Notes To Myself, by Ed Allen, was written as a teaching “omiyage” (gift) to 50 participants at the Society of Building Science Educator’s (SBSE) Retreat at Redfish Lake, Idaho. They were individually bound with hand-tied with string! Students in ARCH 661 are asked to write a reading response to this booklet and post comments below.
Download: Notes to Myself
December 3, 2017 at 8:06 pm
Edward Allen’s Notes to Myself is an inspiring piece of work. It’s a great, quick, guide for all educators to keep in mind when crafting their lessons.
All the points he makes resonate with me in some shape or form. Here are a few of my favorites:
Teach with stars in your eyes + Love: These points are crucial for a successful educator. Throughout the year, classes that I kept in high regard are ones where teaches either have a passion for the subject, are really knowledgeable about the subject, or love their students and genuinely want them to succeed. Having one or a combination of these attributes is a great start for being a great teacher. If passion and love are not there, it’s hard for the students to be motivated.
Lead your student to expect the unexpected: Every student has a different style of learning. Keeping your subject dynamic with different types of class activities breaks up the monotony. Lecturing constantly for a 3 hour class session is brutal, even when the instructor is passionate.
I believe these three are the most important takeaways. I wish some of my instructors, even today, would read this piece and consider incorporating it in their teaching style.
November 29, 2017 at 9:21 am
“Notes to Myself” is a compilation of teaching excerpts Ed Allen has put together as a guidebook for those looking to improve one’s teaching abilities. This quarter was the first quarter I had a GE appointment. I do not believe reading these notes would have helped me to become a better teacher. Now that the quarter is winding down, and after reading this text, a few of the notes really hit home with me. I look back and think to myself “didn’t do that” or “oops, should have made more eye contact.” Perhaps that is the best way to read and absorb this book is to read it before and after one teaches every quarter. Only when we have gone through the experience of teaching we can relate on a deeper level to Ed Allen’s notes.
There is a very distinct line in technical teaching that even Ed Allen mentioned on the content itself. Where do we start? At the beginning with the origins of theory, or at the end where the product can be showcased to the students? Ed Allen states that we should “start in the middle… by plunging your students in the meatiest, most exciting part of the subject matter, you demonstrate immediately why they’re studying your subject.” This note was one of the couple that I thought I did well with in my own classes. Rather than starting with FBDs, equilibrium equations, I would jump straight into asking the students “why are we even doing this?” I found this to be an effective technique as the answers varied from no one caring to in depth conversations about Calatrava’s bridges. It grabbed attention and made the course material more meaningful.
It is always nice to read something that one can relate to. This quarter I have not read much text that really was relatable to my current situation as a teacher. Prior to each quarter, I will reference these notes to just reaffirm my reasons for teaching. Some days are better than others, but overall, I do enjoy the subjects that I have committed myself to, and I would like to share that with the students.
November 23, 2017 at 9:00 am
Ed Allen’s book, ‘Notes to Myself,’ consists of timeless teaching affirmations. It very much reminded me of classic stoic philosophy texts – you already know most of the teachings, you also know you should probably be following the teachings, enjoy reading the text anyway, come back to it again and again, and wish all your friends or colleagues would read it too.
The excerpts are short and sweet. The book can be easily read in one sitting, but it is much more gratifying to read one page a day – let it sink in, appreciate it, and really reflect on how the teaching could make you a better teacher (or not – if you don’t agree!). I suppose the audience consists of readers from different backgrounds and have gone through different experiences as students and as teachers, and so each one of us will have a different take on his ideas and would connect to different parts of the book.
In my case, the very first few sentences “Teach with stars in your eyes. If you’re not totally smitten with the subject matter that you teach, you can’t expect your students to get excited about it… excited about what you teach, and about giving it to them as a gift.” was what I related to the most. Though, as he put it, there is great beauty, elegance, even magic in every branch of technical knowledge, students may find the subjects a little dry.
As an undergraduate student, I was mildly interested in a broad range of subjects within the field of architecture. It wasn’t until postgraduate school that I quickly fell in love with light research. All it took was one lecture. The lecturer was so passionate about the topic that it felt wrong to not dive into that same field of research to see why he was; to see if I can get remotely close to his level of infatuation; to see if this passion can be passed on to my own students in the future.
December 3, 2017 at 9:57 pm
“Earnestly believe that yours will be the best-taught course in the school.” In the essay Notes to Myself Edward Allen defines what he believes to be the most significant issues in the contemporary phenomenon known as design teaching. As a teacher, the belief that your teaching is of the highest quality opens the door to achieving just that. Every teacher should feel that they have something unique to offer their students just as each student should feel they have something unique to offer the class. Allen believes that teaching design should be an exciting experience for both the professor and the students, arguing that occasional self-reflection is also needed to prevent the class from settling into a routine. Despite the joys of design teaching Allen recognizes that there are challenging systems in place which, if ignored, stand in the way of becoming a truly effective design teacher.
Allen’s advice is primarily concerned with the positive side of design teaching. Because Allen has found great joy in teaching, much of what he has to say about it is through the lens of someone who sincerely enjoys what they do. This is important because it is the most basic requirement for any teacher who wants their class to be the best. Allen has had long and prestigious teaching career not because he has a thorough understanding of the material he teaches but because he loves teaching. He also has a thorough understanding of the material he teaches but his love of teaching drives him to innovate and run risks; “live on the edge from time to time, it will keep you alert, and like a highwire act, it will engage your student’s attentions.” Allen encourages teaching in a style that challenges both the professor and the students as long as “it’s relevant as well as unexpected.”
Some of the difficulties of design teaching which Allen believes deserve attention include; rigid scheduling, maintaining an authoritative position in the class, and conventional testing and lecturing procedures. The syllabus is great way to start everyone off on the same page, literally; however it ignores ebbs and flows of life which exist in both academia and professional practice. Allen prefers a more malleable architecture and calls it “the natural way to teach, the natural way to learn, and a whole lot more effective and enjoyable that being slaves to a predetermined schedule.” Showing respect for students while also maintaining an image of authority is also a thin line teachers must walk. Allen’s response to this sometimes challenging social dynamic is simple; “respect each student’s dignity.”
Allen has undoubtedly had a prolific career but more than that he has found joy in doing so. To teach well one must first learn to enjoy teaching, if that were not already the case. Allen suggests that in order to truly affect students through teaching the teacher must not become rigid. Fluidly teaching a class may take more effort from the professor in the first few weeks of the class but will likely pay off in the final few as the students view what they have learned and created as something new and previously undiscovered, rather than a reworded exam from last year’s class.
November 22, 2017 at 8:45 am
Ed Allen’s “Notes to Myself” is a guidebook to the basic tenants of teaching. While not revelations in pedagogy, they are the important key elements that can fall to the side subjects take center stage. The guidelines in Allen’s notes set the atmosphere where the subject matter and student find each other. While it is written in relation to the architectural field, the advice is welcome in any classroom.
I will be teaching my first sections this winter and I have resolved to make an outline of these points to carry me through the term. I have been in classes where I was ready to learn and the professor drummed on about something irrelevant while looking down and setting up, almost talking to themselves, indeed, Start Fast and Maintain Eye Contact. Often times, students are unsure of themselves and afraid to speak, this is when it is most important to respect their dignity. Unnecessary embarrassment can cause a student to turn inward and lose confidence in their success in the class. Be a better part of their day, and they can continue to think about the class in a positive way. This also ties into his points on running risks and leading students to expect the unexpected. Keeping students on their toes maintains focus and gives variety to what can be a droning hour or more spent in monotone misery. A fresh approach to the subject not only teaches the matter, but teaches new techniques for interaction. It is often thought that the subject matter is the only thing we are here to learn, but that is a mistake that anyone who has reflected on their undergraduate time can tell you. Allen advises to Break up the Hour with Hands On activities, and each class will flow. As an untrained GE, it is difficult to not follow the timeline in lesson plans and syllabi, but Allen suggests this does not lead to the most effective learning experience. Fulfill their thirst on the fly and you maintain that thirst. Give them the meatiest bits, he advises, and the motivation will follow.
As a student, there is nothing more inspiring than watching a passionate professor teach what they love, but we forget that the love may be as much for teaching as it is for the subject. I am excited to be entering into the field of teaching, and I believe these words are ones to hold to as they become second nature.
November 22, 2017 at 12:34 am
Edward Allen’s Notes to Myself is a compilation of quick thoughts on teaching. From the selections chosen of the compilation were basic teaching guidelines equipped with some side stories to help back up the statements. There are some common themes that can be discussed in further detail both in guidelines for teaching and the writings.
As any educator knows, there are multiple types of learning styles, mainly: kinesthetic, audio, and visual. Each of these types have their own individual traits as to how anyone, not just school aged kids, learn. These, however, are not cut and dry. This is talked about in a very roundabout way in Allen’s passages, and that is engagement. No matter the learning style, the person learning needs to be wrapped up in what they’re learning. One of Allen’s notes mentions needing to start a course or class fast. Really grasp the attention of the students, or they’ll lose their focus after about ten minutes. Further into the reading, he mentions that “putting students in direct physical contact with their subject matter” is the most effective way of teaching. Especially true with kinesthetic learning styles, I believe this is true no matter the style because it keeps the learner engaged and interested.
Another example of strategy given is to have students directly interact with the subject, whether it’s via asking questions (not quizzing), have design exercises, or other inviting ways for the learners to engage and interact. I believe this to be true with classrooms outside of the creative fields. With the sciences, I found it more effective in memorizing processes when engaged with others to learn instead of listening to a lecturer repeat the steps repeatedly.
In my notes, I have an equation that is the main takeaway of this reading:
Active Participation = Activity = Interaction
I believe, and this reading helps prove the point, that active engagement and interaction helps provide effective ways to maximize productivity of learning, no matter the learning style.
October 16, 2017 at 7:11 pm
Edward Allen’s “Notes to Myself” is a pocket guide to successful teaching; a reminder to be passionate; a self-check on inspirational education. Through self monitoring, word-of-mouth, day-to-day experience and dual perspective, Allen’s keys to education becomes a tangible ideal.
As a current GE I can’t help but reflect on my teaching strategies or rather untrained pedagogy. “Smile as you teach, let enthusiasm show in your voice” he says. Not with the intention to challenge but to seek improvement, if you are monotone, moderately expressionless, yet contrastingly passionate how do you successfully deploy passion over “calmness”? Must you resolve in disingenuous character? Are you bound to mediocre teaching skills? Presented suggestions at the teaching course were to humanize yourself, tell some personal stories, empathize with the students, bring some icebreakers like coffee or or cookies.
As a current student I appreciate Allen’s attention to engagement, the recognition of a student’s point of view and the relevance and digestibility of the content. Engage, Allen suggests, “Start fast. Start your course fast. Start each class meeting fast…you have a maximum time window of about ten minutes at the start of class in which you either engage your students’ attention or lose it”, as not to blame the students for laziness or lack of interest while encouraging educators to contemplate the captivity of their lectures. To form the content in a comprehensible way Allen suggests, “begin with a vivid physical demonstration…after you’ve hooked the student with this fast start, then you can go back and explain the structure, rationale and history.” The esoteric content of architecture, particularly technical courses, make it easy to lose the attention and the understanding of the audience. It often happens educators are so familiar with the content of their course that square one is glazed over or forgotten leaving the learners in the dust, lost or confused, “Teach your students how to create ideas first, then teach them to use math in support of the evaluation and development of these ideas.”
Respect deserves attention on its own. Allen touches upon respect briefly and indisputably but in a teacher’s perspective. It a common practice, particularly in architecture, to assign hoards of work with rigid standards, inflexible to individual potentials, during holidays and especially during exams, overlapping, conflicting and overbearing even for the overachievers. It feels like hazing such that it promotes an unhealthy lifestyle. Hard work should be demanded I understand but also rewarded. Standards should be held of course but not limiting. Holidays are for family and friends, not assignments, computers and stress. Education should always be inspiring and enriching no matter how dry the material. All instructors should read and keep Allen’s “Notes to Myself” handy and in mind.
March 8, 2017 at 12:50 pm
Ed Allen’s “Notes to Myself” is an inspiring collection of ideas about teaching technical subjects in a design context. The notes are written colloquially yet they express both his passion and respect of teaching. Some of his ideas speak generally to the act of teaching while others speak directly at teaching design. I do not necessarily agree with all of his ideas, but I find his overall stance towards teaching admirable.
