One thing that would improve college teaching immensely would be mandatory drama and speech classes for all new faculty. Forget the expensive technology. Teach them how to use their voices, how to modulate their tones, how to string together an exciting narrative without notes. Teach them to make the passion that is surely inside them manifest in their words and in their movements. Teach them the forgotten art of the genuinely engaging lecture. —
Hugo Schwyzer —A short post wherein Hugo reveals his Luddite tendencies (Hugo Schwyzer)
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Sometimes I find it annoying that I have to play the clown, cracking jokes and such, in order to keep the class interested. Last week, my freshman comp students were so sleepy (many had been counting on school being cancelled by a threatened snow that showed up too late) that I asked, “So, is the problem that you just don’t give a f—?”
That woke them up. When I walked into my afternoon class, word had spread, so I was greeted by students saying, “So, Jerz, what the f?” (All they said was “f” — they didnt’ spell out the whole word.)
And, while I usually dislike slide presentations, I treated those students who actually attended my Friday morning class (on the last day before spring break — I was suprised at how many showed up) to an energetic performance in a slide-show based on photos of mangled English that I found in public signs. I had to “sell” each slide as a joke, and my theatre background certainly helped as I found the rhythm that the class seemed to respond to best.
While delivering a good lecture takes energy, I wouldn’t say that it’s harder or easier than managing a class discussion. In some ways, it would be much easier for me to think of my job as a teacher as one in which I am supposed to walk in, say bright and provocative things for 40 minutes, then take questions in the last 10 minutes of class. Of course, writing those lecutres in the first place would be a huge investment in time (even if I didn’t script out every word, and just spoke from prepared notes).
Next term, I’ll be teaching two sections of Am Lit in the fall and two of Am Lit II in the spring. I’m hoping to concentrate my efforts on getting producing a large number of 15-minute lecture units, so that when I teach those courses in the future, I can mix and max (and update, or replace) as time permits. I wouldn’t feel as comfortable putting that kind of effort into my new media courses, since the landscape of new media changes so rapidly.
Well, back to the grind… thanks, Mike and Susan, for sharing your thoughts.
Glad you picked up on this one. I’ve been reading Hugo daily for quite a while now and find some of his ideas and his open honesty fascinating.
YES! What a fantastic find…Schwyzer is right on the mark (though I’ve found there’s resistance to anything ‘mandatory’ for faculty…I think it would rather be a good idea for ANY teaching/teacher ed program or graduate school TA). I know my teaching benefitted greatly from the speech minor I took as an undergrad and all the forensics I did (I was nerdy enough to be on the speech & debate team throughout high school and college, believe it or not).