Another Honors Faculty Panel Discussion

(From L to R) Jamie Brandon--Anthropology, Svetlana Paulson--History, Dan May--Art, and Julie Metro--Magale Library, gather around to see some of the materials Svetlana uses to teach her honors history students (the projector bulb in that room had burned out).

The SAU Honors College hosted another honors faculty panel discussion today. The first presenter, Dan May, spoke about his contract honors students enrolled in the film appreciation class. May assigns them a group project, making a film. Before they can make the film, they must write a script, storyboard the project, and then make the film itself. He wants them to work cooperatively because, being honors students, they seem to be naturally competitive. He warns them ahead of time that he expects they will resist working together, but adds that such workstyles are common in the world outside of college. In addition, May requires them to make the film in a certain style or genre. This year's class was required to make a film noir.

Svetlana Paulson spoke next. She discussed the difference between teaching honors classes and teaching classes to the regular student population. She teaches her honors classes in a completely different manner than her regular classes. She showed us one of her exams from world history I. It asked students to pretend they were the curator of a museum that was going to open an exhibit on ancient Egypt. She then gave them photographs of a "shipment" of 17 items. Their task was to classify and display in their museum. She also talked about her honors world history II class. There, she said, she uses food as an organizing theme. Students must pick a foodstuff (e.g., sugar, salt, bananas, wheat, and so on) and trace the history of use, cost, and transport, and other aspects.

Jamie Brandon, was the last speaker. He discussed his honors anthropology of popular culture class. He teaches that class in a manner reminiscent of a graduate school seminar class, he said. The class only has four students (none of whom have missed a class!) and meets one evening a week. This class, too, has an organizing theme: Vampires. Jamie noted that sustaining discussion about popular culture was very easy. However, focusing that discussion on the analytical aspects of popular culture was more difficult, he added.

After all had presented, the panelists engaged in a brief round of discussion about specific aspects of teaching honors. They discussed grading, note taking, testing, and exchanged ideas on how to improve their teaching. All believed that the session had been productive and looked forward to the next one (to be held early during the Fall 2010 semester).