Many of his thoughts that speak generally to teaching are not revelations to those familiar with the field of teaching. For example, his ideas about eye contact, hooks, computers, student dignity, risks in teaching, active student engagement, lecture duration and breaks, and tactile experiences are things commonly discussed among those who teach teaching. That being said, not enough teachers are exposed to the pedagogy of teaching. Teachers in K-12 environments constantly talk about how frequently they should switch activities, how to diversify activities, and how to keep students engaged. They receive formal training in college about how to engage students and continue this through professional development. On the other hand, I think many college professors do not get this type of training because they learn how to teach “on the job”, often as graduate students. I believe that many of the things that Ed Allen mentions in this reading response are vital to teaching but is not taught to educators in higher education. Sole reliance on subject matter knowledge is crippling to the field of higher education. I would recommend this reading as a primer to anyone who wants to teach in higher education.
On the other hand, the pedagogy of design teaching can be a black void. How does one teach design? Is there one specific manual to do so? What does successful design teaching look like and how does it integrate technical subjects? I found Allen’s insight into design teaching illuminating. His discussion about teaching design rather than building science highlights that technical aspects are integral parts of architecture. His suggestion is to have students engage in design processes that vary in time scale. I agree that learning to deal with short, small design problems is just as important as large, all-encompassing ones. I have not had enough opportunities to engage in shorter design problems under the guidance of a professor. If more professors embraced this idea I believe that design teaching would be richer.
I understand the idea that we should make math the servant, not the master, but I do not agree that math can’t create ideas. Math is one of the purest arts as it is complete abstraction of the world. People are constantly discovering and creating new mathematics that helps us understand how our world works. Many do not understand how math works because of the general acceptance that math should be feared. I think that fear of math leads to the fallacy that math can’t create ideas. In the context of design, I think that learning some of the math behind the ideas is like learning to draw. One can look at pictures of a building, but you gain a much deeper understanding after you draw the building with your hand. Similarly, you can assume that the structure works or the building is heated adequately, but you gain a deeper understanding of the building when you can verify that yourself.
I greatly appreciated reading “Notes to Myself.” Allen mentions that he once wrote up a quick list of “rules of thumb” for structures that eventually became the “Architect’s Studio Companion.” I think he should take this reading and write a book for architecture teaching.
March 8, 2017 at 8:54 am
As a student, I have always hypothesized that the hardest part for any teacher in a classroom setting is to facilitate a learning atmosphere rather than a receiving atmosphere. In a learning atmosphere, a teacher gives the students crucial information, but introduces projects and assignments that force students to generate ideas rather than regurgitate information. I think a teacher and student both live for those “A-ha!” moments, where students can put the pieces together and solve problems.
I am very impressed by Allen’s love for teaching. Oftentimes, I get the feeling that some professors simply do not care about their jobs enough to force their students to care about their class. They would rather just lecture for two hours and then assign quizzes or homework that is easy to grade, in order to alleviate the workload on themselves. I’ve been in classes like that, where I’m forced to do work that I don’t learn from. It’s just a means to an end. However, when a teacher pours out his/her passion for the subject, it empowers and encourages students to not only learn, but also to innovate. I had a chemistry teacher in high school who poured out his passion for teaching to his students. I was not a major fan of chemistry before taking the class, but after I finished the term, I was so fascinated by it, and I wish I had the opportunity to keep learning it. Love and passion is contagious.
I also really liked Allen’s theory of starting classes fast. Too many times I have gone to class, where the professor talks about logistics for ten minutes before finally moving into a lecture. Any energy that was present in the room prior to class is long gone before the lecture even begins. I wish that all professors had the presence of mind to begin their classes with something active and enticing for students. I think it’s too easy for teachers to begin with something exciting, but it really sets the tone for students, and I am sure it sets the tone for the professor as well.
March 7, 2017 at 2:41 pm
Edward Allen’s “Notes to Myself” is a great starting point for those interested in teaching. Although it is written in regards to architecture and design, many of the points are applicable to any and all teaching subjects.
The opening statement, “teach with stars in your eyes,” resonated with me the most. Looking back the teachers that I have found to be the most inspiring have taught this way, with passion and vigor. I have found that when teachers have loved what they are teaching, they then love their job, which only betters the students in their classes. Being able to demonstrate enthusiasm for a subject, is the perfect combination of love for the subject matter, but also teaching tactics. These teachers have proved to be not only great influences in the area of study, but also great influences in life.
Reflecting on times that I have been in the teacher role, I have found it to be most successful when I have had a passion or a connection to the materials being covered. At times I have struggled with navigating the teaching world and wondered what I was doing “wrong”. This article, along with the Learning Style Inventory taught me that teaching methods that worked with one class, might not work with the next due to the different learning styles of the group. Being able to switch thinking and presentation skills on a whim might lead to more interaction and engagement from the students, and in turn inspire a future generation.
Although I do not see myself teaching too much in the future, the characteristics outlined in “Notes to Myself,” stretch far beyond the realm of teaching, and I hope to be able to use them in my every day life going forward.
March 2, 2017 at 4:10 pm
Reading Response – Notes to myself
Arch 661 – Winter 2017 – Amir Nezamdoost
The reading includes valuable, inspiring and important experiences of an outstanding architecture instructor who tries to collect his personal teaching methods and share them as a guideline with new generation of instructors, especially those want to teach technical courses in architecture schools.
Honestly, I read this reading when I was pretty tired and sleepy. I started it when I was in bed. When I finished the first page, I could not stop reading it and finished it in thirty minutes. It was written very clear and easy to understand, especially when he added his personal experiences to each of those topics. I wish I read it earlier in the term because I believe it would help me a lot during my teaching journey. There are a few sentences in the reading that made me really inspired and I want to highlight them here for myself, and call it “teaching highlights to myself.”
– “Involve students … just about anything that will capture the imagination of the kid in the last row of seats.”
– “The best way to teach design is to engage students in the process of designing.”
– “Lead your students to expect the unexpected. Do something special, vivid and unforeseen during every class meeting.”
– “Only the first ten or fifteen minutes will hold your students’ attention.”
– “Don’t try to cover your subject. Try to uncover a meaningful portion of it for your students.”
March 2, 2017 at 10:10 am
The book ‘Note to Myself’ by Edward Allen was very interesting. Each teaching technique was simply stated with frequent examples of stories to help understand the benefit of the skills he is sharing through short paragraphs. I thought many of these skills can be applied to not just teaching situations but can be used in normal daily activities. They are good characteristics that can benefit many situations and environments.
The specific paragraph that interested me the most was the one with teaching the subject straight and simple. I have heard before that if you really understand the subject you are teaching, you can take the complicated subject and explain it in a way that little kids can understand. Edward Allen states in this paragraph to “teach the basics in simple words and short sentences.” I think it is important to understand the subjects in simple and straight forward ways, then expand that understanding further to build upon your initial understanding. I think this skill can benefit people in daily life situations. Often our life is bombarded with meaningless extra things, but by spending less time on the phone or focusing on fewer tasks and doing them right can make life more meaningful.
February 27, 2017 at 7:03 pm
Reading response: Allen, Edward, Notes to myself, 2001.
Ok. This is a fascinating story. It’s made of anecdotes, warm recommendations, enthusiasm. If you have always desired to become a teacher, it will encourage you, no matter what and it will help you to get rid of residual hesitations. If you have never thought of teaching, after this reading you may change your mind.
It is about technical teaching but if you consider “technical” in a broad sense, everything may be technical. This is not an obstacle, anyways.
And, like almost everything good you get out of a written piece of some kind – perhaps like almost everything good you are lucky to encounter in your life – it is open ended, stimulates meditation, and – very important – allows for (demands?) dissenting feelings, inclinations, opinions. At least some. No room for indifference, in any case.
So, here is my bony minority report: a list of itemized dissenting and consenting (both possibly transitory) opinions.
• Yes, do teach with stars in your eyes. But if you really like to teach, you won’t need this suggestion, because – even when you get to teach a subject that is not exactly your preferred one… – you very soon realize that it is a gift, indeed a gift: it is a gift that your students give to you (and that they will keep giving to you during the following years when they call you up to tell you about their successes and how useful has been that particular comment, that notion that you had shared with them…).
• Start slow. And keep on going alternating fast – but not too fast, for too long – and slow. Do not overwhelm your students. Keep the rhythm slow enough that you can accelerate when the expression requires it.
Don’t let your students assume that you can offer, and push ultimate answers. Be assertive only to a point. Rather, have them realize that you are looking together for some hidden evidence, for some reference for reflecting, for shared doubts. Use words with parsimony and abundance of silence. Silence is sometimes more fertile than concepts: it generates thinking… which may be your most important job. Let your students follow their own thoughts, at least for a few seconds, after you have induced them.
Never finish class on time. Leave your students with the sense that there is much more to tell, to explore, to share. Hint the many issues you are eager to share with them, that you want to know their opinion about as soon as possible, next time you get the chance. Give them the sense that knowledge is a continuous flux. While separate, concepts are also connected… There will be more next class, next term, next year.
A class starts sharp on time. A class never ends. It keeps going informally after class, during office hours, in occasional corridor encounters… Sometimes even sharing one word only may be essential. Try to be available, generous of ideas, comments, encouragements. Smile and mean it.
• Find a way to maintain eye contact, even when it is tough because there are more than a handful of students in front of you. And use your eyes to look beyond the walls of your classroom, and use your hands and your finger to indicate the things you are talking about. Most likely your students will follow you and will see what your showing them even though there is nothing visible to see.
Talk to everybody as much as possible, make personal references, even jokes (risky, I know). It helps reminding all that you all are individuals sharing a good (perhaps memorable) experience in group.
• Computer? Since it is likely that you are a tech-dinosaur compared to most of your students (with a few exceptions like high tech teaching, they are likely to be more updated than you are no matter how trendy you are), it is a perfect tool to vividly convey the impression that there are many subjects that your students can teach you and therefore teaching/learning may be, is, a two-way dynamic. And yes: it is a tool, one of many!
• Math? Terrific stuff. One can cover everything with math. Yes, really everything. Unfortunately, no more than that. Hmm…
• Student’s dignity: respect it always, no exceptions. Yet, try to avoid stiffness. Look for the difficult balance between correctness, warmth, personal engagement… Make fun of yourself, from time to time: it gives a sense of ease and security. Allow for mistakes, both ways.
Every once in a while, size the chance to be a student again: it is a lot of learning, also from this point of view.
• Do you teach design? You may design teaching. You may teach how to design a code, a survey, a class, a presentation. And you may teach how to design a building, a neighbourhood, a city… Each one of these teaching activities shares common characters and features with the other ones but carries also non-fungible specificities. Teaching design (better said: one specific form of design) requires specific knowledge and experience: in a way, it is largely a science, too.
• Run risks. And carefully plan the risks you will run as much as you can. You need to engage your students. You need to make them enthusiastic. You can’t afford losing contact with them. But at the end of the day you must make sure that they bring back home something more than what they arrived in class with: something solid, be it notions, tools, methods, desires. Entertaining them is only a small part of the job.
• Be predictable, at least most of the times. Your students will soon get used to the recurring patterns of your class and will able to recognize and understand nuances. And they will learn how to perceive and assess details in their future lives. And they will not need to be honked at to get engaged, to respond.
• Yes, your students are the central element of your class: not your lecture. With any luck, you learn a great deal from them. Your learning experience is an exchange of ideas: a hand-in-hand walk. Plan your itinerary. Be ready to change route when their behaviour suggests so.
• Intermissions. For a few years, I thought a class/studio, six hours a day, twice a week: not easy, lots of breaks. Architecture (and urban design) make teaching long hours slightly easier. There are many different aspects: crits, common review, theoretical presentations/discussions, history, methodology, arts and sciences… You can always try make it look like three, four different sequential classes (unfortunately same teacher, though: here is when some theatre may help).
• Mental experience. A tactile experience is invaluable: it helps immediate, fully felt understanding, it motivates, it is memorable. However, it is only one part of the learning process. Not necessarily the most important.
There is another part: learning the ability to abstract, detect essential elements, their conceptual connections and to navigate in the world of thoughts and ideas, to communicate them, to look for and find analogies, to propose and text theories, to make them explicit with direct references and, yes, to envision their effects on real life. All these have no body to be touched. They are in a parallel world and you may or may not be able to inhabit it: it is pure mental experience but it helps understanding what’s there for you to touch. This learning requires a further step and a great deal of exercise and needs a form of accompaniment that one can hardly find out of school. Your students will have many hands-on opportunities in their professional life. Probably they will have fewer occasions to conceptualise. Do not postpone.
