2008 Woodie Awards
Four Professors honored with Sherrerd Teaching Awards
Frances Kingsbury
Issue date: 3/10/05 Section: News
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What do a professor of government, an associate professor of education and child study, an associate professor of art and a professor of English language and literature have in common? In the case of Patrick Coby, Susan Etheredge, Dana Leibsohn and William Oram, respectively, each is a winner of this year's Sherrerd Teaching Award.
This is the second year that professors have received the Sherrerd Teaching Awards. In a recent campus-wide email, President Carol Christ explained that Kathleen Compton Sherrerd '54 and John J. F. Sherrerd established the awards in the fall of 2002 "to recognize sustained and distinguished teaching records of long-time faculty and to encourage younger faculty whose demonstrated enthusiasm and excellence influences students and colleagues."
Students Zoe Feldman '06 and Meena Dev '07 and professors Randy Bartlett and David Cohen sit on the committee that picked this year's winners. Last fall the committee sent out a notice to all students asking them to nominate their favorite professors. Students sent emails to the committee explaining which professors they thought were deserving of the award and why. The committee also made fliers and chalkings to increase the visibility of the awards.
"Upwards of 100 people were nominated," said Feldman. "We had to go through every single one."
The committee first eliminated nominations that only included a name but no explanation and those that nominated people, such as lab assistants, who are not professors at Smith. Then the committee worked to narrow the choices down to a master list of 20 names. They brought the list to Provost/Dean of the Faculty Susan Bourque and discussed each nominee's faculty record sheet, "which gives a score for each professor and every course they've taught," and includes information from the course evaluations that students are required to fill out at the end of every semester, Feldman explained.
"Once we narrowed it down to 10, Meena and I sat in on the professors' classes," said Feldman. "We looked for persona, character, and how they interact with students."
This is the second year that professors have received the Sherrerd Teaching Awards. In a recent campus-wide email, President Carol Christ explained that Kathleen Compton Sherrerd '54 and John J. F. Sherrerd established the awards in the fall of 2002 "to recognize sustained and distinguished teaching records of long-time faculty and to encourage younger faculty whose demonstrated enthusiasm and excellence influences students and colleagues."
Students Zoe Feldman '06 and Meena Dev '07 and professors Randy Bartlett and David Cohen sit on the committee that picked this year's winners. Last fall the committee sent out a notice to all students asking them to nominate their favorite professors. Students sent emails to the committee explaining which professors they thought were deserving of the award and why. The committee also made fliers and chalkings to increase the visibility of the awards.
"Upwards of 100 people were nominated," said Feldman. "We had to go through every single one."
The committee first eliminated nominations that only included a name but no explanation and those that nominated people, such as lab assistants, who are not professors at Smith. Then the committee worked to narrow the choices down to a master list of 20 names. They brought the list to Provost/Dean of the Faculty Susan Bourque and discussed each nominee's faculty record sheet, "which gives a score for each professor and every course they've taught," and includes information from the course evaluations that students are required to fill out at the end of every semester, Feldman explained.
"Once we narrowed it down to 10, Meena and I sat in on the professors' classes," said Feldman. "We looked for persona, character, and how they interact with students."