Welcome to The Joy of Teaching

Hello and Welcome to Joy of Teaching, a group blog with a current membership of one.

I thought about starting this late at night following the all day faculty convocation Tuesday last. Two things were responsible. First, I had rather large number of “yes, but”s which came to mind in the workshop, along with a couple of “no, not at all”s–which later converted into a pile of “I wish I said that”s. My brain works that way, and pretty much always has. Second, a more than one colleague expressed a wish that we could get together and talk about what we do more often than once a month at that venerable institution, the Friday Happy Hour.

But getting together at Roger Williams University is not all that easy for faculty to do. Partly this is a matter of turf–we don’t have any, and I expect I’ll not hold my breath until a faculty club is erected, or even a faculty lounge carved out of space already present on campus. I suppose we could meet in the new water tower during dry periods, but some of us are not as fond of heights and ladders as others are.

So in my 5:00 epiphany moment I thought, “Why not a blog: a group blog for as many of us who want to participate?”. Those of you who know me a bit know I’m fascinated by internet stuff, and this seemed to be an idea worth trying. So here’s a place for faculty, administrators, and anyone else who enjoys what he or she does, and who considers what he or she does “teaching” in the broadest sense of the term to share ideas, techniques, sources of information, online or otherwise, up-and-coming conferences of interest, past conferences which were enjoyable and useful, or anything else which relates to “joy” and “teaching”.

I don’t want this to be associated with the “scholarship of teaching”–a category which makes me uncomfortable, but if that’s what’s on someone’s mind, this may also be a place to perform that kind of thing. In other words, do with this what you will–or not. Your choice.

In about three hours or a little less I’ll do what I did for the first time in the fall of 1972. I’ll walk into the first class of the semester. Thirty-eight years ago I did it in a rather unusual way. I walked into the wrong classroom and started giving my first lecture at Roger Williams to the wrong class. It was going on to ten minutes into the period when one of the students hesitantly raised a hand to ask whether or not this was Introduction to Psychology. The enthusiastic nodding by other students made me realize I had made a false assumption...221 is across the hall from 220, not next door to it. It was a learning experience. I learned I could do something dumb and survive, and upon reflection, I learned how intimidating students found the authority of faculty. I can think of no other reason why they waited to long to inform me that I might be in the wrong place. (I wasn’t that interesting back then).

Anyhow here goes. Goes something? Goes nothing? Who knows? I chose the title by some sort of free association...the Cookbook, The Joy of Cooking came into it, and by extension the most joyful cook I’ve ever encountered, Julia Child. So I thought I’d include a bit of Julia as dessert. Julia having a kitchen disaster (this time, on purpose) will be act one. She was always a joyful teacher.

Faux Julia will provide act two.

Anyone who would like to be a member and contribute to this from time to time, (no obligation) send me an e-mail and I’ll invite you. I hope a few will. I hope a lot will. The only ground rule is nobody is anonymous here.

Mike Swanson