• Try your best to deliver a course that can count on all you could learn from the best courses you have been exposed to. Try your best even though you are aware that its final quality does not depend entirely on you. If you are lucky, your goal may be to offer a course as good as the best ones in your school. Fortunately, teaching is not a contest.
• Do cover your subject. Assess a reasonable learning goal and go for it. Do not leave loose ends.
Make sure that by the end of the term your students will have a conceptual structure, perhaps simple and essential but complete, in their mind. Afterwards they will be able to beef that structure with examples, variations, additions, interpretations. They will be even able to replace that structure or part of it with another one that suites their needs or their inclinations best, because they understand how it works. Don’t expect that they will fill conceptual gaps in their professional life. Most likely they would have to do without.
• Quirky ideas. Being able to count on some sort of solid base or back bones, allows you to improvise. A class, a course may be seen as a (smooth) jazz session: many individualities, a lot of collective work, recognizable shared rules, enough invention (and good luck).
• Teaching is simplifying (and abstracting) complex concepts and complex realities, without hiding their complexity. Even though this is all but easy, keeping it simple is paramount. At the same time, never conceal exceptions, contradictions, fuzziness, superstructures…
Always take the opportunity to highlight connections and analogies among different disciplines or narratives. Usually students love exploring beyond disciplinary borders and are enthusiastic participants when references to other disciplines are offered. I found them especially eager of references to history and philosophy. It makes them feel that they can place the things they are learning in a larger, solid, recognisable context. Possibly it satisfies their common desires for intellectual practice.
• Start at the beginning. If they are in your class, unless it is mandatory and you are their only option, they are interested to know more in that subject. Deliver in small dosage, one step at the time. Anticipating the end of the plot is like revealing the name of the killer in the first pages of a detective story. Keep the progression simple and logic. The class is like a journey: if your students are forced to stick their nose in the map to keep ahead of where they are, they will never be able to enjoy the scene in its rich details.
• Long live the syllabus. In Italy, where I had most of my teaching experience, the use of syllabi has never been popular, at least to my limited knowledge, years ago much less than today. So, unless there is a text book, like in “scientific” courses or in some of the “histories”, one never knows what’s next: sometimes not even the teacher, I am afraid. Therefore, my take on syllabi mostly relies on my personal experience. Some time ago, when teaching in Italy after having thought in the US, I did introduce the syllabus for both courses and studios, with calendar, topics and progression of classes, bibliography (emphatic, I confess) and all… My students seemed very happy. At last, they could see the whole picture of their course and understand the goals and the methods, at least in part, as well as the connections among classes and their role within the course. Also, they understood why skipping a class was like losing a few scenes of a movie. Some of my most recent students keep telling me that being able to count on a clear schedule and on a logical progression was one of the best feature of my course. Long live the syllabus.
• Quizzes. I have never used quizzes: neither as a teacher nor as a student. Until this year, that is. Now that I am a student, again, I get to answer quizzes. And I enjoy them. It’s like playing a game. Stimulating and relaxing at once.
• Yes, also in teaching, like in many other human activities, love is the most important thing. Love is the bearing structure, it is the glue: it is such a creative force that justifies the emphasis that takes referring to it.
Edward Allen’s Notes to myself, is plenty of love and contagious enthusiasm for teaching.
Warning: you may find yourself reading and reading again those generous, insightful, moving pages and postponing your next homework.
Thank you, professor Allen.
February 27, 2017 at 3:49 pm
The Learning Style Profile confirmed that I am an active, experimentative learner. After reading Edward Allen’s notes, I am reflecting on how I was a student in two separate fields of the sciences and design. As a biology student, I learned more effectively in lab where I am actively interacting with all of the materials. However, lab work is very limited due to safety, access, and cost of the field. As a design student, I have the freedom to work on studio projects on my own and there is no limit to the trial and error experimentation process outside studio as well. I struggled as a biology student based on the limitations. Even though I enjoyed reading the topics and attending lectures, it was not enough for me to fully grasp the material. In comparison, I believe I am “better” design student because of the constant active interaction with the concepts.
Even as a teacher, I feel like I am unable to effectively teach the materials to my students. When I was GTF for the Department of Biology last year, I felt like I wasn’t able to successfully teach the material through lectures and leading discussions. For the lab work, I demonstrated the week’s activity, but the rules are so strict due to time and safety that students are not encouraged to experiment. I believe that how you learn is also how you teach. In the design field, I feel I was more successful at teaching. One example is my experience in wood shop, especially after the furniture studio. Now I am able to effectively teach my colleagues wood properties and behavior as well as using the tools effectively and safely.
I highly agree with Allen’s strategy of teaching starting from the middle. Even though it has always been first nature for me to start teaching at the beginning, I noticed that I lose students’ interests by the middle. If not, then students would follow the foundations of the beginnings so strictly that they are not able to fully express their creativity. Teaching from the middle allows students to fill in the gaps with their own most effective learning techniques and allow for more creativity and critical problem solving.
February 19, 2017 at 3:44 pm
‘Notes to Myself’ is an easy and informative read. Edward Allen clearly lays out how to make teaching more rewarding for both you and your students. I think the most valuable pieces of information that he wrote reminded me of professors who had used these teaching tactics.
Allen’s note “Listen to every student seriously and with undivided attention” caught my interest and reminded me of a past professor that taught in this way. To make a student feel like they matter, I feel it is important to give them individual attention and listen to what they have to say. Having professors that make time for each student, and send them articles that relate to their current project makes the student feel valid. Creating close relationships with professors has helped me as a student; I now go back to my undergraduate school and have meetings with past professors to discuss design issues and sometimes non-architecture topics.
Another important teaching philosophy is to “do awesome physical demonstrations”. When taking a class involving technical teaching, it is important to keep students engaged. Sitting in a classroom for long periods of time can cause students to stop paying attention, so switching up classroom activities is a must. During our technical teaching session, Russell’s presentation was last after a long day, but we were all engaged in an activity so we were paying attention. This was the perfect tactic after we had been watching power points for three hours previous to that.
“Putting students in direct physical contact with their subject matter” is a vital teaching method. In construction technology classes, it has helped me as a student to physically build wall sections as a way of understand what we are designing. Professors who have their students physically build models in construction technology, physics, and studio have been more memorable to me, and the concepts taught in class have stuck with me for years.
Overall, Allen’s approach to teaching has helped me understand why my successful professors use the methods they do. Reading ‘Notes to Myself’ has helped me understand how I can teach while keeping the attention of the students, and has great examples of things I can say in teacher evaluations for those who need the critique. I would suggest this read to anyone curious to becoming a teacher.
February 12, 2017 at 11:25 am
Reading Response
ARCH 661 Tech Teaching
“(S)mile as you teach, let enthusiasm show in your voice”-Edward Allen, Notes to Myself
When I look back on the most memorable teaching or learning moments in my life there is always a level of enthusiasm in them that is inspiring. There is no doubt that people are more receptive when you show interest in what you are talking about. And I think therein lies a big opportunity in today’s lecture halls. Although it is difficult to engage with students in a large auditorium I think it’s critical for lecturers to at least be energetic and personable in order to reach out to as many students as possible. Although architecture tends to keep its lectures small compared to some 300 person organic chemistry lecture, the material for technical subject matter lends itself to be dry and difficult to comprehend. Incorporating excitement brings interest levels up as well as including interactive activities. As a profession many of us designers are visual learners and so it only makes sense to include activities to make students get out of their seats, collaborate, and use their hands. For me one of the most interesting yet complicated topics in architecture is the process of construction and the layering of materials. Through site visits and interactive activities in this class, I finally understood the functions of elements that go into making a building and am able to see the process mentally. Lectures and books are great modes of teaching; however, learning through tactile, interactive lessons makes the technical subject matter easier to digest. Through that mode of learning students then engage, get first-hand experience dealing with the material instead of being passive participants, and become excited and enthusiastic for more.
November 28, 2016 at 9:16 am
TTC Reading Response: Notes To Myself, Edward Allen
The two ideas I found most relevant in Allen’s Notes to Myself are the importance of relationship-based teaching and applying math and science as a means and not an ends to technical design.
Allen paints a picture of teaching as the quintessential successful relationship. At the very core of a teacher’s motivation is love for the subject matter, for the students, and for the act of teaching. He uses words like ‘smitten’, ‘unexpected’ and ‘risky’ to describe positive teaching traits, all of which make for an interesting relationship. Impacting someone else in any way requires some level of personal relationship. Learning requires personal investment in the material. When the teacher does not take the initiative to form some type of relationship with students and the class as a whole, there is less chance of personal investment on the part of the students and subsequently less learning. As Allen writes, relationships are a two way street. Student engagement requires a variety of traits that all rest on a teacher caring deeply about the subject matter and student growth.
Another important distinction that Allen makes is the difference between teaching technical subjects apart from and integrated with design. Using math, computers, or other science/math methods can quickly take over as the ends and not the means. Science and math methodology as an ends and not a means is problematic in several ways. Primarily, it decreases the value of design in the creation process. Design is already devalued in our society. Architects are seen as an unnecessary commodity for the rich and powerful in modern day America. Teaching students that a computer can design a building certainly doesn’t restore belief in the value of applied design. Secondly, promoting scientific methodology as an ‘ends’ takes the wind out of the sails of any student whose focus and purpose is design. Architecture is a hard profession fueled by the desire to create. To take the creative, fun dimension out of the grueling process makes it just that. Fortunately, as Allen notes, the inverse of this pitfall is true. When math and science are correctly applied to design, design becomes all the more interesting and complex. It is for precisely this reason that I love architecture. It is the only profession I’ve found that still honestly exists at the intersection of science and art. It is relevant, but also abstract, concrete, but also dynamic, practical, but also theoretical. To truly fulfill the potential role of architects in our society, students need to recognize and employ this fundamental truth.
Notes to Myself revealed to me why I am passionate about teaching technical subjects. I truly believe in design-based technical education to encourage architects to reach their full potential. Love for the subject matter and a clear vision for what that subject matter is and should be encourage me to continue as a teacher.
November 28, 2016 at 12:05 am
Notes to Myself
Edward Allen
Allen’s notes as they relate to teaching design
The ideas for making teaching exciting and fun, yet maintaining a great learning environment for the students, as discussed by Allen are practical and fundamental. Each of her “notes” for successful teaching looks rather simple and obvious, but they are subtle and form the basis for effective teaching.
This response focuses on teaching “design” and how following a process assists both students and the instructor in the learning process. Allen notes that design should cover technical aspects of the buildings and is a continuous process that requires engagement. The author also adds that no matter what the size of the design process is, it will “…. involve utilization of knowledge gained from scientific investigation.” In this sense, design is a separate subject of its own and something that cannot be “taught” since there is no formula or a defined systematic process that one can apply to come to a solution. But as an instructor, one can make the students engage in a process that is comfortable to them and one which the instructor can assess with comfort. Allen clearly puts the idea of teaching a design process, then as an effective suggestion for the teachers. In this regard, three “notes” become even more important: (1) computers should not lead the way; (2) students should be ‘physically’ engaged in the learning process; and (3) math cannot create ideas.
One of the important issues that have been gaining concern during teaching is to make the role of using computers clear to the students. While it has been widely acclaimed that working by hands is more beneficial, one cannot underestimate the influence of using technology in the learning process. The limitations of using computers early on, however, possesses limitations than promises. This is important for the instructor to understand themselves first and then to inspire students to adopt physically assessable design media before computer use.
Computers are very good in arriving at the final result but do not guarantee that the student has learned about the evolution of design even with their own creating. Referring this to what Allen argues, “…. Finite Element Analysis (FEA)…. tells the students all the stresses and deformations…. without increasing their understanding or offering any value judgments…. the student considers that the design has been validated.” Especially for design, jumping to software use will mean that the student will never develop the quality of linking their thought process and physically expressing their ideas. In other words, students need to first make oneself adept in using sketches and hand drawings to interpret the ideas and only after a certain time start exploring computer software.
The idea of putting the computer in its place overlaps with the note on allowing students to engage in physical creation. Model-making, sculpture, or basic woodworking, or any other form of creation, in addition to drawing, that engages the students directly should be prioritized by design instructors. Computer Generated Models are not very good at this—they are good at revealing the final concrete product, but poor at demonstrating the design process where the actual essence of design lies. Engagement helps in exploiting each student’s freedom and represents the thought process more clearly. In addition, each student should be given an opportunity to share their physical creations and learn from each other.
