North Carolina Central University News March 12, 2012 No Substitute for Love of Teaching, HBCU Expert Says Marybeth Gasman, one of the nation's leading experts on historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and on issues of race in higher education, typically writes and speaks about education policy and about her research on the challenges involved in educating students of color. But in an appearance on Saturday, March 10, at North Carolina Central University, she offered a dose of encouragement on a more basic level to a gathering of college teachers and administrators. There is really just one essential ingredient to successful teaching and learning, she said: "You need to love teaching." Gasman is a professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Her Saturday speech was the keynote address at a conference of the Interlink Alliance, a consortium of colleges and universities formed to advance black student success and to promote training and development among the professors and instructors who teach them. Coming toward the end of a two-day meeting focused on such earnest fare, Gasman's gentle reminder of the joys of teaching provided a welcome change of pace for the audience of about 100 educators. Mixing humor and personal anecdote, she urged her listeners to be accessible to students, to encourage critical thinking, to set high expectations - and provide students with the resources to meet those expectations. Successful teachers, she said, play to the strengths of their students. "It's important to come up with lots of ways for them to learn. Most aren't strong in everything." In many of her own courses, she said, she offers students a menu, a range of options for showing what they have learned, including research papers, book review and point-of-view essays. Good teachers find ways to break down barriers between themselves and their students, she said. "Acknowledge your own struggles. Teach students your life lessons. Tell them how you got here." She said she often describes to students her own roundabout path to an Ivy League professorship, and how she grew up as one of 10 children on a farm on Michigan's rural Upper Peninsula. "My parents had an eighth-grade education, and I was the only one in the family to go to college. I tell my students how I ended up here: I had a teacher - a mentor in high school who encouraged me. "So talk about why you're a professor! I tell my students all the time. I do this because I want to change the world. I want to change higher education." The role of mentor is a vital one, she added. "Don't refuse mentoring - ever! When someone asks you, do it. You might be the one who makes a big difference in a student's life, especially when you can connect them to someone you know or an opportunity you're aware of. And you can tell them, 'I wouldn't be able to do this if I hadn't had mentors of my own.' " Successful teachers come in many forms with a range of teaching styles, she said, but the good ones have one thing in common. "They love teaching," she said. "If you don't, you owe it to yourself and your students to get out of the profession." SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 800-999-8558, ext. 4820 404-520-0593 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children. Register now http://www.hbculibraries.org/html/2012meeting-form.html for the October 21-23, 2012 HBCU Library Alliance 5th Membership Meeting and the Photographic Preservation Pre-Conference in New Orleans, LA. The Pre-Conference and Membership meeting are open to directors and other librarians.