Monday, September 29, 2008

Teaching Matters!

Amidst the celebrations of the University's centennial, I have been born. I will spend my life wandering this campus as a testament to the role of teaching in the undergraduate experience, and will seek out excellence in teaching wherever it may lie.

I will visit classrooms and libraries, governance committees and professional development sessions. I will spend time with students and deans, with administrators and instructors. Most of all, I will listen to students -- students who are in the unique position to engage directly with their instruction -- who tell me about the quality of teaching in their courses.

It is because of these students that I am here. But it is for their instructors that I wander. Every month, I will make my way to a new instructor, an instructor who has exemplified the quality teaching that defines undergraduate experiences here at the UofA, an instructor who has demonstrated to everyone that Teaching Matters!