True or false: most students are lazy, brainless idiots, who show little thanks for the knowledge they receive, have little appreciation for the teachers or mentors they have, and pour as little effort as they can into their school work while still hoping to get a passing grade.
False. Incredibly false. By personal experience, I’ve seen students raving about fantastic professors and TAs just as much as I’ve seen them complain about those not-so-fantastic counterparts. Nevertheless, when a professor is bad, he receives a chorus of whines and moans (and some of these go straight to the faculty). However, when a TA can’t communicate a word to you, there are instant complaints against her. But when terrific professors, or TAs, come along, they get … nothing.
I know students aren’t as selfish, or as spiteful, as the last two paragraphs make them out to be—which is why I’m imploring you to nominate your fantastic professors and TAs for consideration in Sandford Fleming Teaching Assistant Awards, or the Center for Teaching Excellence Distinguished Teaching Awards.
Sandford Fleming TA awards, provided by the Sandford Fleming Foundation, recognize exceptional teaching assistants in the Faculty of Engineering. Classes can nominate their best TAs once a semester, and each department in engineering will select one laureate from their list of nominees. My class has been fortunate enough to receive at least half-a-dozen amazing TAs over our three academic terms, and we nominated four in our first year. Plus, the nomination forms are quick and easy to fill out, and they’re due before the last day of lectures. That’s right—you have an entire semester to fill them out! Pick up your nomination forms either in the Orifice, at the SFF website, or in the First Year Undergraduate Office. (The TA laureates also get a nice cash prize, and an invitation to the Dean’s Dinner for a free meal, to boot.)
Nominations for the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Distinguished Teacher Awards (DTA) take more work to complete, but they are certainly worth the prestige. The Center for Teaching Excellence is an organization in Waterloo devoted to enriching teaching and learning. Distinguished Teaching Awards honor the very best in teaching, not just professors, but also lecturers, instructors, and any part-time or full-time faculty member who has made a lasting contribution to students. CTE Teaching Awards are among the highest teaching awards given out by the University of Waterloo. Up to 4 recipients are given the award yearly, and these recipients are presented annually at the UW Senate meeting.
For a teacher to be considered for a DTA, the committee requires that a minimum of ten two-page nomination letters be in the teacher’s file, with at least five of them from past and present students. DTA awards are given to teachers based on criteria such as teaching approaches, “evidence of work with colleagues to promote teaching”, and awards given by other societies (including student societies such as EngSoc). A similar award exists for student teachers (such as teaching assistants) by the CTE, called the Amit & Meena Chakma Award for Exceptional Teaching by a Student (“AETS”). The nomination criteria for AETS are nearly as rigorous as for CTEs, but, unlike the Sandford Fleming, AETS is open to TAs across any faculty.
Of course, the million-dollar-question is: why? Why would you want to nominate a dedicated and hardworking teacher for such a prestigious award? Why would you want to take out a few good hours used to round up a load of information and write a nomination letter about your professor or TA?
Because, first, the only way we can promote good teaching is by recognizing good teaching. We can sit around all day and complain about the bad teachers, but it will do us very little good. Instead, how about we try revising our approach and use a basic idea of behavior studies: to promote a good behavior, find a good behavior… and reward it! Many teachers and TAs aren’t recognized for their good teaching, which might lead to the impression that some students don’t care about good teaching.
More importantly, there are many teachers who deserve this recognition. We owe it to them. Remember that a professor doesn’t actually ‘get’ anything extra by being a good professor. For most professors, salaries don’t skyrocket because of good teaching ability, or by pouring hours into lesson plans or by having office hours every day. In fact, it’s almost the opposite: many times, professors who have better research than teaching are ranked higher than the professors who might be a little poorer in research, but tenfold better in teaching (due to the fact that it is good research that draws in grants). Of course, it is entirely the prerogative of the professor to decide how much time to dedicate to each aspect of his career, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t recognize and thank the outstanding teacher who has taken the time out of her busy schedule to improve the knowledge and understanding of her students.
The deadline for DTA and AETS are around February, so there’s still quite a bit of time left for you to nominate a professor. And frankly, look at how much help and support students have from their faculty: we have loads of awards that recognize outstanding leadership, amazing academic achievements, exceptional community service work, and more. It is the very least we can do to recognize some of the faculty members in return. Let’s show the faculty that we care as much about our education as they do.
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