by Ann M. Porter, PhD

As a faculty member within the Division of Music Education at the College-Conservatory of Music, and therefore a teacher of experienced teachers (graduate students) and future teachers (undergraduates), it seems I spend countless hours thinking about the art and practice of teaching.  My reflective practice and research inquiry are so intertwined that it’s often difficult to think about them as separate entities (and perhaps they aren’t).  At times I’m thinking about my own teaching of teaching, at other times I’m thinking about my students’ teaching abilities—in other words, just like many of you, I’m thinking about what I do in the classroom and how that effects student learning and outcomes. 

Additionally, those of us who teach future teachers feel the extra burden of needing to provide an excellent model of teaching every time we step into the classroom.  In fact, if our students are in the correct mindframe, they are constantly examining and critiquing not only their own teaching, but also the teaching that they observe on a daily basis.  It is under this magnified lens of teaching teachers that I offer the following musings.

by our new yet anonymous “Points of View” professor

Intimidating. Frightening. Scary. These are not the words I ever expected to receive on any evaluations, but in all their varying forms and phrases, they were a constant refrain in my first UC student evaluations. When I started at UC in the fall of 2006 (I had taught previously while I completed my PhD), I had grown accustomed to seeing words like “hard,” “demanding,” and “rigorous.” Prior to graduate school, I taught in the Army, and later, as a professional consultant, I led a myriad of training sessions. In all of these situations, I had never once been called intimidating or frightening or scary.

I tried to replay in my mind my teaching persona at UC compared to my previous personas. I could not for the life of me come up with a substantial difference that would account for the students’ new perceptions of me. I told myself I would wait and see what the next quarter’s evaluations showed. Alas, the same thing. In the third quarter, I tried a new tactic and asked a colleague to visit my class. And guess what? Yep, she used the word “intimidating,” too. Even though I had a detailed conversation with my colleague, she couldn’t specify why or how she felt that way. She attributed it to a combination of factors. It was, simply, my presence in the classroom.