Page 22 - ADU Smart Learning Center Issue 1

22

Faculty Spotlight

Interview with a faculty highlighting best practices in teaching and Learning

Having worked in both the industrial and higher educational sectors, Shannon is committed to helping others,
both in the workplace and in the community, to reach their potential through empathetic team-building, creative
problem-solving and lifelong learning. Accordingly, he has been involved in a wide range of activities, including
co-emceeing two annual Abu Dhabi University (ADU) dinners, participating in all Al Ain Campus initiatives,
implementing a Chancellor’s Innovation Award project at local schools, and mentoring speakers at local TEDx
events. Such interactions have helped to promote ADU and usually lead to long-term professional relationships.
Shannon also enjoys bringing people together and being part of teams organizing events, from regional
Toastmasters conferences to semi-annual reunions held around the world for Harlaxton College, UK alumni.
Since joining ADU in 2005, Shannon has served as the English Language Institute (ELI) Deputy Director, ADU
Knowledge Group Instructor, Senior Language Instructor, University College Coordinator for the Al Ain Campus
and as the College of Arts and Sciences Coordinator for the Al Ain Campus. In all of these capacities, he has served
as a facilitator who promotes opportunities, both on campus and off, for students and faculty to showcase their
strengths and talents. His writing and technical communication courses are well-known for encouraging students
to increase awareness of perhaps little known but important problems by exploring innovative solutions and then
presenting them in a fun, creative way. At the same time, he also has a reputation for being an empathetic and
efficient “go to” person who can be relied on to find the best solution for the given circumstances. As an instructor,
he is particularly interested in researching how to use non-traditional assessment approaches and provide
confidence – building feedback to bring out the best in his students.

Looking forward, one’s life path can seem so unclear. Looking backwards, all the dots along the path are
perfectly connected. I didn’t always plan for a career in education. In fact, I was fairly lost about what I
wanted to be and do “when I grew up” until I was already grown up. Graduating high school at 16, the only
plan I had was to get away from the dying steel town where I was raised. By age 20, I had already earned
a BA in International Relations and lived, worked and studied in Europe for two years. Returning to the US,
still with no real life plan, I joined a travel agent training course until I accepted a coordinating position in
a Berlitz program for some Saudia Airline technicians who were studying English at a small Midwestern
college before continuing their work-related training elsewhere. The list of problems encountered from
that experience could fill a small novel, but more importantly, I learned that getting a master’s degree in
Teaching English as a Foreign Language could open opportunities for me to work and travel overseas. Plus
it led me to having three Saudi roommates in grad school. In August 1986, I arrived in Riyadh for my first
overseas teaching position, beginning a 38-year journey of teaching and training in the Arabian Gulf. Half
of that journey has been spent at Abu Dhabi University.

American poet Maya Angelou once wrote, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will
forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Most of the events that helped
shape my approach to teaching happened in graduate school. For example, in my grammar class (as my
undergraduate degree was not related to languages, I was required to take an analytical course to relearn
the grammar rules I had forgotten since high school), I used to get so bored that I carried toothpicks to
jab myself to try to stay awake. Similarly, I’ll never forget the time I woke myself up snoring in the front
row during a lecture in my syntax class. Those days, before joining Toastmasters a decade later, I was
very shy. When the professor of the teaching practicum asked students if anyone still needed to do his /
her 20-minute teaching demo for the class, I hadn’t done it, but neither did I raise my hand. Finally, in my
phonetics class, the professor’s lectures focused on the theoretical, but his exams focused on the practical
application. On the first exam, most students hadn’t prepared to apply principles to real life situations,
which we hadn’t practiced in class, so many of us felt like deer looking at car headlights at night: shocked
and frozen in place.

From these experiences, my classes always have practice exams, so students are never surprised when
they see the actual exams. Written and oral feedback is provided on all writing tasks (outlines, essays,
CVs, cover letters, projects) and for practice presentations. I feel this reinforces students’ faith in their
ability to communicate in a foreign language. For less confident students, videotaped presentations offer
a constructive way to prove to themselves that they are capable of doing more in English than they realize.

Abu Dhabi University | SMART Learning Center Newsletter Issue 1