That young, handsome guy on the right is Andrew Shabat, the sound engineer for the Teaching in the Arts podcast, but this week and next he is the subject of our special audio documentary as we follow Andrew though his first semester as a college teacher, from teacher training, through student course evaluations.
Anyone who has listened to Teaching in the Arts more than once knows that I am incredibly interested in how teachers do this thing we do- stand up in front of a group of young people and teach them, train them, coach them, prod them, pull them into becoming artists.
I have told my teacher origin story on the podcast a couple of times. Before my very first class, the course coordinator handed me a syllabus, showed me the text book, and said, “You’re a filmmaker, you know how to do this.” And that was my “official” prep. It turned out I misinterpreted an assignment about a collaborative film project. When a student called me on it midterm, by asking why all the other sections were doing it differently, I had no answer. The good news was that my students preferred our way, and in a couple of years the department changed the assignment to how I was doing it.
So now back to the documentary. When Yuri Lysoivanov, chair of the Recording Arts Department at Flashpoint: A Campus of Columbia College Hollywood was on Teaching in the Arts Andrew asked if there were any adjunct openings. A few days later Yuri called and offered him a class. I saw this as a chance to follow a teacher from start to finish of a semester. the teacher training, the first classes, a course observation by a faculty member, and finally the student evaluations.
This week is part one- Andrew prepares to teach, plus a Skype conversation with his course coordinator- Jeff Kliment. Jeff tells me about his early teaching experiences as well. Next week the is the course, Jeff’s observation of a class, and then the pay off on how it all went. I hope you like it- it is something different, sort of a two-part, full episode Lesson of the Day.
Speaking of teacher training, yesterday’s (Sept.9) Sunday New York Times Magazine was the education issue with articles such as Can Good Teaching Be Taught? and What Teachers are Doing to Pay Their Bills and Teaching in the Age of School Shootings. Take a read after listening to Andrew talk about teaching for the first time.
Listen here:
Teacher Man
