Most of my Temple family knows me as a teacher. Teaching is my second career and my second great professional adventure. I have been very fortunate to find myself in a department with a Chair and fellow faculty members who support taking risks in the classroom. Traditional, lecture and textbook based education just isn’t going to take our students to the level they need to be if they are going to be competitive and the people on my team truly “get it”. I frequently try new things in the classroom. Some of my ideas are bad…some very bad! However, I’ve always received wonderful support and coaching from my Chair and we are all very fortunate to have an environment where we can take chances, make mistakes, learn from them, and try to take teaching to the next level.
Teaching is one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. It feels kind of like when I was teaching my kids how to ride a bike. After countless hours of falls, minor cuts and bruises, and even a few tears, you’re holding the seat…holding them steady… running behind them…then you let go! They wobble a bit, catch their balance, wobble a little more, and off they go. They get to the end of the block, make the turn, and as they pedal out of sight all you can do is cross your fingers and smile.
I enjoy going to graduation. While I don’t enjoy listening while they call out 1,000 names, when I see one of our MIS majors walk across the stage I smile…very much like I smiled when my kids learned to ride a bike.
It’s great to see alumni when they visit us for thing like the IT Awards Reception. Keeping with the bike analogy, it’s like when you kid comes back around the corner and you see them again. While they still may wobble a bit, you know they’ve figured this out. Even though they may still fall from time to time, you are confident that they can do this and they don’t need your help anymore.