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Joy in the Profession

September 7, 2011, 8:00 am

By Heather M. Whitney

“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.” ~Henry Ward Beecher

Classes on my campus started August 24, and we had our first intro physics lab session the following week. In a physics class for non-majors, the first few weeks can often be disorienting as the students are adjusting the study styles that work for them in other fields to a new subject. It’s not uncommon for me to sense a lot of frustration and concern from them. And it’s not uncommon for me to feel a little overwhelmed by helping everyone get oriented.

The lab we were doing was relatively simple: use a motion detector to record the motion of a ball when it is tossed straight up and then caught after it falls back down. The students used a software program to plot both position and velocity versus time data and make some conclusions about the nature of the acceleration due to gravity. (Hint: it’s constant all the way through the motion.) We had not yet covered the topic in class.

But during the lab, something magical happened: the students discovered that principle for themselves.  Some groups furrowed their heads as they realized the data did not match the prediction they had made moments before. My TA and I glided around the room, giving encouragement to groups when needed, asking questions that helped them advance their thinking. Rounds of “ooohhhhh!” went through the room as students worked through the difference between prediction and data and understood.

In an activity as mundane as the first lab of the semester, there was the bright warmth of the joy of students confronting misconceptions and adjusting their understanding. Later on I thought to myself, “this is what it is all about.”

I hope to remember that lab session later on, when the semester feels as though it will never end, when the students are feeling a little let down after receiving their first test grade and their mood affects me a bit. There is much joy to be had in our profession: we have the privilege of helping our students attain the ways of pursuing knowledge. May we never lose sight of that.

What small nuggets of joy have you seen in your teaching so far this semester? Let us know in the comments.

[Image Creative Commons licensed /Flickr user pinksherbet]

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  • karenjcannon

    Heather, I’m so appreciative that you posted this today…it’s a reminder to me to find the joy in “regular” things…thank you! And sounds like a fun lab, even for someone who managed to avoid physics all the way through her collegiate education such as myself!

  • aristotle_julep

    Absolutely. The joy of watching students learn is something that never gets old, and is the thing that keeps me going in the hard times. 

  • dpmccain

    As I sat in my floral recliner this morning, I grumbled, “I hate my job” My husband, never the level head, looked at me, and said, “That’s silly, you love what you do, you just want to be allowed to do it.”  Which led me to glare at him (I hate it when he is correct), over my coffee cup imprinted with No Whining. 

    Each Quarter, I teach a class in Group Dynamics, and while I modify activities each Quarter, one of the favorite lessons is using origami.  Students, in their groups, must create boxes and airplanes, in compliance with “company” instructions for fold and form..  I call the overall lesson “The Production LIne”.  The purpose of the lesson is to have students work as a team both within their group, and across the class in order to create a series of gift boxes. each  with a suspended airplane on top which complies with the demands (ever changing) of the vacant and seemingly vacuous  CEO. 

    The students have a marvelous time, and while there are always a few who view the activity as stupid, most of the students remark that they learned to communicate and collaborate in order to accomplish a task. 

    So, in reading about the physics lab, I felt renewed for the upcoming Quarter.  I thought about all the things that went right last Quarter, and less about the students who hated me, hated the class, and pretty much hated everything that didn’t validate who they thought they were.   The exclamations of “got it” when the lid of each origami box fit perfectly on the bottom…and the airplane waved in triumph, suspended by accordianed paper   are priceless memories.  My students are college undergraduates, but their unbridled joy was childlike in its joy of accomplishment.

    Thank you for reminding me why I continue. 

  • cnewfield

    very  nice simple example of a core experience – thank you

  • translog

    New courses and new expectations that never leaves a dull moment.A hallowed place of learning sustainable education where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed. 

    My expectations is to open new careers for students in sustanbale development and green logistics.

    Achieving Greater Expectations: A Shared Responsibility for all i-FUN stakeholders Achieving this vision will require concerted action among all stakeholders Learning-centered reform cannot be accomplished by any one institution or even by the higher education sector alone. Collaboration withsecondary school leaders will help ensure better preparation of all high school students for rigorous college learning. Collaboration among policy makers at the state and federal levels will focus public policy andresources on the quality of students’ liberal education. Cooperation with accrediting agencies will further reinforce the national commitment to connect evidence of student accomplishment with judgments abouteducational quality.

  • jkisner

    The rush is addicting!

  • profjay

    Thanks!  Articles like these remind us to find a balance between those students who want to learn and those who don’t or won’t (or can’t). Teaching is truly a calling and it is a joy when we can see the small triumphs along the way.

  • gauche

    Thanks for sharing that experience. I believe that all of the frustrating experiences you (and all other professors) will encounter just make those “light bulb moments” even more magical.

    I’m actually a student, so I don’t have anything to share from an instructor’s perspective, but I’ve helped a classmate construct a thesis for her English paper, so I let her bounce her ideas off of me until she reached an epiphany. She expressed such gratitude for my help that I’ll never forget. It’s experiences such as that one that remind me why I aspire to be a professor. (And yes, I know it’s a hellish process, but I think it’s worth it in the end.)

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