Teaching Tips to Improve Your Game (Professional Development Reflection - Steph Herbstritt)

Unfortunately, I had to miss the Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium and Stephen Dubner (really looking forward to learning what you all learned last Saturday) but as a result, had the opportunity to attend a Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence seminar on teaching by Deena Levy and Chas Brua and gain ten tips for teaching excellence.

I was pleasantly surprised by the overlap between their material and our current course syllabus from tips on building rapport, establishing strong links between objectives, lesson material, and evaluations, being an active teacher and staying organized.

Here are three big takeaways I plan to use moving forward and I think would benefit all of you.

1. Learning is a process that takes us from unconscious competence (novices) to unconscious competence (supreme experts). Right now, we likely fall in the middle (AKA the sweet spot) in the conscious incompetence (we know what we don't know) or the conscious competence (we remember what it was like to learn the material but we know the material). We are on the brink of becoming experts in our fields and yet just on the other side of remembering how hard it was to get here. As a result, we can guide teaching like supreme experts generally cannot.

2. Building rapport and creating a positive classroom atmosphere can make all the difference in the world to you as a teacher and to your students. This means smiling, learning students' names, allowing for spontaneity, being conversational, breaking up presentations, being positive, using clear communication, and creating a sense that you and the students' are a team. Learning is a never-ending journey and you as the teacher will continue to learn.

3. On that note, acknowledge that it is ok if you don't know something, and you can still teach something you don't actually know. Be honest with yourself in both your teaching and your learning.

I'm looking forward to applying the ten tips Deena and Chas provided and following up on some of the reading material they suggested. First up on my reading list--How Learning Works and How to Teach What You Don't Actually Know. If you're interested in learning more, let's touch base and get a conversation going!

Steph Herbstritt is a graduate student in the Agricultural & Biological Engineering Department at Penn State studying the synergies between water quality, farm profitability, and sustainable energy.

Student Introductions: Steph Herbstritt, PhD Student, Agricultural and Biological Engineering

Edward Abbey wrote, “may your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.” If Abbey had known me, he would have ended that sentence with “Steph”. 

Hi class! Glad to meet you! I’m a local Central Pennsylvania farm girl who returned to Happy Valley to pursue a doctorate in Agricultural & Biological Engineering. I think that decision stems back to that day I bumped my head, very hard (wink). When I defended my Master’s thesis at the University of Illinois, I bolted out of academia, booked it to the real world, and planned to never come back. But plans change and here I am, back, in pursuit of true science, creative engineering, and the ability to impact our world through teaching, outreach, and farmer extension. 

I’m a 2^nd semester PhD student working in the Tom Richard lab with a focus on the synergies between water quality and bioenergy (did someone say anaerobic digestion of food waste, manure, and perennial conservation grasses?). I’m an avid runner, climber, and certified river rat. My love of sustainable agricultural and farmer extension stems from my roots here in Happy Valley. And my excitement to teach stems from this seemingly never-ending desire to empower fellow farmers and bright young minds (like my own kiddo, James). I want my career path to focus on sharing knowledge with others in ways that inspire and encourage positive change. And that’s why I’m taking this course—to learn how to be a better at that, to be a better teacher, to be a better extension leader, and to build a tool box that can help me along the way.

Looking forward to embarking on the adventure with you!