"If we expect students to be winners and expect them to do well, they will rise to the occasion." --- Jaime Escalante
Teachers are the pillars of our civilized society.
Teaching is the process of building knowledgeable and responsible human being
with a prosperous future. I love teaching and am proud of being part of the
process of building better life.
Instruction coupled with facilitation is the key to have
effective and productive teaching. In my newly developed course, Web Server
Administration and Security, after three weeks of lecturing and preparation, I
immediately give students a big picture of the field through their installing
and configuring Linux, Apache web server, MySql database and JBoss Application
Server with minimum PHP programming. Using this basic web infrastructure, I
motivate students to ask questions and to learn details, and cultivate them to
modify and to extend the infrastructure. With web technology changing
constantly, I like to foster and build such an environment that students are
ready for critical thinking and discussion, rather to give a solution. This
instruction and facilitation process help students to memorize the main contents
and to develop their logical thinking quickly.
Discipline coupled with respect is the key to give positive
learning experience to students. The dynamics between teachers and students is
no longer to be unpleasantness and open antagonism. Respect, fairness, clear
policy and authority are my approaches to influence students in one way or
another. Many my students tell me that I am more like a friend than a professor,
which I expect from them.
Lastly, for courses like Software Engineering that are hard
to give real industrial experience to students in a class environment, I work
even hard to design term projects from real world problems, show them the useful
tools such as source code control, which is not taught in school in general, and
update course materials to reflect trends such as agile programming approach .
Teaching skills are not nature born characters; a PhD degree
does not warrant a successful instructor. I benefit a lot from the Provost
pedagogical seminar and the materials provided by the University of Phoenix
online. They key is to expect students to be winners and expect them to do well,
and they will rise to the occasion.
In summary, teaching is fun.
Courses Taught (All the course materials are posted in webCT)
- CISC 471: Software Engineerng
- CISC/MATH 417 Mathematical Modeling
- CISC 359 Web Site Administration and Security
- CISC 385 Cryptography & Computer Security
- CISC 238 Graphical User Interface Application Development
- CISC 231 Foundations of Computing II (Java II)
- CISC 131 Foundations of Computing I (Java I)
- MATH 260 Calculus I
- MATH/ECON 122: Statistics
- CISC/MATH 120 Introduction to Computers and Application Software
- MATH 115: Mathematics for Liberal Arts
- Capstone Projects Mentors for Dean Qudah and Maurice Ford, 2006