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RECOGNITION OF GOOD TEACHING
While the most important thing for me is to satisfy my own sense
of having done well, getting recognition is always welcome. Thus, I
am most gratified by my teaching awards and the articles about my
teaching in various publications. Perhaps most meaningful is being
invited as a "favorite" teacher to events such as Alumni Reunions,
receiving letters from former students, or being the professor that
students want to look up while in town.
Getting recognition serves an important purpose beyond personal
satisfaction: it brings attention to good teaching per se, not just
my teaching, but teaching in general. Promoting good teaching has
been an important motivation also in my securing teaching grants.
Many of the things I did with the help of grants I would have done
anyway, though more slowly. However, I felt that getting grants would
focus attention on the classroom and promote good teaching across the
University.
Teaching awards:
- University of Virginia Alumni Association Young Teacher Award,
1979
- Runner-up, National Endowment for the Humanities,
Distinguished Teaching Professor award, 2001
Other recognition:
- The parents of one of my students were so impressed with the
instruction that she received in my courses that, when the family
suffered the misfortune of the student dying in a car crash, they
gave a scholarship in her honor and asked that I chair the
scholarship selection committee. The purpose of the scholarship is
to recognize intellectual growth during the freshman year.
- Invited as a "favorite teacher" reunion functions, 1991, 1992,
2001
- Invited to give a lecture to the Lilly Teaching Fellows,
1993
- Arts and Sciences Newsletter Of Arts and Sciences article
about my teaching, Winter, 1992
Teaching grants:
- University of Virginia Teaching and Technology Initiative to
develop a searchable Slavic folklore database, 2000
- American Council of Teachers of Russian for a Russian language
pedagogue, 1994-96
- International Research Exchanges Board for a Teaching
Assistant from Tuva, to study American teaching methods,
1994-95
- University of Virginia Academic Computing Program to develop
computer-assisted Russian language instruction, 1994-95
- Teaching Resource Center at the University of Virginia to
develop a new course in the methodology of teaching Russian,
1992
- Dean of the Faculty, University of Virginia, to develop a new
set of folklore courses, 1991. These courses are now cross-listed
with Women's Studies and meet the non-Western perspectives
requirement
- University of Virginia Academic Computing Program to develop
computer-assisted language instruction: access to Russian
television broadcasts and to the Listening Comprehension
Electronic Network, 1990.
- Council of Higher Education, State of Virginia grant to
implement proficiency-oriented language instruction, written in
conjunction with the Departments of French, Spanish and German:
permitted university-wide language curriculum restructuring,
1986-88.
- Council of Higher Education, State of Virginia seed money to
initiate the summer Foreign Language Institute, 1979-81. The
Institute has grown to include additional languages and a
study-abroad component. Russian study abroad at the University of
Kazan began 1996.
Teaching Grants in Conjunction with Other Institutions
- with Penn State &endash; National Endowment for the Humanities
to write a computer-adaptive Russian listening comprehension test,
1995
- with the University of Illinois &endash; National Endowment
for the Humanities grant for a series of seminars on women in the
Slavic world; I taught a two-week summer seminar on women and
folklore, 1989
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