Winter 2005
PEOPLE
Geneseo Faculty Honored for Teaching in New Exhibit
By Mary E. McCrank
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Becky
Glass, director of the College's Teaching and Learning Center, displays
a new exhibit in Milne Library honoring Geneseo's faculty for their
dedication to teaching. Glass worked to put together the exhibit,
which will be formally unveiled Jan. 20.
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Photo
by Ron Pretzer
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The College’s Teaching and Learning Center is launching a new
exhibit in Milne Library to honor Geneseo’s faculty for their dedication
to teaching.
"Honoring Geneseo’s Teachers…and Sharing Their Ideas"
will showcase faculty who work extremely hard at their teaching but haven’t
necessarily received public recognition for their work.
"They’re kind of the unsung heroes," said Becky Glass,
director of the center.
"In my position with the Teaching and Learning Center, I know how
hard Geneseo faculty work at their teaching," said Glass. "I
think it is very exciting and appropriate that we now have a way to recognize
and honor both our sung and unsung heroes in all they do to help their
students learn both within and beyond the classroom."
The rotating exhibit will honor four faculty members at a time. Exhibits
will change three times a year — in January, May and September. The
exhibit will be on display outside of Milne 208. The center will hold
an opening reception at 12:45 p.m. Jan. 20, 2005, during which President
Christopher C. Dahl will make remarks. The reception is open to
the entire community.
The faculty in the first display are: Avan Jassawalla, assistant
professor of management in the Jones School of Business; Johnnie Ferrell,
associate professor in the School of Performing Arts; Barbara Stewart,
adjunct lecturer in mathematics; and Michael Lynch, assistant professor
of psychology.
Glass said the goals of the center’s 16-member advisory board is
to showcase faculty from a variety of paths and disciplines — tenure
track faculty to adjunct lecturers, longtime Geneseo teachers to newcomers,
and science teachers to theater professors.
Glass said the idea to create a venue in which to honor the College’s
teachers came up during a dinnertime conversation with members of the
campus community who wanted to ensure that faculty who hadn’t yet
won teaching awards knew the College appreciates their work. The center
purchased the display cases, and the Friends of Milne donated curtains,
lighting and exhibit space to make it possible.
Although one criterion for the inaugural group was that they had not yet
won an award for teaching, between the time these faculty were selected
and the exhibit was created, two of the four have received teaching awards.
In addition, all of those honored have balanced their responsibilities
outside and inside of the classroom.
The faculty members selected have contributed examples of their work to
the exhibit.
Jassawalla, at Geneseo since 1999, will display information about how
her students learn teambuilding skills. One student is quoted about how
she learned that conflict within a group is not necessarily negative and
how her group incorporated different opinions into their project.
Ferrell, at Geneseo since 1990, will display photographs of theatrical productions staged by Geneseo students. Ferrell teaches about lighting, sound, set building, design and electronics. He also provides technical direction for the College’s theatrical productions.
Stewart,
at Geneseo since 1984, will display everything from sketches of tessellations
— the tilting of the plane through use of translations, rotations
and reflections — to a roulette wheel to demonstrate the odds of
winning the lottery.
Lynch, at Geneseo since 2000, will display a continuous playing DVD of
multi-risk children from the inner city working on a task under the guidance
of Geneseo students studying child neglect and early development.