A lot of the times (from the experience of being a design student), limitations posed by an allied field, for example, structures or mathematics, directly come in the way of a designer’s flow of idea. This disturbs the process of creation and hinders one’s ability to think about a design solution, which supports the argument—Math cannot create ideas. The dilemma starts to become true early on during a student’s career—how is this design going to stand? While this is important in the long run, it becomes the responsibility of the instructor to maintain such learning environment in the studio which inspires idea flows rather than corrections from a different perspective.
November 21, 2016 at 9:54 pm
Notes to Myself Reading Response
“Don’t try to cover your subject. Try to uncover a meaningful portion of it for your students.” – MIT Faculty Manual
Edward Allen brought up many great points about what makes a great technical teacher, but this broad approach to uncovering your subject I think is an incredibly valuable way to view a class you are planning to teach. We have all had professors who seem like they are just reading off a prepared monologue with no inflection or emotion in their delivery. I have found that the most inspiring teachers give us the vision to see what is possible then they come back and show us the tools it take to get there. A lot of the time when a class is taught in a linear manner from start to finish you build up on ideas but the students have no idea how it will be useful or why we are learning it in the first place. If you have a goal you are working toward that gives the subject a more personal meaning then you desire to learn the methods it takes to achieve those ends.
Having the WHY laid out in the beginning makes the HOW that much more interesting and students are far more likely to be engaged.
Maintaining engagement is often a lofty goal in a larger lecture setting, but it is crucial to getting the most out of your students. Allen points out that love, dignity, entertainment, involvement, energy and simplicity are all essential to presenting your subject in the most engaging manner. We are all human and young or old we all pick up on each others emotions. As a teacher if you are excited about your material then students will be excited in turn. By doing demonstrations in class you not only keep students awake, but involved in their learning. Keeping it simple is key, it is very easy to get lost in the details of complicated subject matter, but doing your best to keep the concepts as simple as possible at first then digging into the guts of the material keeps more people on the same page. As a student once you become a little confused it is very easy to get lost then often times stop paying attention in frustration and get yourself even further behind.
Lastly dignity and respect are essential and I am really glad Allen brought this up. Students will disengage if they fear public ridicule or feel that their opinion may be disregarded. By giving your class the respect they deserve they in turn will return that respect and you can have genuine discourse at a higher level. We are all in this together, we must embrace that idea and only then will progress occur.
November 21, 2016 at 4:24 pm
After taking this course nearly a year ago and forgetting about the main concepts Edward Allen covered in “Notes to Myself”, I wanted to re-read the list that named off the characteristics of a good design teacher to see if my opinion and outlook on teaching techniques has changed. In short, my opinion did not change in any major ways, but the characteristics that stood out to me this time around are different than the ones that were prominent before.
My favorite point that Allen brings up, that I merely glanced over the last time, is to “start in the middle”. I never really gave this point too much thought as it doesn’t make much logical sense initially, but after considering how it could be applied to a large technical course, it makes much more sense and is actually the logical approach. In order to get a large lecture course excited on the material that they will be covering, especially if it is a long winded topic that will take a while to cover, the professor should start with the meat of the topic to get the class excited and give them something to look forward to. Additionally with this teaching strategy, the student knows, or at least has an idea of, what will lie ahead for them.
Another point that I have changed my opinion on since the winter was “scrap the syllabus”. I have typically been a huge advocate for the syllabus that spells out the entire term and gives a schedule on what to expect, especially in studio courses. However, having students that are bound by the schedule leaves for lack of spontaneity within the design process. I have noticed it this term in my own studio course, we have a set schedule so we know what is asked of us everyday, yet I find myself only producing what is asked for that specific day and nothing else beyond it. I think that if there wasn’t such a tight, scripted syllabus, there would be much more room for self-evaluation and growth within the students project.
Overall, my opinion on the ideal professor has not changed too much; I just value some qualities over others at this stage in my education. I still think this list from Edward Allen is a good recipe to make a great design teacher even if it is unrealistic to achieve every aspect from this list.
November 21, 2016 at 12:38 am
Notes to Myself
Edward Allen
First off, it was a joy to read Edward Allen’s Notes to Myself; it is both well-informed and written casually. It is a very unique experience as a student to feel like you are reading the personal notes of a Professor and his teaching thoughts. And there is the ‘meta’ idea of it: writing something to inform myself to help myself inform others.
The most profound idea revealed to me by Edward Allen is that an instructor should not be responsible for covering the entirety of any subject. Instead, trying to “uncover a meaningful portion of” the given subject should be the intent of the class. I think this is an essential mindset of any instructor–that you are responsible for initiating revelation. A successful class, then, focuses on teaching the basic tools and skills to reveal knowledge in the classroom and beyond. It is a freeing idea, not to be obligated into compacting a category of knowledge into students’ heads within a finite amount of time (especially true in technical courses). After all, with the exponential characteristics of technology, what is today is increasingly yesterday. Students must be equipped to build upon artifacts and develop the ability to further ingrain themselves within the nuances of any subject.
To summarize the rest of Notes to Myself, I could categorize each of his paragraphs into the following sets of respect principles: respect for the student, respect for the subject, and respect for yourself as an instructor. When it comes to the student, it is about respecting them as people. Edward Allen details effective ways of doing this by giving the attention deserved, interacting through dialogue, understanding their learning methods, and being considerate of their time. I would consider all of these on equal foot to respecting a student. Therefore, serve your students by providing lively engagement so every class was worth their presence.
This leads into respect for the subject, which basically means to have enthusiasm for your subject and teach as such. Equip yourself with the tools to teach the subject, but also know the shortcomings of those tools. So, be ready to supplement where needed. Don’t underestimate your subject, make it engaging and don’t let the technical parts own you as an instructor. If you are “smitten” with the subject, then showcase that. Expose the exciting material hidden within the technical subject.
But none of these can happen without the understanding of the respect due to you, the instructor. Edward Allen enriches this idea by noting how you ought to recognize the odd things that make you a great teacher. As your confidence grows, you can run more risk in the classroom. Risk is a call to disorder or reframing from the norm. With confidence, you won’t be afraid to try a new technique or raise your level of expectations. In fact, Edward Allen makes the argument that you ought to think your class is the best class in the school. It’s a bold move, but one that will push you to try harder. You’ll be forced to reconcile the amount of effort needed to instruct a class known as the best.
As you can see, becoming an impactful professor takes a great deal of work. So, I harmonize with Edward Allen’s ending thought that you need love. Teaching can be emotionally draining, mentally exhausting, and simply put, hard. But love for teaching can be the vehicle that allows you to ride out these circumstances.
November 19, 2016 at 9:00 pm
Rafe Esquith: Teach Like your Hair’s on Fire
I could not help but draw connections between Rafe’s writing and my experience this past term leading labs for Building Enclosures. The similarities between Rafe’s experience with fifth graders and my experience with graduate and undergraduate students are uncanny. It simply goes to show that people of all ages inherently respond positively to certain circumstances and behaviors.
There were a few excerpts that I felt paralleled very well with the kind of teacher I want to be. They are as follows:
– Being a teacher can be painful.
– A broken trust should be avoided at all costs. Establish trust and be reliable.
– Actions speak louder than words.
– Students do not mind a tough teacher, but they do not like an unfair one.
I think it is important to note that there are two types of teachers, which Rafe touches on briefly in his book. The first is the teacher who shows up, does their best, but is not bothered by a student falling behind or not understanding a subject matter. The second is the type of teacher who wants everyone in their class to be excited about the topic just as much as the teacher is. I like to think that I relate closest to the latter of the two. Teaching a technical lab this term has taught me more about myself than I could have ever predicted. I have found that I am constantly rooting for the students in my labs not only to succeed but also participate and be excited about the subject matter. For that reason, it made it easier to schedule extra office hours to meet with people individually or as a group. Additionally, it was important to me that I followed up with students who had a tough time in lab and could not stick around after to discuss it more at length. Teaching a technical class, such as building enclosures can be difficult as it is such a deep topic packed with vast amounts of information. For me, this meant that I needed to find a way to show the students that you can have fun while thinking through the components of a design.
Finally, I want to touch on a recent teaching moment that I experienced in Passive Heating and Cooling. John Reynolds took the time before the first day of class to look at each students picture and name. On the first day of class, he welcomed each of us by name as we walked through the door. This was the perfect example of how a simple action can speak louder than words, and proved to each student in the class that John was invested in our education.
November 14, 2016 at 10:42 pm
‘Notes to Myself’ was a wonderful read, one that brought back memories of special teachers I have had throughout the years, some of whom seemed to use all of these suggestions. This reading was particularly impressive to me because while it was a sort of manifesto about teaching design, Edward Allen’s love for teaching shown through in every sentence. I found it incredibly inspiring and wonder what our world would be like if every teacher could engage their students as I am sure that Ed Allen did.
One of Allen’s notes that I found particularly compelling was to “Start in the middle. It may seem more logical to start the beginning, but often it’s more effective to start in the middle. By plunging your subjects into the subject matter, you demonstrate immediately why they’re studying your subject and they gain motivation to study it.” While this is a seemingly simple idea, I found it completely counterintuitive to the typical “Let’s start at the very beginning – a very good place to start” Sound of Music teaching style that seems to be natural. I myself am completely guilty of this, and believe this is why Edward Allen’s focus on starting in the middle was a sort of revelation for me. Typically, introductions of subjects can be boring, so being able to step back, tell your students why you will be looking at a certain topic, what its relevance is, and why this is an exciting topic is an idea that should be obvious, but so often is not executed.
The other piece of advice that I loved was to “Respect each student’s dignity.” While it feels like this should not need to be stated, the example Allen gave of the student who was humiliated on the first day is all too familiar to most students. Teachers are humans too, and are susceptible to getting stuck in ruts or being on autopilot. These attitudes can develop without thinking about it, and this advice is a great reminder of how an entire term could be determined by a single interaction between the student and teacher.
Overall, the reading was incredibly insightful and again reaffirms my belief that I would not be where I am today without the help of some fantastic teachers. Maybe they have read some of Ed Allen’s writing or maybe not, but most of the successful teachers I’ve had incorporate these teaching styles in one way or another.
November 13, 2016 at 5:35 pm
Edward Allen’s, “Notes to Myself” sums up on the do’s and don’ts in teaching architecture design. Though it is a direction for architectural educators, there are some points that apply for teaching in all fields. It’s true that the teacher has to be passionate enough towards one’s subject and teaching. This generates the student’s interest. Moreover, students seek attention, appreciation and love. An unbiased attention and love for the students, also gets them interested to what is being taught. A simple example of this fact is, kindergarten kids looking up to their teachers as their role models. They quickly grasp on what is being taught.
What are the different ways in which one should teach architecture? Edward Allen, has some good suggestions. Universally, teachers in Architecture schools face the problem of students coming late to class or remaining absent. How to make the class interesting is a big challenge for them. Allen talks about starting early with an unexpected activity as soon as the class begins. This makes the students come to class early to “expect the unexpected”, that engages and involves them. In addition, he also asks to break the class duration into tasks of different nature (small quizzes, group activities, field trips, projection of visuals, sketch problems, physical experiments, little design problems) in order to hold the students’ attention. Allen believes that students’ loose attention in 10-15 minutes, thus teachers should plan their class accordingly. Further, he claims that these activities, not only engages the students, but it also motivates them.
Reflecting to these ideas, I went back down the memory lane into one of my Undergraduate Design Studios in India. It was the first day of the class. Just after the class began, the faculty had asked us to voluntary raise hands to lead a field study. Three people, including me raised hands. Then we were asked to choose group members. The faculty introduced us to the site, where design intervention was to be proposed. Further, she asked the group leaders to discuss among the group and come up with an area of investigation and questions, we wished to address in our field study. This way the process went on with new activities. But I remember, how exciting, this class was for me. Even today, I remember it as it happened yesterday. To add to Allen’s work, I also believe that teaching is also about creating exciting memories.
What to teach, when you are teaching architectural design? Due to an availability of numerous computational tools and softwares, students tend to jump to the medium of analysis and calculations without developing an idea, first. Thus an architectural educator’s job would be to teach students on creating ideas, which are coupled with knowledge on building sciences. This can be done by engaging the students to generate ideas though sketches, paper models, drawings etc. It is a “learning by doing” activity.
