

May 2001
What's the most important thing teachers can do
for their students?
(Submitted by FACCC member Charles Lunt)

Your responses will be posted here as received, and may be used in other FACCC
publications.
Please e-mail responses to Communications Director Katherine Martinez, k7martinez@aol.com, by
May 31 (use the subject "May Question").
Answers received:
- Your answer could be here
- car100@earthlink.netI have often
pondered this question during my thirty-five years of teaching high school and college,
and holding positions as dean, department chair and president of a university and have
come to the following conclusion. The most important thing a teacher can do for students
is: to be accessible to them and available for them. By "accessible " I mean,
being open to listen to them at all times regardless of the content of their concerns with
an open mind and with a willingness to change positions when appropriate: to respect their
feelings and accept the validity of their concerns without reservations within a context
of being non-judgmental and maintaining strict confidentiality of these concerns. And
above all, be grateful for the rare opportunity to be chosen by the student as a adult
worthy of their trust. Being accessible is to be there for the student when the student
needs us, any time, all the time.Carrol W. Waymon
- RLand@dccd.cc.ca.usThe most important
thing for any teacher is to educate the mind and motivate the soul of every student.
Education is the essence of life, and stagnation is the death of creative ideas. Rita
Ramirez Dean-Land, Professor of Reading, College of the Desert
- consueloc@juno.comThe most
important thing that teachers can do for students, particularly community
college students, is to teach them to become self-regulated learners. Motivation
and Learning Strategies for Self Regulated Learning is a great book on
this subject for all teachers committed to successful student learning.Consuelo
Rey, East Los Angeles College
- SmithD13@aol.comThe most important thing a
teacher can do for a student is to create classroom relationships based on respectful
communications. Learn each other's names, use them in classroom dialog, create group
activities, facilitate interactive learning, and celebrate everyone's successes. No matter
what the subject may be, a classroom environment characterized by humane interpersonal
communication is one of the most important things a teacher can contribute toward their
students' success.Dennis Smith, Accounting Professor, Sacramento City College
- FACCCPres@aol.comThe most important way a
teacher helps students is by providing them with the tools to learn how to learn on their
own.Carolyn Russell
- allyjoye@pacbell.netOne of the most
important things a teacher can do for her/his students is to teach them how to be
responsible for their own success as a college student. That includes explaining
expectations at the beginning of the semester, setting deadlines, and sticking to those
deadlines.Ally Joye, American River College, ESL
- luntcc@earthlink.netInstill "interest in THEMSELVES" that relates to the
importance of their subject matter...We tend to learn more when interested or "hungry
for knowledge" when we are at least interested. That would equate to "a reason
for learning," and the importance of giving our time spent in school as
truly,valuable.
Let me put this in a less
philosophic manner. I think the most important thing a teacher/instructor can do is to
create an interest for the student! (After that, everything is very easy to
accomplish).C. Lunt, Professor, Construction Technologies Dept., Los Angeles Trade
Technical College,
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