I've been storing up thoughts from my time shadowing MaryAnn in figure drawing. So what I noticed from the beginning was that the professor had a lot of presence. Her way of teaching, from what I could tell initially, is based around structure. From moment one, she let them all know how class would be structured, time-wise. She came off a bit strong, and called people out without hesitation when they were talking amongst themselves while she was trying to talk. I'd thought about how I would be able to create a rapport with my future students. Knowing my personality, I thought that something along the lines of kind respect and personal attention might earn me enough respect over time that they would fall in line with how I structured class because I'd have given them reason to want to show me respect. Before I could even ask her her thoughts on this, she'd basically become a drill sergeant of sorts. At first, this was slightly shocking because she could seem a bit cross, but I've come to see over time that she merely wanted to scare off the people who were on the fence about the class early, as well as give the class clear expectations for how their behavior would be received early on. In a way it was very eye-opening. And while no two teachers will handle their students in exactly the same way, now I see how well-trained they've become.
- sergelballif