After many years in the classroom, in conjunction with many years of mentoring other teachers, David Irving, associate professor of Film in the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, offers some practical advice in a succinct and highly accessible volume of techniques and strategies for beginning educators in the new book Elements of College Teaching (Atwood Press, 2011).
Most educators come to teaching with vast subject matter expertise, but limited classroom experience. This text is for them. It offers pragmatic guidelines and suggestions in easily managed bits. For those interested ingoing deeper, there are suggestions for further study.
Drawing upon his own experience in film and the transition he made to the classroom, Irving highlights some techniques that serve both professions. He explains that the issues that he faced in moving to the classroom are the issues that all new educators encounter. He exhorts teachers to use movement, voice, and theatrical techniques to help with the transmission of knowledge in the classroom.
Further, drawing upon his experiences as a department chair, Irving sees the important role that a chair has in fostering the growth of the new educators. He suggests that chairs can do much to assist. However, the most universally helpful part of the book is in the clear, unambiguous techniques and strategies for classroom and career success.
Irving is the winner of the Tisch School’s 2007 David Payne Carter Award for Teaching Excellence. He is also the author of the awarding winning textbook Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video (Focal Press, 4th edition 2010), and Fundamentals of Film Directing (MacFarland Press 2010).