The only thing, I cannot agree with Allen is on his argument on “scraping the syllabus”. I agree to the fact that a teacher should do not haste in covering the syllabus and should enjoy the teaching and learning experience. But the target of syllabus is required for the teachers to form questions and activities for students, which can eventually help them in their design ideas.
November 7, 2016 at 11:41 pm
Edward Allen’s “Notes to Myself”, however brief it may be, communicates so effortlessly the essence of effective and rewarding teaching, it’s a wonder he gets such a powerful message across in just 20 pages! I would argue the success of his work is due to the nature of his assertions. To borrow from ansonm@uoregon.edu‘s earlier post, “Most of his suggestions are somehow both obvious and ground shaking, a sort of unique common sense.” Allen seems to have been able to both capture and distill a mode of thinking about teaching that makes epiphanic sense when one sees it written down, and yet was difficult to articulate/apply without it! It’s almost like he pulled the answers out from right under our noses.
What stands out as the most prominent and fundamental of his points is drawing from a source of passion. All other insights seem to sprout from this, or advise on how to channel it. Whether his advice regards developing innovative modes of teaching, structuring teaching time effectively, or interacting with students, having passion for one’s subject lies central to the success of his advice. Without passion, exercises such as “starting your lecture fast”, “involving students in the class”, or “teach it simple” can easily fall flat and render a lecture ineffectual. With passion (and after following a bit of Allen’s advice on properly communicating that passion), teaching can be transformed from a one-sided lecture to an engaging, dynamic dialogue!
The only issue I take with “Notes to Myself” is that some of his suggestions do not seem universally applicable to all teaching applications. His assertion that math and computer technology are to be used as secondary tools as opposed to main educational instigators, for example, may be true for teaching design, but perhaps not all disciplines. In this way, I believe his teaching philosophy lacks the ubiquity I think he tries to assign it. For some students, and in some fields, such advice becomes less applicable, and can even hold back students or make a teacher seem less credible! This is not to say it is not a perfectly sound insight for teaching design; only that his insights on proper teaching should be taken with a grain of salt, especially when applying his advice to teaching subjects outside of design.
Aside from that little nit-pick, I thoroughly enjoyed the read. Allen’s written approach to teaching is able to spark in its readers a new passion for teaching, and inspires new goals to achieve the same successes in teaching that Allen has received. Walking away from the reading, I have already begun to revisit memories I have of favorite teachers that I wish to emulate, and have realized that many of them share many of the traits outlined in “Notes to Myself.” Perhaps they too had read and adopted Allen’s credo.
November 1, 2016 at 10:50 am
Notes to Myself
By Edward Allen
After reading Edward Allen’s “Notes to Myself,” the true keys to teaching become easily identifiable. Although there are several learned strategies that can be implemented to improve teaching skills, when it comes down to it, a successful teacher is one who displays a passion/love for the subject, teaching itself, and his/her students. This passion not only inspires students to learn and pursue their interests, but also ensures that the content of the class will be meaningful and retained, unfortunately a scenario that is not always the case. In looking back at all my academic years and classes, I can only validate this theory. While reading through Allen’s notes, I couldn’t help but recall all of the teachers who have made a lasting impression on me throughout the years, all of which exhibiting the positive traits that Allen has outlined.
At this point, and essentially every point, in my academic endeavors, I place high value on teachers who seemingly dissolve the boundary between teacher and student, or more specifically, those who develop direct and genuine relationships with students instead of regurgitating information in the same manner every year. At the core of this relationship is the teacher’s understanding/engagement of students. As revealed in class, not every student learns the same, and therefore, not every class should be the same, or at least not the entirety of the class. This speaks directly to Allen’s idea of breaking up the class period with different types of teaching, offering something to each type of student personally all while seemingly shortening and strengthening the class with various vivid experiences. Similarly, the idea of “scrapping the syllabus” really tailors the class to its current students and provides them with a unique and meaningful experience.
I feel as though these strategies, specifically the syllabus one, either don’t occur to or are quickly dismissed by teachers due to their contrast of traditional approaches/systems, but this is exactly why they are successful. Students, especially at this stage in our education, have sat through countless lectures, consisting of dry technical information and occupying the whole period, only to be studied for the next test then forgotten. We don’t need, and certainly don’t want, anymore of this type of teaching. We need teachers who engage us, who take risks, who craft memorable experiences that make learning fun again. To this extent, students should not be learning through repetition and regurgitation but rather gaining self-driven knowledge through experience and interest, achievable through Allen’s guidelines. This approach results in long-term retention, given its memorable qualities and alignment with self-interest, whether they be pre-existing or developed under the teacher’s influence, and prove much more valuable than traditional systems of repeating, quizzing, and forgetting.
In conclusion, Allen’s reading has allowed me to better understand and appreciate the workings of a successful teacher. As previously mentioned, and highlighted by Allen, “the most important thing about teaching is love.” This love produces genuine and unique educational experiences and directly influences students’ perception of the subject and inspires any related interests. By exhibiting this love, the more specific teaching techniques will easily fall into place, providing students with a truly beneficial and inspiring class. Allen’s quote, “don’t try to cover your subject. Try to uncover a meaningful portion of it for your students,” taken from the MIT Faculty Manual, sums up this concept quite well. Speaking from a student’s point of view, I can confidently say that classes that approached the subject area from unconventional and engaging ways proved significantly more beneficial than those implementing traditional strategies. Furthermore, classes with passionate teachers who relate to students and exhibit mutual trust have ultimately been the driving force behind my continued education.
October 30, 2016 at 7:23 pm
Notes to Myself by Edward Allen
Here, Allen presents us with a series of thoughts about what makes an effective teacher, specifically in architecture. The underlying message in all of his notes is that you have to be inspired and excited about your course’s content. Excitement can be contagious, and it is important for teachers to inspire their students to continue learning about the material after the end of the term. He also discussed the difference between covering and uncovering information. He states that most technical lessons are learned in the field, and that the best use of class time is to speak directly with students and lay the framework for them to fill in at a later date. This includes philosophical ideas and basic information, the rest will come later. A large part of getting students excited about the material is paying less attention to irrelevant details and starting with the most interesting bits. This can often mean starting in the middle.
I grew up noticing the methods that my mother used to teach science to her middle school students. I have always thought that she was a great teacher and Allen’s text uncovered why. She works really hard to build relationships with each of her students, even the difficult ones, and, during lectures, she talks directly to all of her students, addressing them by name. Students enjoy having her as a teacher because of how many hands on experiments she includes in her lesson plan. She is constantly tweaking these experiments. Each of these methods are points that Allen addresses in his text.
As a student, I don’t often think about the countless hours that teachers pour into their lesson plans or thinking about their students. But, over the past two years I have gotten the chance to experience this dynamic from a teacher’s point of view as a temporary para at my mom’s school. I was working with second and third graders and I got to see how much effort the teachers put into their classes. Most days lunch was spent working on the next lesson or one on one with a struggling student. Some teachers would get to the school at 6 in the morning to set up their rooms. From personal experience, teaching is a profession that often comes home with you. From listening to my mom, and from my own short stint in the classroom, I can say with certainty that good teachers don’t stop thinking about their students when they leave the classroom at the end of the day. This relates to the text because Allen writes a lot about the passion that must go into the profession. He speaks about teaching as passing on a gift, and exuding passion for the material, and adoration for the students. Simply put, being excited about learning and getting your students to share in this excitement is all that teaching is about.
June 7, 2016 at 7:05 pm
Edward Allen’s “Notes to Myself” is a crash course in teaching through the eyes of an experienced instructor. Most of his suggestions are somehow both obvious and ground shaking, a sort of unique common sense. Reading this, I can’t help but look back at past professors who have managed to hold my short attention span and check off their teaching attributes as I read.
Starting fast is an excellent way to begin a class. I have had trouble with one of my studios this year because I would come into the class with momentum and drive only to be hampered by an hour long lecture and discussion. This effective killed my momentum every day. I remember a physics professor I had during during under grad who was excellent at starting fast and keeping the course segments short and to the point. On the first day of class I walked into an enormous lecture hall with him standing on a ladder at the front of the room holding a large garbage can over his head. At the exact starting time of the class he dumped to bucket full of large marbles onto a stretched sheet of spandex with sloped into a hole in the middle. He jumped down from the ladder and stretched the fabric in different directions, affecting the path of the spinning marbles as the fell. It was a big, loud, and high energy start to a class that I was dreading and began to look forward to every week.
I also appreciated his comments on teaching students to design the technical aspects of building rather than thinking of it as teaching building science. I feel this suggests the technical should be intrinsic to the building as a whole rather than as an add on.
Running risks and doing something unexpected are also important parts of memorable lessons. During my first term at U of O in my Seminar class I had the idea to surprise our professor by inflating a pneumatic space in our classroom and attaching the entry to the door of the room so that when she came in, she would walk straight into the inflatable. Not only was she surprised, she decided to hold the entire class in the inflatable. The entire class extremely attentive during the lecture and we managed to attract more students to the lecture who were walking by and noticed something amiss. (This also gave me the idea for my lesson plan)
Honestly, I could easily talk specifically about each of his points on teaching and tell personal stories on how I have seen them in action. Mr. Allen is obviously someone who loves to teach and takes pride in what he does. He seems like someone who truly teaches with stars in his eyes, and it shows.
March 22, 2016 at 3:06 am
“Love the act of teaching. Love your students (no, not just that adorable creature in the front row, love your student as a group”
This quote from Edward Allen’s reading sums up the concept of teaching he is trying to convey in “Notes to Myself”. A passion for teaching and learning are always the key to a successful teaching career. Edward Allen’s notes to myself talks about several points or advices on teaching. Some of the things mentioned are maintaining a visual contact with the students, engaging them in interactive activities and maintaining a personal relationship with them.
His advices are generally directed towards technical teaching, courses related to these subjects are usually difficult for teachers to teach since they are both conceptual and mathematical. I did my five-year undergraduate degree in Architecture in Nepal and I could directly relate to the many points referred by Allen in this article. The education and teaching system in Nepal is very dated and monotonous and rarely involves interaction with the students. We seldom approached our professors after class and barely mingled with them during the classes. Looking back at all the different teachers in my life, throughout my undergraduate degree I have always longed to see some of the points discussed in this reading in my classes and perhaps this was one of the main reason I wanted to come to University of Oregon for my graduate degree.
The idea that stood out to me the most is, “the best way to teach design is to engage students in designing.” I believe that students should not be limited to designing in studios alone, but should also use their learnings in technical classes as these classes eventually help to develop a better understanding in designing spaces. This also relates to the suggestion Edward Allen made about “quizzing” and covering the “syllabus”. Especially in a technical subject, there are some students who are good at taking tests and there are some who are not. Test results may not always imply that the student does not have an idea or knowledge about the subject matter. The role of the teacher is to lay a foundation for an idea to grow over time with experience and practice. It is foremost necessary to show the students the design implications and how they could apply their learning in the future.
This articles provides great guidelines on what teachers and instructors in the field of design should aim to be. But as I said earlier passion for teaching is the key as Allen himself states, “If you’re not totally smitten with the subject matter that you teach, you can’t expect your students to get excited about it.” Moreover, this reading has helped me understand myself better and made me realize my inclination towards technical teaching.
March 5, 2016 at 3:24 pm
I think it is an understatement to say that Edward Allen’s writing has been a pivotal to not only the education of architecture, but also the practice itself. I have seen countless Edward Allen books throughout studios as well as workstations in the field. Allen’s devotion to the field of architecture is paralleled through this reading, “Notes to Myself”. I found it interesting that the first page speaks of teaching a subject matter that you yourself love and are passionate about. It was a great tone to start the reading with, as I could feel his excitement about teaching continues to grow and build upon itself throughout the reading.
The part of the reading that most resonated with me the most was the line, “Teach your students how to create ideas first, then teach them to use math in support of the evaluation and development of these ideas.” I think it is easy in the field to sway to one side of the spectrum of strictly design versus strictly technical. School is a great opportunity to break this standard and start to blend the two in a cohesive manner. The best architecture and design is able to take a concept and not only apply that concept throughout their design itself, but use technical skills to reinforce and strengthen that idea. This is one line that I can significantly relate to, because I was largely design based thinking in my undergraduate program, and felt that I lacked the balance of technical within that. Then, after working in the field for four years and coming back to school, I struggled my first term here to be able to think like a designer again and not in a strict technical sense. It wasn’t until this second term that I have been able to start to break away from this sense of technicality, and start to find the balance between the two. I am finding that not only does this balance help me better understand architecture and design, but is helping to take my design ability to the next level. This newfound ability has me reflecting on which teachers, both in school and in the field have had a significant impact on not only my design influence, but my thinking as well. As I reflect back, it is the individuals that cared about teaching me to think for the long run and not the immediate future that have had the largest impact on me. These individuals may not have possessed every characteristic outlined by Edward Allen, but the right combination of teaching tactics allowed for them to not only be a teacher, but an influence on my life.
