The soft skills of teaching

The fall semester has begun, and I’m back in the classroom teaching a course called Proactive Ministry in a Media Culture. After teaching online all summer, it’s a joy to engage face-to-face with students in the classroom again. Online classes have their place, mind you, but there’s nothing like a live classroom. That arena is the most exhilarating, most exhausting, most challenging work I do all week.

I teach with a social-constructivist pedagogy. This brings out a constant stream of fast-paced, important, in-the-moment decisions. It started, this week, the second I walked in. The tables weren’t ideally arranged, but they were pretty close. Should we take the time and energy to take two out of the rectangle so we were closer together? Yes. Seeing each other well, and leaving few empty seats at the table, helps to build the learning community.

Then there are my opening questions that require everyone to share something of themselves, and some connection with the reading, because every voice matters, and students are much more likely to speak again if they speak once early in class.