Graduate Student Instructors’ Perspectives on Teaching

Haiku by Lindsay Hamilton The students’ minds open Reach for fruit in open hand Make juice and drink it   Reflection by Veronica Jackson How I See Myself Teaching and Learning Through my learning experience teaching reminded me of the tools I have, the talents, traits, and training I received to become a teacher. As a teacher I am a poet that conveys the language of passion for my subject. Creating a beautiful mosaic that encourages curiosity to the imagination, reveal secrets, and making connections to unleash the cycle of learning. As a teacher I am a physicist who gives my students the magic, sense, reasoning, and wonder to the properties, changes, and interaction of the world we live in. As a teacher I am a maestro who composes, conducts, and coordinates students’ thoughts and actions from inharmonious loudness into harmonic meaning. As a teacher I am an engineer who will provide a firm foundation for my students but the most beautiful outcome and sight will be when I see the brilliant structure that will emerge from within. As a teacher I am an acrobat in whom I will encourage the expressions and revolutions of thoughts and the flexing and strengthening of ideas. As a teacher I am a diplomat, an ambassador of thoughtfulness and compassion, as I will facilitate efficiency, positive connections among the diversity of students, cultures, beliefs, and ideas. As a teacher I am a philosopher where my actions and professional ethics will communicate meaning and hope to students who will look to me for direction and instance. As I prepare for my students to enter my classroom I know I will come across their attitudes that range from impatient to enthusiastic, from keenness to uncomfortable, from uncertain indifference; I will remember the power I have within me from being a poet to being a philosopher and I will present myself as a honorable teacher.