Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Top teacher stresses adaptability Date: Sun, 8 Nov 92 15:50:37 EST Message-ID: \SE A;METROPOLITAN;PERSON OF THE WEEK \HD Top teacher stresses adaptability \BY Matt Neufeld \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Maynard Mack Jr., an English professor for 18 years with a specialty in Shakespeare, says being able to understand and adapt to change is one of the keys to being a good teacher. "Every semester it changes - the nature of Shakespeare studies changes, the nature of English studies changes, and the nature of the students changes," said Mr. Mack, 50, who has taught at the University of Maryland at College Park since the autumn of 1974. "And the nature of our student body is changing." This relates directly to another key to success as a professor, he said: reaching his students. The way to achieve this often-difficult task, he said, is "to be responsive to what's in front of me - the text and the students." Mr. Mack's methods have worked well for him. He recently received one of higher education's most coveted honors when the national Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) named him Maryland's 1992 Professor of the Year. Mr. Mack said he felt "very flattered and a little embarrassed" about receiving the award. "Flattered because it's always important for teaching to be honored, and embarrassed because there's an awful lot of damn good teachers here. It's important for the campus, of course." Mr. Mack serves as the 35,000-student campus' associate dean for undergraduate studies; is co-director of the Lilly-Center for Teaching Excellence Teaching Fellows Program , which focuses on improving undergraduate instruction, and is co-director of the Center Alliance for Secondary School Teachers and Text, a university program designed to improve the teaching of major literary works by offering high school instructors lectures and seminars. He also was a member of the campus committee that wrote the highly praised "Promises to Keep: The College Park Plan for Undergraduate Education," also known as the Pease report. That report outlined major initiatives for improving the campus undergraduate curriculum. Many of the 1988 report's recommendations have already been implemented. The criteria that CASE considered for the award included "extraordinary commitment to teaching; service to the institution and the profession; balance of achievement in teaching, scholarship and service to the institution" and "evidence of impact on and involvement with students." In the latter category, these comments from some of Mr. Mack's student evaluations surely must have helped in CASE's decision: "invigorating," "superb," "energetic" and "exciting." "I think what students value most," Mr. Mack told the university, "is that I clearly love what I'm teaching, and by the end of the semester, they all do, too." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM