Bok Center's Teaching Orientation offers a lot of helpful advice for both new and experienced teachers

By Alvin Powell

Contributing Writer

Teach not just with facts, but with passion.

That was the message given to hundreds of teaching fellows who attended Harvard's Winter Teaching Orientation Tuesday at the Science Center and at 2 Divinity Ave.

The orientation, organized by the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, is designed to help first-time teaching fellows run a class and to give more experienced teachers a chance to learn new strategies and new ways to reach students.

During 21 small workshops and two large lecture sessions, prospective teachers heard topics ranging from how to survive the first day of class to communication breakdowns to grading student work.

The day was capped by a panel discussion among three of Harvard's most popular lecturers: Marjorie Garber, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English Language and Literature; Dudley R. Herschbach, a Nobel laureate and the Frank B. Baird Professor of Science, and Thomas F. Kelly, professor of music.

The three offered different tips and insights to the 150 people in the audience, but they also sounded the same theme: bring life to your subject and teach the basic mysteries with the same excitement that you felt when you first discovered them.

"If you're just walking through it, everyone will know," Garber said. "It has to be as if you're discovering it for the first time."

The panel discussion was preceded by a talk about charisma by Nancy Houfek, vocal coach and teacher at the American Repertory Theatre. Houfek, who had people in the audience shaking arms, legs, and heads and projecting energy into the lecture hall walls, got people thinking about connecting with students not just with their subject matter but with their personal presence.

She gave several tips -- such as arriving early to survey the presentation space -- that aim to help a speaker be confident instead of fearful.

Houfek's session and the panel discussion kicked off a lecture series on teaching that will run through April. The series will feature Houfek; Everett I. Mendelsohn, professor of the history of science; Patricia Rathbone, visiting lecturer on counseling and psychology; and Daniel L. Goroff, senior lecturer in the Mathematics Department and Bok Center associate director.

The intended message was not lost on Harvard's teachers. Nancy Watterson, a preceptor in expository writing, said she was impressed by the message that teachers must really believe in their subject matter to get it across to students. She liked the sessions so much she plans to attend the rest of the series.

"I thought it was great," Watterson said. "I'm going to all of them."