Earlier this month, I was honored to receive the 2018 Distinguished Teaching Award from my colleagues at Plymouth State University. Several of them have asked me to post the text of my acceptance speech somewhere -- my friend Scott Coykendall (recipient of this year's Distinguished Service Award from PSU) posted his remarks on his blog, so thanks for the idea, Scott! My only other prefatory remark -- I found out after I wrote this speech that the accomplishments of my friend Liz Ahl, who won this year's Distinguished Scholarship Award from PSU, would be read just before my speech, so I babbled out something else about her on the fly.
After some initial comments,what's contained below are many, many thanks for pedagogical and personal inspiration -- I'm very happy to have the opportunity to repeat them here.
I’m having a wonderful
sabbatical. It started slowly, until I gave myself unqualified permission to
focus on my individual scholarly/creative work. Now, the days are flying by all
too quickly – I’m barely managing to find time to eat, pay bills, interact with
other humans, etc. I’m immersed all the way over my head in my silo, and I am
LOVING IT.
However, while I’m swimming
around in my silo, I’m discovering more and more things that I can’t wait to
share with our students starting next semester, both in my discipline and
across disciplines – things about digital media; enabling constraints, DISabling
constraints, and the creative process; collaboration, individuality, and
hierarchy; the structure of produced objects in and out of the arts; the
exploration of how the things we make represent us in the world. In other words, my individual
scholarly/creative work is feeding the teaching I will do in the future – as it
has ALWAYS done, and always will do, for ALL of us in academe.
I strongly believe that my
deep, passionate engagement with my specific area of scholarship and creativity
led me directly to the teaching work that you have honored with this award. Our
scholarly/creative work is the taproot of everything we do as university
professors, and everything that leads to the success of a college or university
– meaningful service, a reputation for academic excellence that SELLS, that
leads to successful recruitment and retention, a prosperous and supportive
alumni base, strong community support, etc. etc. etc. And of course, first and
foremost, great teaching. Rich teaching. Passionate, concerned teaching.
If we as faculty believe this
– that our scholarly/creative work is central to our work as teachers – then we
need to speak out for it. If we as professors don’t advocate for this central
truth, no one else will. If we as scholars don’t advocate for depth and rigor,
even while working toward interdisciplinary breadth in a new model for higher
education, then a timeless and worthwhile value of our profession will be lost.
And the primary sufferers of that loss will be our students, the people we most
hope to serve.
I have so many people to
thank! If you think I should have mentioned your name, and I forgot – you’re
right, and I’m sorry! First of all, thanks to all the wonderful teachers I’ve
had in my life who aren’t in this room, who inspired me to enter this field as
my life’s work. Special thanks in this regard to the Greeneville City Schools
in my hometown of Greeneville, TN, and the master teachers I encountered
throughout my twelve years there. They gave me a GREAT education, and taught me
a lifelong lesson on the inestimable value of public education to the American people.
Thanks to all the students
I’ve taught at Plymouth State, all of whom have taught me in some way, and so
many of whom are now my colleagues and friends.
Thanks to the administrators here
who have helped me be a better teacher for my students. I particularly want to
recognize those who have won this award, or its graduate counterpart, in the
past – Virginia Barry, recipient of PSU’s first Distinguished Teaching Award in
1985; Julie Bernier, recipient of the 2003 Distinguished Graduate Teaching
Award; David Zehr, 2004 recipient of this award; and Cynthia Vascak, 2009
recipient. By the way, if you’d like a smile sometime, go back and look at the
list of recipients of these awards – so many valued friends, wonderful
teachers, great spirits!
Thanks to my colleagues and
friends in the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance for their consistent
example of dedication to teaching and student success above and beyond the call
of duty. I was recently copied on an email from a colleague from another
department, who wrote to tell us how much she enjoyed having majors from one of
our disciplines in her class this semester. She wrote: “They are responsible,
engaged, thoughtful, mature, and professional. They are strong writers and
strong thinkers.” This is not the first time I’ve heard such words of praise
about MTD students from colleagues in other departments, and I can think of no
words that make me prouder.
Today, in thinking
specifically about teaching, I want to mention three MTD colleagues in
particular – Dan Perkins, whom I have referred to elsewhere as “a bright light
through 24 winters”; Carleen Graff, who’s given me the privilege of watching a
master teacher inspire my own son to engage deeply with the field I love so
much; and Beth Daily, recipient of this award in 2008, who quietly,
passionately, loves her field and cares about and inspires her students.
Thanks to all of you for the
wonderful teaching that goes on all over this campus, among staff as well as
faculty, all of you imparting important life lessons to our students with love,
concern, and professionalism. I want to single out some personal heroes of mine
– colleagues who are well-known on this campus as GREAT, GREAT teachers, who do
what they need to do in the midst of teaching and service loads that have
administrators and faculty members at other institutions shaking their heads in
disbelief in order to remain deeply, passionately engaged with the scholarly
and creative work they love.
Robin DeRosa, a master
teacher whose acknowledged expertise in the shifting paradigm of contemporary
higher education has led to her being named one of higher education’s 50
“must-read” bloggers by EdTech Magazine.
Lourdes Aviles, a master
teacher who has published one book, and has contracts for two books in hand,
with the American Meteorological Society – the principal scholarly society in
her field.
Ann McClellan, a master
teacher, who, despite the time demands of having a finger in almost every
administrative and faculty reorganizational pie on this campus, is completing a
book under contract to the University of Iowa Press.
Becky Noel, a master teacher
who is spending time engaged in outreach to communities throughout New
Hampshire with historical lectures about our past, and is
completing a book under contract to the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Liz Ahl, a master teacher and
AMAZING poet, who not only writes and publishes chapbooks – she makes them, and teaches her students how
to make them too. Her first full-length book of poetry, Beating the Bounds, was recently published. Go buy a copy if you
haven’t yet -- it’s wonderful!
Finally and foremost, all
thanks and love to the best artist, best person, and best teacher I know,
Marcia Santore, and my fellow students in her small-n classes of one, two, and
three, my sons Peter and Thomas. Getting to share my life with them, and learn
from them, is a constant joy and blessing.
