You learn from your students. That’s a rule. You have to. If you’re a teacher and you’re not learning from your students, then I’m worried for you. It was bell hooks who helped me realize that teaching isn’t the act of passing down knowledge. Instead, teaching happens somewhere between the teacher and the student. If all goes right, both parties grow in the process. In this chapter, I’ll share conversations I had with my students about their experiences as students — the good, the bad, the ugly, the pretty, the things they’ll never forget, and the things they wish they could forget.
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The first time I ever taught an original, full-semester course was during RISD’s 2023 wintersession. It was tough to teach. What made it worth it, though, was seeing my students succeed. Of those students, I thought Jackey performed particularly well. Teaching him reminded me of the relationships I had with former teachers, whose words I was now passing down. But Jackey was in the Illustration department, so I didn’t get to see him often afterwards. I wanted to catch up and hear how he was doing, what he retained from the course, and his perspective on how I could have an impact as a teacher once I graduated.
I haven’t finished editing this conversation yet, but I will. When it’s finished, I’d love to meet you back here so that I can share it with you.
While studying at RISD, I taught several workshops that were four-week mini-courses on specific, technical topics. The benefit of teaching workshops was that I met dozens of students in a short period of time. Because of that, I could also continuously revise and improve my courses since we essentially started over every four weeks. As I reached the end of my time as a grad student, I wanted to take one last opportunity to check in with a section of students taking my workshop to hear what was working and what wasn’t with my course, my teaching, and the program as a whole.
I haven’t finished editing this conversation yet, but I will. When it’s finished, I’d love to meet you back here so that I can share it with you.