[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAMES OLSEN: There's a whole lot more
to teaching than conveying information.
Too often, we get this idea that that's
what I'm doing as a teacher.
I have expert information.
I just need some kind of conveyor belt
to get them to students.
If you want that information to actually go in and stick,
then you've got to pay a lot of attention
to that conveyor belt. That belt itself, how the information is
delivered, makes a big impact.
So I think what the AT program is
and what it's trying to do is to serve as the university's
mechanism for training the next generation of teachers.
How do we make teaching as effective
as we can here at Georgetown?
How do we sponsor and facilitate innovation and creativity
in our teaching?
How do we create communities where
people from very diverse fields from all over the campus
come together to work on how to make our teaching
the best that it can be?
EMILY JONES: I think that it was very
important to have academic experience with the more
concrete aspects of teaching.
The English program is really about studying
literature and theory.
It's not focused on how you actually
interact with a student.
NEHA JAIN: One thing I've really appreciated about the AT
program is how specific they are.
They give you actual tools.
They give you a template for writing a syllabus.
They give you examples for how to write a teaching philosophy
statement.
When colleges and universities look for a professor,
I think whether it's full-time, part-time, or adjunct,
it's still important that you can provide that value
to students and to the university
from a teaching standpoint as well as from just
being an expert in your field.
JAMES OLSEN: This is to put in place a structure where
you're comfortable putting your teaching in front of others.
You're comfortable coming together with others,
talking with them about teaching, sharing what worked
and what didn't work, being comfortable
with that part, especially.
This didn't work.
I learned this in the last workshop,
and I tried to implement it, and it was a disaster.
What can we do?
And we create an atmosphere where students are regularly
getting together and really talking through these ideas.
CAITLIN O'LEARY: As an educator, I
feel that I bring passion and verve to the classroom.
I tend to get very animated and gesticulate a lot
and get very excited, especially about Victorian literature.
I initially started a syllabus two years ago.
And after the AT program, I realized
that I was just listing my favorite books,
and it wasn't really clear what anyone
was going to get out of this class other than me,
who would be excited to talk about my favorite books.
And so I see my value add or my asset as an energetic teacher
is my versatility now to marry my interests
to my understanding of who my students are as people.
TORSTEN MENGE: There will be students who have a lot to say
and who have made contributions that are really helpful,
but they just won't make them in the big class.
And so I use this technique of having students
talk to each other for a while about a question you ask them,
just two of them, and then sharing it
with the whole group, which gets discussion going.
It gets them low stakes environment
to just try out some ideas.
And then they're much more willing to share it.
And so I think--
I mean, those are the things that I
think I wouldn't have done by myself, necessarily.
EMILY JONES: The AT program definitely
taught me how important it is to be
self-reflective as a teacher.
The video task, in particular, showed me that.
JAMES OLSEN: If you go all the way through the Apprenticeship
in Teaching program, you have to video record yourself
in front of a classroom.
It's like the first time you hear your voice recorded,
and you think, oh my goodness.
Do I sound like that?
And then you start thinking, man, maybe I
should talk a little different.
EMILY JONES: It was incredibly valuable to actually watch
myself teach.
One, just because it shows you what you look like and makes
you aware of the quirks and just how you're presenting yourself
in terms of body language.
And then it's also valuable to watch how your students are
reacting to you.
CAITLIN O'LEARY: The AT program fosters learning and education.
It acts as a learning community, a hub for education.
And so I think it's helpful in that regard
if you're looking for collaboration,
a conversation, or a full-blown meaningful experience.
JAMES OLSEN: We put everything we can
into our graduate students because we
know that they represent George--
they take part of Georgetown with them,
and they become a representative of Georgetown
in the rest of the world.
I personally want the reputation of Georgetown graduate students
to be hey, these people know about teaching.
They're serious about teaching.
And they've got really good pointers.
NEHA JAIN: The fact that I now have this skill
set makes me really confident that I
could apply for an adjunct position
tomorrow if I wanted to.