March 5, 2016 at 3:02 pm
Hector Rodriguez
3.5.2016
ARCH 661
Reading Response: Notes to Myself
Architecture is a complex subject to teach. You must not only teach fundamental information like material compositions or systems operations but you must also teach the students how to properly synthesis and implement that information going forward in their careers. Because of this it is often too common that teachers will lecture the students for all of the allotted class time and then leave the students to process all that information on their own. Like Christopher Alexander’s Pattern Language, Notes to Myself provides a short and sweet guide for good design teaching.
Notes to Myself, written by Ed Allen, consisted of a series of “notes” the author had made to himself on the subject of technical teaching. They ranged from making eye contact with students to changing your teaching style to be more unpredictable. Going beyond the notes, Allen also provides his reasoning behind each item, often pulling from his own experiences. Often I found that the items with personal experiences to be the most enlightening, mainly because they provide his own thoughts during the interaction. One note in particular comes to mind where he tried a new design exercise to increase student involvement and while explaining it to us he also noted his own feelings and concerns during the exercise.
What I enjoyed the most about the readings was Allen’s very open style of teaching, willing to try anything and possibly fail, which is what I believe he was trying to pass on to us. As teachers we should not be afraid to try and fail, because no matter the outcome you will learn something from that experience and so will your students.
Overall it was a great read with many good, valid notes that I will try to integrate into my own teaching methods. I will be sure to take notes on my own teaching styles and experiences.
March 5, 2016 at 1:11 pm
Edward Allen’s “Notes to Myself,” while written specifically in the context of architecture and building science, really seems applicable to any realm of teaching. The examples given relate most obviously to design exercises, though I have seen the principles work extremely successfully in other contexts as well.
Many of Allen’s “notes” are specific to time spent leading a classroom. Ideas such as speaking to each student during the class, starting the course quickly in an effort to engage the students immediately, and providing daily unpredictability in the class format are all ideas which seem extremely valuable; most of us have been subjected to lectures which do not provide these requirements and can testify to the lack of perceived value.
From my experience in the classroom as a student, and occasionally as a teacher, I find this emphasis on participation to be crucial. As Allen points out, keeping students engaged (especially at the beginning of class) is vital in making the information “stick.” However, I find that focusing on this aspect of successful teaching can sometimes lead us to neglect some of the other important factors he speaks about, such as ensuring a variety of subject material throughout the lesson, or making sure you are effectively communicating your love for the subject.
When Allen proposes that teachers should start teaching their subject material “in the middle” as opposed to the beginning, I was initially skeptical. After all, it seems disorganized to jump around a topic from middle to beginning and eventually back to middle and end. In reflecting upon the most effective learning situations I have participated in, this structure is actually very common. I remember often being thrown into a situation and asked the question of “why was this done in this manner?” After a few guesses, the instructor would begin leading us to the answer through tracing the fundamental concepts back to the current problem. When we then independently discovered the rationale of the current solution, it was exciting!
The most powerful point Allen makes, though, is with regard to passion, enthusiasm, and love for the material being taught. Without these elements, the potential impact you may have on your students is seriously reduced. When these are present, though, you are no longer simply sharing information, but passing along the positivity and excitement itself – traits which are the ultimate motivators for learning and cementing a lasting knowledge.
March 4, 2016 at 2:35 pm
REFLECTION
My favorite part of Edward Allen’s Notes to Myself is the way he conveys his thoughts and notes. He is very concise, yet descriptive in his writing. Each of the 20 topics convey a singular idea and he develops it with logical reasoning and pertinent examples. Plus, since each point is made within one page the information is easily digested.
RESPONSE
Similarly to the art of writing, Allen notes that courses and class meetings should start fast and with a hook. He says that you only have 10 minutes or less to grab your class’s attention and once this is done you may then go back and give the outline of the day. As a student I see the value of this statement and think back on times in lectures (large and small) and remember that in the classes that began with a story and not just an outline kept my attention longer and were more enjoyable. This seems to also go hand-in-hand with his note on “Break up the hour.” or long lectures.
When teaching, most lectures are slotted for times lasting from 45 minutes to 4 hours, knowing that one’s attention span is closer to 10-20 minutes at best. Allen’s advice to this is best quoted: “A long class isn’t long if it is made into a series of short, vivid experiences.” He also makes mention that this also provides students the opportunity to learn the subject from different points of view and better shows the material’s “richness and complexity”. As we know, everyone learns differently and by creating various teaching moments for the same material, you are able to present the material in different ways reaching out to everyone and their way of learning. Plus once they grasp the material each new way of presenting it only reinforces the content. As well these shorter moments keep students engaged longer.
Engagement and passion. “Teach with stars in your eyes.”, my favorite line from Allen, same as with smiles-they are contagious. Showing your enthusiasm for the subject is the best way to get students on board. Also creating a dialog and engaging students in the first meeting really does set the tone for the rest of the term. Not only do you get the students excited on day one, but by keeping them on their toes with the different teaching moments throughout the class meeting, you keep them engaged and wanting to come back. For myself, the hardest lectures to sit through are the ones where the teachers don’t relay the theories in an applicable fashion. I understand we need to learn certain principles, but more importantly we need to learn how to use them! This is where the use of stories can really help. We are students, we are here to learn and as aspiring teachers in the field of design, reflection on our time in school along with Allen’s Notes are great resources for figuring out the type of teacher we want to be.
March 3, 2016 at 10:47 pm
In the short reading by Edward Allen titled “Notes to Myself”, he goes into detail about 20 different characteristics that make up a great design teacher. The points all seem extremely valid, and upfront do not appear to be daunting to complete individually. However, once a professor is posed with the task of combining all of them together, that is when it becomes problematic. A professor cannot adopt a whole new set of guidelines to teach from on a moments notice, it must be something that they slowly adopt over time.
While some of the considerations appear to be simplistic, such as “teach it straight and simple”, which is very straightforward and appears to be easy to follow, there are some that from a student’s perspective that should not be hard to follow, yet are constantly looked over. In some of the bigger lectures that I have been in, whether they were architecture related or not, for some reason had problems following the consideration of “break up the hour”. So many lectures, no matter the length of time, are a set of slides that are regurgitated at the class while a majority of the class is not paying attention. I know that the large lecture format of a course will always exist, but there has to be a way to keep the class engaged for the entirety of the lecture.
Another consideration that I am very fond of is “run risks, live on the edge from time to time”. In my current studio course, Fast and Light, we have had a very open studio course, which has provided the opportunity to explore personal interests in your design. While the class is not as structured, following a course schedule to the day, as the typical studio course, it allows for the students to approach their project in a way that they see fit. Our professor told us at the beginning of the term that we would be taking some sort of a risk with this format for studio, but it has worked out well so far, and we are a few days away from our final review.
Although in an ideal world all professors would follow these characteristics and every lecture would be more riveting than the last, this is just an impossible reality. While it may be impossible to adopt them all at once, it may be possible to adapt a new characteristic every week; slowly building on the progress made the week before.
March 3, 2016 at 10:55 am
If Edward Allen was able to reinforce one thing throughout his paper, it is the concept of passion. Passion for teaching, passion for learning, passion for the material. While the guidelines he discusses each have their own message, they all seem to reinforce his unifying message of being passionate about what we are doing, both as instructors and designers. He talks about the need to be captivating, to teach fast from the start, to be engaging and interactive. To communicate with the audience, rather than lecture. To treat every class like it is a dialogue between the presenter and audience.
Within this overarching message there were specifics designed to help young teachers be as effective as possible. These were often very tangible and useful items. Breaking a long class in to shorter, manageable chunks with different teaching styles is a way to maintain audience interest. Using interactive exercises is a way to get the students adrenaline going, and get them engaged with the material. Presenting the material as a design problem is a way to get the learners engaged with the material, and allows you to then lecture directly to their needs as they explore their designs. And there is a need to start fast, and dive into the meatiest portion of the material first, in order to capture your audiences attention before they lose interest.
But as I said, all these techniques relate back to a much broader concept, that as a teacher you need to have passion. Being passionate about what you are teaching will infect the students, and make them passionate about learning.
I couldn’t help but draw parallels between Edward Allen’s thoughts on teaching to that of the character John Keating in the film Dead Poet’s Society. Having the passion of the material, and challenging the traditional way that material is taught, and further pushing the students to new ways of learning. Both Allen an the character Keating have a true love for what they do, and that love translates to their students, who then become all the more engaged.
It is a lesson that I hope to continue in my life going forward. To maintain a passion for what I am learning and doing, and hopefully one day teaching. Because if you don’t have that passion within yourself, and aren’t passionate about what you are teaching, then you can’t expect your students to have it for the material they are learning.
March 1, 2016 at 1:28 pm
In Edward Allen’s “Notes to Myself,” he discusses a series of points which make a good teacher. The various points cover, among others, showing enthusiasm, starting with a hook, using technology correctly, teach to expect the unexpected, and scrapping the syllabus. Although Allen’s points may not apply to all subject teaching, they are all very interesting points that teachers can learn from. As a perspective on this excerpt from a student and teacher, I feel these ideas are both useful and powerful.
Immediately after reading Allen’s pamphlet, I began contemplating all the teachers of my past, from elementary school until now. Looking back at all the different teachers of my life and those who truly taught me the most, I realize that many of Edward’s ideas were prominent in their lessons. The one quality which stands out in many of their teaching styles, is the display of passion and interest in mentoring young minds. Allen ends his excerpt adamant about the necessity of love in teaching, and I very much agree. How can a teacher expect to draw students’ interest and passion about their teachings if they don’t show enthusiasm and excitement for their teaching? Allen states, “If you’re not totally smitten with the subject matter that you teach, you can’t expect your students to get excited about it.” A teacher that is passionate is one who gives their students undivided attention and engages them in the lessons. Enthusiasm and love for teaching can not only gain interest from students directly, but it can lead to an inclination to create better, more empowering lessons. One of my favorite teachers in grade school implored many of these concepts. My second grade teacher Mr. Caishin not only showed his passion for teaching, but he was great at personally reaching out to each student. His lessons were always interactive and interesting. One of my favorites was at the end of every Wednesday, he would read an excerpt from a book to our class. During this time, he would ask that we draw something related to the reading. I loved this because I was able to listen while activating my imagination. It was teachers like this this truly relayed information the best and shaped me into the architect and person I am today.
February 29, 2016 at 9:50 pm
In his short pamphlet, Edward Allen lays out his 20 “Notes to Myself” as lessons on how to be a better teacher. Individually, the concepts are fairly basic. It is once they are all compiled together that the execution of each steps gets tricky, unless you are a seasoned pro like Allen. 20 is a big number of considerations to follow when teaching and I think that the teacher’s Jung Typology test results will influence the depth at which these rules would be followed. For example, I found out that I am extremely perceptive so for me it would be doable to follow four of these “Notes”: run risks, lead your students to expect the unexpected, treasure your quickly offhand ideas, and scrap the syllabus. For someone who tested as judging and prefers to follow a schedule, being able to “scrap the syllabus” as Allen puts it and teach subjects on the fly without a guide for the term would be difficult.
Though these 20 teaching guidelines may not work for all teachers, as a current student I have experienced some of these and those I have not I would like to have a professor try. For example, I would like to be in a class where the professor quit quizzing, treasured their quirky, offhand ideas, didn’t try to cover their subject, and put the computer in its place. While writing this, I am thinking to my structures class in undergrad versus the structures class that I am in now. In undergrad the professor never used her laptop and wrote everything on the board and did a lot of examples at the pace of the class. The structures class now is strictly run by boring PowerPoint slides with words I can’t completely understand, and I feel the professor is trying to cover every piece of material he knows, when it’s too much for us to understand at this time. I think that if no electronics were used than the pace of the class would be slowed to include only the information that is relevant to us at this time in our academics. Allen cites an MIT faculty manual that says, “Don’t try to cover your subject. Try to uncover a meaningful portion of it for your students.” This seems like a simple statement to follow, but all teachers have different teaching styles and hopefully the teachers that I have in the last few quarters of school recognize the benefit in teaching only what is beneficial and understand that we cannot be experts in the subject like they probably are after one term.
