May 13, 2022
A little-known secret around campus is that our professors were once students. Nervous, confused, and probably as hungry as we all are while sitting through lectures, here are their first experiences as professors and what tips they have to offer for students taking their courses.Humanizing Our Professors: Rebecca Stone ThornberryTheatre Department: Green Bay and Marinette Campuses
In a room considerably bigger than the classrooms she works in today, Professor Stone Thornberry had her first teaching experience as a graduate student for the Ohio State University, where she was tasked with three 30-student discussion groups twice a week (only 90 of 500 students in that Intro to Theatre lecture hall, the largest in the country at the time). She recalls being nervous as she was buried in papers for grading and classroom preparation. And who wouldn’t be if that many eyes were watching?The professor has a great way of teaching in which she strongly believes in being flexible with students’ due dates and methods of completing assigned work, blending the perfect balance of soft deadlines with hard ones. By soft, she emphasizes the ones that can be completed in a loose span of time if necessary, and by hard she means things like exams, which mimic theatre dates, that absolutely can’t be put off. To be successful in her courses, students should be able to manage both, taking her lessons to heart. Additionally, the Professor insists that no student put off what can be completed that day; that way they have time to ask for help should they need it. Above all, she wants her students to do well. And I can most certainly attest that her advice works for all fields of study.