Computers have always intrigued me for as long as I can remember. I consider myself very fortunate to be a college professor, working in a field that is improving on a daily basis, challenging, stimulating and worthwhile. Teaching is great fun and at the same time hard work. Teaching allows me to promote the discipline to which I have devoted a significant portion of my life, and to show people the beauty what computers can do in today’s society. It is a constant reassessment updating, and adjustment of both the content and presentation, searching for a more effective way to challenge my students to achieve their full potential, to also encourage them to thoroughly learn fundamental concepts.

As a person who is committed to teaching, an important question that I have asked myself is: How do people learn? The understanding about how students learn is the foundation of my teaching. In simple terms, that is to ensure that all students acquire the knowledge and appreciate the skills that are learned in the classroom. I enjoy and greatly profit from teaching.  It gives me great pleasure to know that students who are either in high school, maybe an international student, maybe a student with a disability or an older student from the old generation is learning how to use the computer. For me, helping students to understand the content and process of knowledge that is laid before them, then taking that content and knowledge and put it to use. It does not matter if their degrees are in Marketing, International Business, Entrepreneurship, Accounting or whatever. With the content and knowledge that they learn, they will be able to apply it somehow to their way of life.

In a class room environment, there are two parts, one is lecture and the other is lab time. These are important teaching skills that can best assist in learning, along with the actions or measures that I use to instill the learning. My learning goals for students are to have students network among each other, participate in lectures and to take the responsibility to use the resource that are available in the lab, and to ask questions when they don’t understand the lesson. One thing I love to give is homework assignments and projects, this provides the student an opportunity to either creatively find the answers and to apply what they are being taught into this assignment or project. Other important goals is to have students appreciate or enjoy the academic discipline that they are taking, develop critical thinking skills, improving problem-solving abilities, working effectively in groups, and develop an interests for life-long learning.

I am confident that I am very good instructor and I would still like to improve in that area. I would like to gather or obtain that reputation as being a teacher that made student learn, that gave students lots of homework and in the end believe in themselves that they can take what they learn and apply it. I appear to have a reputation with a few students as being, a “tough but fair” instructor. Students are aware that I am not easy to please. I am not hesitant to assign lots of homework or assign challenging assignments. My students are also aware that I fully recognize effort and achievement. The ‘tough but fair’ reputation, which I fully embrace, may be the reason I tend to be more popular among students willing to make consistent efforts at improving and learning. I do not fare as well among the less motivated.

I have taken a number of steps to improve my teaching performance. Having the Department's Chair and other professor’s sitting in reviewing and evaluating my lectures are helpful. Participating in Online Professional Development course like Persona on Teaching. The courses I teach seem to undergo almost constant change and revision - not an uncommon situation in the computer science field. Even though the course titles and numbers stay the same, their content changes so quickly that it is almost like teaching a new course at times.

In closing, I maintain high standards for my students. I try to challenge them in ways that benefit and provide a sense of accomplishment. It takes very little time to develop trivial or impossible assignments, but good assignments require the attention to detail, understanding to student capabilities, and the execution of learning objectives as identified in the course syllabus. I feel that teaching is one of the few professions that allow a student to have a positive, lasting impact on society and culture. The fact is that I play such a considerable role in the development and the cultivation of knowledge is a responsibility that I take very seriously and will always take pleasure in. I approach teaching the same way I approach life:  I always have a plan, I love what I do, and I am prepared, at any moment to roll with the unexpected.