Next year I am hoping to be chosen as a GTF. The lessons that I learned in Allen’s “Notes to Myself” and by evaluating my professors for this class have taught me how to be a successful teacher to my peers.
February 28, 2016 at 11:54 pm
After reading Edward Allen’s Note to Myself, I was so impressed with his enthusiasm to practice of teaching, and some great advice of improving student’s learning performance. As a student educated in China, my overall experience about learning in the school was passive and overwhelming. The “efficient teaching” in China means teacher give as much information as possible in a class, rather than students receive as much information as possible. The reading process were quite enjoyable, because many of his suggestions are my expectation to lectures in the US.
I believe most of his suggestions will definitely help to enhance student’s class involvement. Start Fast and Maintain Eye Contact is the best way to help audience to follow speaker’s pace, and keep concentrating to the speakers, not only for class, also for all lectures. Because from my own experience, it always take some time to jump into the study, but once I jumped in, can keep efficient study. Same for the lecture, once I jumped in the lecture at the beginning, it will more easy to keep focusing on the class. Start In The Middle is a great strategy catch students’ interest in the beginning, interest is the biggest motivation for the learning for me.
However, the most inspiring parts of this article are some suggestions specific to technical course teaching strategies. “You do not teach building science. You teach design.” The powerfulness of this quote for me is the redirecting of the course purpose, especially for technical course in Architecture. Architecture as a combination of art and technology, technical courses are so important to architecture compare to other design majors. But because of the characteristic of the technical course, the course will easily become focusing on calculating, find wrong details, research and compare. The purpose of teaching technical course is not designed for picking wrong details, it’s designed for teach students how to design a system. The assignments of technical class in the University of Oregon are mostly designing a system, not only analysis good and bad case studies. I can tell other people that I’ve benefit a lot with this section system which I’ve never experienced in my prior education. Scrap the syllabus is another strategy I like a lot. I am completely agree with his example about the thirst for knowledge, that teach what students need at that moment and work immediately, while the knowledge was fresh in their mind. I think this strategy is the most difficult one to be practiced, because in order to do this, teacher have to completely understand what students need and their abilities, and this may not possible for teacher to communicate to each students all the time.
January 4, 2016 at 4:51 pm
Edward Allen’s “Notes to Myself” serves as a broad, straightforward and relatively concise guide to effective teaching. Nearly all of Allen’s “notes” resonated with me – not only as they relate to architectural education, but classroom education in general. While several of Allen’s points could be called common sense, others are traits of successful teaching that are often overlooked or go unnoticed by students; pointing them out in the way Allen does is useful and worthwhile.
Allen’s note that the first ten minutes of class is crucial for earning the lasting engagement of the students is spot on. A “vivid physical demonstration”, as Allen writes, commands students’ attention from the get-go, yet I have sat in countless classes where the instructor hasn’t heeded this advice. An interesting start to a lecture not only ensures a higher level of engagement from the class, but also sets the tone for future lectures, which in turn gets students excited – in theory – about the course overall.
The mention of computer technology – how it should be known well before being included in teaching – also hit home. It is frustrating for students to observe instructors struggling with technology that they may not be quite up to speed on, and this can lead to wasted time. Besides, architecture students today spend so much of their time using a whole array of computer programs that a simple presentation, carried by the passion and knowledge of the instructor, can often be more effective.
Allen’s suggestion to “scrap the syllabus” sounds impractical to me. Sure, a free-flowing, unscheduled curriculum, developed on-the-fly as topics come up, sounds great, but the schedules, commitments, and needs for time management for both teachers and students makes this unrealistic.
December 10, 2015 at 9:46 pm
Designed to fail. Inspired to grow.
The Third Teacher is an incredible recourse. This book discusses 79 different ways that design can transform teaching and learning. In the beginning of the book, the authors introduced their goals and philosophies about design and why they decided to write this text. They talk about the importance of design within education and how it if forever evolving.
In the beginning of chapter one are facts about the affects the school environment on students.
“American school children missed 12 million days of school in 2000 due to asthma.”
“The air is unfit to breathe in nearly 15,000 schools.”
“Research indicates that high leaves of background noise, much of it from heating and cooling systems, adversely affects learning environments, particularly for young children who require optimal conditions for hearing and comprehension.” (pg 26-27)
I knew there was an issue, and I knew schools were not designed well but I did not realize how terrible the conditions truly were. Where are our priorities? What will it take to create a better place for education? How, as architects, can we let it get this bad?
The fact that hurt me the most out of all the ones that I read, “The large majority of schools are built not to optimize health and comfort, but rather to achieve a minimum level of design performance at the lowest cost.” That is terrible. We have created an atmosphere that is encouraging and forcing our youth to fail. One school is noted to be next to a fossil fuel plant that spews out toxic metals. As architects, isn’t it our job to protect and design for health, safety and welfare? Guideline number 4 states that it is important to “put the safety before study” (page 35). Of course a child needs to feel safe and in order to learn. Why would we create a space or design a situation or an environment where they feel insecure? This book has created guidelines for what I feel should be already obvious. It is a beautiful read and incredibly designed. I will refer this book often to remind myself why I am in this field; to be both an architect and an educator. The concepts are brought down to a personal level that everyone can relate to and demand in their own communities.
December 1, 2015 at 9:14 pm
After reading Edward Allen’s article I got mix feelings, because in a way I wish I had read these notes 5 years ago, but in the other hand I probably I couldn’t relate to them or understand his advises as a I do now.
In overall the article addresses many issues I have faced or I that could relate to, which many times has lead me to questioning my teaching methods. As architect we aren’t taught how teach architecture or to have a clear methodology, we don’t have architectural pedagogy. We teach base on our experiences or from our professional background of our own design process. For me this has been huge gap in architecture schools, since the Bauhaus, in which our teaching methods for design studios in a globalized world hasn’t been able to find a clear perspective and identity of what today is architecture as it did in the past. Maybe is sustainability?
That experience also relates to idea that we find ourselves many times with professors who come from the same architecture schools culture, so there might be a style, an approach that might get to be pass on, from this notion we teach from our experiences. This could lead many times that we stay in a comfort zone, where we don’t take risk or change methods to make our teaching more dynamic and engaging our students attentions. I know I have done that, and have found that my students are not motivated or engaged, they are aware of what’s is expect from my classes and know how to work around that. This has translated many times through their work, in only responding to the minimal requirements and not searching or developing ideas further, due to lack of motivation and engagement to learn in the class, which also relates to my lack of new strategies o methods in my teaching.
To address some of the following strategies that Allen describes; ” Involved students actively in every class you teach”, “Treasure your quirky, offhand ideas”, “Break up the hour” and teach through “Hands on” experiences, are some of the challenges I think we face as future professors, I know I would really like to improved and get better at, which I think could ultimately enhance the learning process of my students.
One issue that was not directly describe in the reading, that I think should also be consider is how to address motivation in an era where students don’t seen to be personally motivated as well as impress by. This era is all about instant thinking or fast solution response, which has been push on by the technological environment we have created. With the advances of technology media, we are confronted with a new generation of students as well as new architecture problems to resolve. In which I believe architecture teaching should evolved from the classical methods to new ones that could address the new ways of thinking and design. Which could lead us to the new perspective as well as understanding of architecture today. We need to find ways of how we could re-interpret technology so that it could be our allied rather than our enemy.
November 28, 2015 at 3:51 pm
n Allen’s Notes to Myself, he presents several points of advice for teaching, and while his advice is mostly directed towards technical teachers in this book, they can certainly be applied to all subjects. His advice asks for the teacher to create a personal relationship with the students: make eye contact with each of the students, respect them, and keep them engaged in their learning. These days it seems schools would rather have teachers as impartial as possible for some reason or other, but according to Allen, that is simply not the way to become a great teacher or teach effectively. You must take the time to care for and know each of your students in order to best help them succeed. You must give the students a reason to care about what they are learning because you care about them and what you are teaching.
Another point of advice Allen makes, which I very much agree with, is putting the computer in its place. In this day and age computers are everywhere and used everyday, and though they can provide copious amounts of information, they are not always the best teaching tools. From my own experience I can attest to the importance of knowing when to use the computer and when not to. For my middle school Algebra class, my teacher pretty much taught the class through some computer math program. If you clicked around enough you could “answer” the question, and even when you answered incorrectly, the program did not explain why. Needless to say, I didn’t really learn how to actually work through the problems, or gain very much understanding. It was all very exciting to have a computer program teach math, but the teacher let her be replaced by the computer and lost the connection with her students.
The most surprising points of advice Allen gives are to “quite quizzing” and “scrap the syllabus.” After his explanations, they make sense. There are students who are good test takers and there are those that are not, and even then quizzes cannot always test applied knowledge. The syllabus is not something I expected to be mentioned at all in this reading. I viewed it as a requirement, and therefore did not question its usefulness. And while a syllabus can be helpful for general overall planning, it may not work so well when applied to technical teaching or similar subjects. The example Allen gives is when he assigned his students a design project to design a wood-framed shelter house, and based his lectures off the needs of his students. Honestly this was a revolutionary idea for me because I had never really known a teacher to do this, technical teacher or any other teacher, until recently. For a teacher to base his or her lesson plans on the need of the student shows how involved the teacher is in the student’s education, as well as giving the student a voice in what they are learning.
Many of Allen’s points probably do need to be read by every teacher as a good reference for what it takes to be a successful teacher. It does not include grades or having everything planned out, but has everything to do with caring for and paying attention to the students and their needs. Continuously assessing teaching methods, and how students are reacting to activates and assignments are important to ensuring students get the most out of their learning experience.
November 28, 2015 at 2:58 pm
Allen’s Notes to Myself gives us some great tips on communication and professional relationships in the classroom and outside of it. What was really interesting to me though was seeing Allen’s comment on ‘putting the computer in its place.’ If anything, it’s become more difficult to do that in the classroom since 2001, and therefore more important to reiterate to today’s teachers. It’s hard to get across the basic concepts and principles that architecture students need to learn and teach them the technology that has become the platform for working in the field. He talks about ‘making math the servant, not the master,’ as well, and this is a direct parallel to how we should probably be thinking about computers today- tools to teach material, rather than the material itself.
I was also really interested in what Allen had to say about scrapping the syllabus. Building a project rather than a plan for disseminating material makes for a more engaging classroom, but can also be more difficult to plan for if you are relatively new to teaching. It seems like studios may be taught this way more frequently because there is built-in space for exploration, while technical courses often are structured around lectures. Getting rid of the syllabus in technical teaching may not be so difficult, though. In Allen’s 2006 keynote lecture to BTES, he drives home the point that teaching technology in architecture should be focused around teaching students to ‘get the form right.’ If this is the end goal, I think that scrapping the syllabus becomes far doable. The focus turns to the application of technology and using technology as a tool, and projects become the structure for the course but can be adjusted as students advance.
November 28, 2015 at 1:31 pm
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the short article, “Notes to Myself” by Edward Allen. After reading through the first time, I revisited the article several weeks later. I found that the same paragraph jumped out at me both times. This paragraph is the first in the article and speaks of the importance of being a passionate teacher. I have found that in all aspects of life, passion goes a long way, whether in the professional, academic, or personal realms of life. Thinking to all the teachers I have had, the ones that have been most enjoyable are the teachers who are truly excited to share their knowledge. Passion is contagious, and when a teacher is excited about a subject, this tends to catch on.
I like that this concept is presented first in the article. It makes it obvious that Allen places a heavy importance on this rather intangible aspect of teaching. You can have an extremely knowledgeable person, but without a visible passion and excitement for the subject matter, it is difficult to engage students and be an effective teacher.
Another idea presented in the article that resonated with me is “the best way to teach design is to engage students in designing.” There are many different scales at which designing can occur. I believe that design should not just happen in studio, it should occur in all classes, especially in the technical classes. It is through the process of designing that students become invested and engaged in a subject. The act of designing requires a more critical level of thinking to produce their own work and apply concepts they have learned to their own projects. To me, designing is a more effective tool than a worksheet or quiz.
This article provided great insight for what teachers and educators in the field of design should aspire to be. As a GTF this term, I feel that I have already found many of these ideas to be true. I hope to continue to apply these ideas to my opportunities to teach in the future as well.
