold and adapt to the needs of their students in the most effective way.
1) Conan Albrecht – Conan teaches one of the most difficult subject matters in all of academia, business programming. You try teaching enterprise-level programming to a bunch of knuckle-headed business majors who have barely programmed two lines of code in their life. Conan not only found a way to teach difficult content but he also connected with the students on a personal level. He made an effort to talk to us after class. He asked about our lives. It felt more like a big group of friends learning programming than a classroom. On top of all this, Conan did something I have never seen a teacher do before. He asked for student feedback about the daily curriculum. He would poll the class about what would be most useful for us to complete our upcoming assignments. This motivated us to look into assignments ahead of time and added extreme value to his classroom sessions.
2) Susan Boothe – Sue Boothe only teaches a semester here or there. I’ve never met someone that could get me so excited about grammar. She had a passion for the subject (but not in a weird librarian sort of way). I found myself reading our business grammar book for fun several times throughout the semester. Passion for a subject can go a long way in a student’s eyes.
3) Steven Huff – I really felt that he went the extra mile in the organization of his curriculum. I can’t tell you how many teachers I’ve had in college that don’t even know when they are going to give out their next assignment or what they are going to teach the next week. In addition to basic marketing principles, he taught us how to be better presenters. This was not your run-of-the-mill college presentation. After each of our three presentations, we were given one-on-one feedback as to how we could improve. The best part was that he was a brilliant presenter himself. Every class reminded me of a Steve Jobs Apple product unveiling.
4) Alonzo Gaskill – I took four different courses from this professor. He was hilarious. He didn’t care about offending or being proper. He said whatever was on his mind. He balanced this with an uncanny knowledge of religious history. It’s always nice to have a teacher that has a sense of humor.
5) Robert Jensen – On the second day of class, he knew every one of his student’s names. This blew everyone away. Not only did this make everyone feel more important, but it encouraged participation. After a month of the class he asked about 10 students to come up to his office to give him feedback on the course. He tediously wrote down everything we said and it was evident that he took to heart every comment.
Students – Have you ever had a professor that has gone above your expectations? Teachers – Have you found ways to connect on a deeper level with your students?
