eA a a GS oc A PRO EAS

enough time to really do the assignment well. One of
the participants had what amounted to a shift change
in some very important volunteer work she was doing
in the afternoons and had to miss one day of class each
week. The ones with families felt ina double bind. If
they spent time with their families, they had to stay up
late, alone to complete their work. If they got their
work out of the way first, there was not enough time
for family. One participant had a death in the family
and almost had to drop the course. Several, naturally,
missed days because of illness; and one missed because
his car broke down. Community college teachers are
very familiar with these excuses for missing class. But
for most of us, these were not things that happened to
us “back when we were in school.” Consequently, we
had come to view these as things that happen to “our”
students. Now we know that these things are simply
part of being an adult student today.

We also learned some things about our own classes.
One teacher/student announced that she was going to
ban yellow hi-liters from her classes forever. Asa
teacher she had always been pleased to see the hi-liters
moving briskly as she asked probing questions about
sulect passages ina story, taking this as a sin of
attentiveness. In her role as a student, however, she
learned that the students were hi-litcing instead of
thinking. Everyone also began to look at syllabi,
objectives, test questions and handouts froma different
perspective. But the same is true for teaching styles.
One person commented that this teacher was very
punctual and that he had not realized how much he
appreciated knowing that the class would start and end
exactly on time. Another teacher/student appreciated
his teacher's detailed organization of class time, while
another liked her teacher's laid-back, open discussion
technique.

This experience supports the idea that there is not
one best teaching style. However, it is clear that we all
need to continually examine our own to ensure that the
one we are using is our best, if not the best. Perhaps
most important, though, is that after working together
longer than many families live together, we still
learned a thing or two about cach other. One teacher/
student said about her teacher, “You know, all this
time I thought she was easy. Now I think she’s just
good.” Another said, “What he is doing is not what I
would call English. But in Composition I], it works,
and | think it is as important as what | do.”

Almost all of the participants have asked for a
chance to do this again, even though they all say they
worked harder in the course they took than they would

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor

 

August 25, 1989, Vol. XI, No. 17

Tne University of Texas al Austin, 1989
Further duplication is permitted by MEMBER
institutions for their own personnel.

/O

have teaching another course. Also, several of the ones
who could not take a course want to take one in the
future. Perhaps the greatest success in the experience
is that we had fun together. We laughed at ourselves and
al how easily we became like our students. We
watched each other do what we do best: Teach. And
we came away from the experience with, hopefully, a
little more pride in ourselves and with a little more
respect for cach other. And all it takes is a little crea-
tive scheduling, a genuine respect for the people who
teach, and a well-developed, ready sense of humor.

 

Macy Creek, /nstructor, English & Forcign Languages
Department

Joe Barwick, Department Head, English & Foreign
Languages Department

For further information, contact the authors at Central
Piedmont Community College, P.O. Box 35009, Char-
lotte, NC 28235.

 

 

—

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