November 25, 2015 at 10:06 pm
Erik Barth
TTC Reading Response: Notes To Myself, Edward Allen
The two ideas I found most relevant in Allen’s Notes to Myself are the importance of relationship-based teaching and applying math and science as a means and not an ends to technical design.
Allen paints a picture of teaching as the quintessential successful relationship. At the very core of a teacher’s motivation is love for the subject matter, for the students, and for the act of teaching. He uses words like ‘smitten’, ‘unexpected’ and ‘risky’ to describe positive teaching traits, all of which make for an interesting relationship. Impacting someone else in any way requires some level of personal relationship. Learning requires personal investment in the material. When the teacher does not take the initiative to form some type of relationship with students and the class as a whole, there is less chance of personal investment on the part of the students and subsequently less learning. As Allen writes, relationships are a two way street. Student engagement requires a variety of traits that all rest on a teacher caring deeply about the subject matter and student growth.
Another important distinction that Allen makes is the difference between teaching technical subjects apart from and integrated with design. Using math, computers, or other science/math methods can quickly take over as the ends and not the means. Science and math methodology as an ends and not a means is problematic in several ways. Primarily, it decreases the value of design in the creation process. Design is already devalued in our society. Architects are seen as an unnecessary commodity for the rich and powerful in modern day America. Teaching students that a computer can design a building certainly doesn’t restore faith in the fundamental value of applied design. Secondly, promoting scientific methodology as an ‘ends’ takes the wind out of the sails of any student whose focus and purpose is design. Architecture is a hard profession fueled by the desire to create. To take the creative, fun dimension out of the grueling process makes it just that. Fortunately, as Allen notes, the inverse of this pitfall is true. When math and science are correctly applied to design, design becomes all the more interesting and complex. It is for precisely this reason that I love architecture. It is the only profession I’ve found that still honestly exists at the intersection of science and art. It is relevant, but also abstract, concrete, but also dynamic, practical, but also theoretical. To truly fulfill the potential role of architects in our society, students need to recognize and employ this fundamental truth.
Notes to Myself revealed to me why I am passionate about teaching technical subjects. I truly believe in design-based technical education to encourage architects to reach their full potential. Love for the subject matter and a clear vision for what that subject matter is and should be encourage me to continue as a teacher.
November 16, 2015 at 11:41 pm
“The most important thing about teaching is love. Love your subject matter. Love the act of teaching. Love your students. If you truly love everything there is to love about the teaching situation, students will perceive your love, and they will seek to develop such a love for themselves. It’s contagious.”
Understanding the truth of being an educator is what got me to where I am today and a huge reason why I chose Oregon to begin with. Recognizing that educating others is the beauty of why our culture and world grow. Being able to see actual teaching tools that help engage students and present enjoyment in a course is so helpful. Knowing that there is a simple creation of relationship that happens and that is what keeps your students around, asking questions and determining their advancement. Getting the point across, considering that not all teaching methods work for everything and that creative moments no matter what the subject matter happens to be of high importance *(3, Allen).
Also, the important fact that all students are of value and have something to give. Even if a comment or piece of work doesn’t directly pertain to whatever is being taught, allowing students to have a chance in conversation and just listening is part of respect in the mentor/mentee relationship. Along side of this, also involving the entire class in making decisions and also testing/building projects and demonstrations (3, Allen). Being able to have a variable in teaching style will allow students to know that you’re catering to several styles of learning. Finally, just realizing that many students are going to learn technical cooperations of design in the field, and there are so many other ways to spend time to help students truly grasp the technical and design aspect without the need of what you know they will learn beyond school (8, Allen).
*Citations based of the pages of packet and not actual book pages
November 16, 2015 at 7:30 pm
In general these are great suggestions for teaching, relationships or a career!
• Project enthusiasm for your subject matter
• Commence your lecture with a sense of urgency
• Maintain eye contact
• Technology is like salt, a little goes a long way and too much ruins the dish
• Do not ridicule students
• Teach design
• Include elements of risk
• Do not be predictable
• Engage students through participation
• Never lecture beyond 20 minutes
• Believe in your subject and your class
• Its better to teach a little well that a lot poorly
• Savor originality
• Refrain from unnecessary elaboration or frivolities
• Start in the middle
• Teach what the students want to learn
• A good design project is the ultimate test
Allen’s composition is well written and concise. However, there are a few tenets of teaching that have been overlooked. Here are additions based on my personal experience:
• Teach to the student not to the class. Students have a wide range of experiences and knowledge. Use language that stimulates the advanced students but is plain enough to guide the remedial students through the lesson. Ensure that everyone is able to push their boundary without drawing attention their levels of knowledge. I once taught a continuing education course on building envelopes. I had 10 professional engineers and 35 project managers. We broke into teams and I asked the engineers to design an envelope solution and teach the details to their team of project managers. Then, I asked the project managers to evaluate the cost and schedule implications of the project. This way, both professions were engaged, respected, and able to learn something new.
• Relationships are key. In life and in school, your ability to connect and relate to others will support your future goals. Always allow dedicated time for students to get to know each other or provide opportunities for students work with together. Students will learn interpersonal skills and learn to be accountable to their peers not just those in a position of authority.
• Make it personal. Each student has a story. A good teacher draws out the story and figures out how their class or subject will support the student’s overall objective. Only the teacher has the depth and breadth of knowledge of the subject to see how it might relate or support the student in future. Unless the student can make the personal connection that your class is relevant for their success they will not prioritize the effort required to complete the class.
November 15, 2015 at 6:24 pm
“If you’re not totally smitten with the subject matter that you teach, you can’t expect your students to get excited about it.”
This quote from Edward Allen introduces his framework for succeeding as a teacher and could be used to validate each of his following points. If you’re passionate about what you’re teaching, you’ll teach in such a way to engage students, respect their learning, make the content approachable, tailor assignments and tests to develop understanding, and so on.
Courses in technical subjects are often more difficult for students since they are not just conceptual but are very specialized and mathematical. I think what Edward Allen conveys in his message is that every good teacher finds a balance between concrete analysis and general understanding. A teacher is laying the foundation for the understanding of a topic that will grow over time and with experience. This relates to the statement that you cannot cover a subject in a single course. I think this is important to communicate to students early on. It can be overwhelming to think about trying to master a subject in a term or two. It is most important to show students how to apply what they are learning in the future and arm them with the tools to do so.
Teaching through a variety of mediums and activities also helps to reach more students as everyone is unique in how they learn. This is where “quirky, offhand ideas,” hands on activities, and risks can make a big difference. Not one assignment or activity is going to be a fully effective learning tool for every student. If you mix it up, you’re making opportunities for more students to have those “Aha!” moments.
I appreciate Allen’s command to “involve students actively in every class you teach.” Even if you don’t engage students in an activity during a lecture, pausing and inviting questions allows students to ask for clarification and encourages curiosity. I’ve been observing a lecture course this Fall term where the professor rarely pauses, and rarely asks for class involvement. The lectures are very interesting and very informed, but it’s obvious when reading student assignments that they don’t always comprehend the subject material. Questions during lectures often cause the teacher to explain the material in a new manner, with different vocabulary that can bridge missed connections. Simple gestures like this help create student-teacher relationships and create the dialog Allen says is necessary to teach effectively.
The one directive Allen states that I don’t completely agree with is “Scrap the syllabus.” I think a syllabus gives direction to a course and is a necessary visual for some students to organize their progress through a course. However, it is just as necessary to be able to deviate from a syllabus and cater teaching as the course unfolds. Balance, like most things in life, is key.
I think what Allen’s notes on teaching encourage are approachable teachers, and approachable teachers easily become effective teachers. Show students passion, respect, enthusiasm, and a sincere desire to pass on knowledge, and not only will you be a successful teacher, but you’ll have successful students.
October 30, 2015 at 1:49 pm
Notes to Myself | Edward Allen
Reading this article introduced me to the idea that all teachers must be engaged in their subject of teaching as well as the class itself. “If you’re not totally smitten with the subject matter that you teach, you can’t expect you students to get excited about it.” The theory behind this is that as a teach one must be enthusiastic about the way they teach and what they are teaching. It is very important to know that each class starts off with about a ten minute window to fully engage the class. This is crucial because engaging the students allows them to be fully drawn into what you are teaching. Without that you’ve completely lost the class. From a students point of view I know what a class will be like in the first few minutes based on how the teacher is engaging the class or how the teacher is presenting themselves. Without a quick engagement, I feel bored an uninterested at times. Another key point from the reading was the idea of scraping the syllabus, although I do agree and disagree that the syllabus is an important part of a course. I personally think that there are arguments for having it and not. Allen states that students learn best when they’re not following a syllabus, but learn better when they are working on a particular project that forces them to learn things in order to continue. “Your design of the project and your ability to lecture and demonstrate on an impromptu basis create a virtual syllabus and a uniquely effective learning experience.” I understand that that may seem great, but having a syllabus may also be an effective way of keeping up with the requirements of the course. I guess to better put it, some majors can benefit from a syllabus and some majors cannot. The more hands on major and project oriented subjects may be better without one. My favorite part of the article is when Allen stated you as the teacher must lead your students to expect the unexpected and do something that will allow your students to come back to the next class. I think its important to make class an interesting experience and to get the class to become fully engaged with in class activities.
Overall, without a doubt to be successful in teaching as a teacher you must be fully active in class and be fully aware of how to participate your students in the subject matter. To be enthusiastic, entertaining, intuitive, instructive and so on are all important key aspects of the learning style. You’ll be amazed how something so subtle can create an enormous impact in todays classroom.
October 28, 2015 at 1:02 pm
Note to Myself
Reading Response
Max Moore
Reading through this, there were so many simple tips and thoughtful anecdotes that this should be required reading for all teachers. I wish that I had had the opportunity to read this before my own teaching experiences, there are many points that apply for much more then technical teaching. Now I’m going to focus on just a few of the points that I found especially valuable and that often teachers don’t do.
Start Fast – This makes perfect sense that students will choose whether to engage in the first 5 mins of class. This means that starting class with the classic overview or history or what we will go over today is not the best choice. Yet, still I see many professors making this mistake. Class starts, lights go down, professor start talking and 10 mins later I look around the class and 5 students are asleep. Starting quickly gets more students involved in the lecture.
Break Up the Hour – I think that this is one of the most important ideas and also one of the most common mistakes. It’s hard to just sit and listen for 60 mins without any variation even with a fresh cup of coffee. Also lecturing is only applying to a few of the many learning types, and a lot of interesting research has recently come out that says that classic lecturing style is discriminatory toward first generation college students. This must change! In my ARCH 570 ( course with Erin Moore, she has done a wonderful job of breaking up the hour with drawings, material examinations, short videos, demonstrations, field trips and clicker quizzes. This makes the class much more interesting.
I did have one question about the section Quit Quizzing. Although I do agree that quizzes only really test rote learning, I think that it makes students more involved (worried about there grades) about what their learning. Also in basic technical classes vocabulary and terminology is very important and quizzes are a great way to make sure students know that.
I found Note to Myself a pleasure to read and full of great information.
March 19, 2015 at 4:54 pm
Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire – Rafe Esquith
I chose to post my thoughts on Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire. The title alone provokes an interesting mental image and the book is equally thought provoking. In it, author and teacher Rafe Esquith, makes connections to art, science, music, physical education, economics and more in his 5th grade classroom. Immediately what stood out most were his unconventional methods for teaching. Taking a full step back from the book and blackboard methods, he did a tremendous job analyzing how his students digest information and placed focus on how the learn. Games, experiments, and participation all found their way into Rafe’s classroom on a regular basis. He actually goes out of his way to define failure and make it a positive thing. It’s not the first time I’ve heard a teacher do this. There is a TED talk with Rita Pierson that is really fantastic. She recalls a time that she gave a 20 point quiz with a student that missed 18. She put a +2 and a smiley face instead of a -18 and an F. She told the student “they were on a roll, they got 2 correct.” Both Rita and Rafe make the same assertion that learning from failure is one of the best types of learning. For students to be able to take risks and learn from them is one of the most important lessons Rafe gives them.
It seems mostly that it’s the extra mile that Rafe goes for his students that makes the most difference. He spends hundreds of hours after school with students putting together a Shakespeare play for the end of the year. Instead of correcting their mistakes during a science lesson building rockets, he allows them to build them, to make errors, and then stays late after school to help them find out why their rocket didn’t work. What I took away most from the reading is that after the assignment is given, the most important part of helping students learn is giving them feedback and discovering why they got something wrong. Allow students to take risks, make mistakes and then most importantly, learn from them.