If it were said that Gavilan College is only as good as its
teachers, one would likely see everyone at the college blush with
pride.
If it were said that Gavilan College is only as good as its teachers, one would likely see everyone at the college blush with pride.
A dedication to teaching has kept standout instructors at the college for more than a decade, and a passion for staying on the cutting edge of technology-aided research has opened opportunities for Gavilan’s head librarian.
In his 14 years at the college, math instructor Ken Wagman has found ways to connect students to math – from algebra to calculus.
“I always have fun when I teach, and so I encourage my students to enjoy what they’re learning,” Wagman said. “So I will infuse my lecture with, just, bad jokes or something to break up the challenge that math is.”
That often involves “translating” math into common language, something practiced by Gavilan instructors participating in the college’s Learning Communities, which link two subjects together. Students in the English-math link take algebra with Marla Dresch, who, like Wagman, translates the mathematical language as much as possible.
Throughout the years, Gavilan students have succeeded in keeping Wagman on his toes.
“You get these students that are, just, so committed to learning the math that I just can’t do any wrong,” he said. “I’ve been lucky to have that kind of student in every class.”
Staying flexible is important for the instructor who is “14 years removed” from the college experience.
“I’m just out there trying to come up with some way that will reach out to the class that’s sitting in the room,” he said. “There’s always that challenge of, ‘What will work?’ I will use something that worked last semester, and this semester, they stare at me with blank faces. … That just keeps me alive.”
Wagman has kept active on campus, as well, participating in the Stand Together Group and is currently president of the Academic Senate, attending meetings of the college board of trustees.
Since 1978, business and economics instructor Ken Miller has nurtured his love of teaching in a class that he truly enjoys.
“I like teaching at the community college level,” Miller said, “in essence, at the very beginning of someone’s education, rather than toward the end, like at the graduate level.”
Miller is another proponent of “translating” subject matter: To make economics more real-life, he offers valuable tips on things like saving for retirement.
“Whereas, in a normal economics class, you would be getting supply and demand, in essence, I try to broaden the students’ appreciation for why they’re in this course,” Miller said. “Community colleges really have as one of their major functions, enhancing people’s life skills. So some of my students are not going to be business majors … but somewhere in their life, they’re going to run into problems where it would be nice to have this knowledge.”
Students in Miller’s classes will also learn that their education is what they make of it.
“A lot of students come out of high school without an A average. They may have had a long experience of not achieving well,” Miller said. “It’s emphasizing: You can achieve, but it’s up to you.”
Miller, who has represented his colleagues during union negotiations, “is well respected by the faculty and virtually everybody,” said Marty Johnson, vice president of instructional services.
The profile of the typical Gavilan student has undergone several transitions since Miller started teaching there more than 25 years ago. In the early 1980s, there were more women pursuing higher education for the first time or seeking to enter the work force. Today, students represent more of a cross section of the population, with many looking to update their job skills and others being the first in their family to attend college.
“We’re seeing a lot more students who never would have come to college 20 or 30 years ago because it would have been perceived as outside of the realm of possibility,” Miller said.
Although neither Miller nor Wagman lives in Gilroy, or even within the Gavilan district, it is no indication of their dedication to the college or students. Both instructors emphasized that they make themselves available to students as often as possible.
“It’s not uncommon to find all sorts of commuters at our school, not just teachers, but students,” Miller said.
Another college mover-and-shaker does not teach classrooms full of students, but has made an impact on the way students at Gavilan – and community colleges across the state – research topics online.
Called “information competency,” the pursuit of pertinent and reliable research in a sea of data has led Head Librarian Shuk C. Au Yeung to pursue multiple grants to help students wade through the muck.
“In this information age, being digitally connected is crucial, and the library faculty want to, number one, make sure our students have the ability to locate and evaluate content online,” Au Yeung said. “We are the information broker, and we try to get traffic control – we get information into the college, and we show them what is available.”
The state community college chancellor’s office awarded Au Yeung a $45,000 grant in 1998 to create a statewide information competency plan. A grant of $70,000 over three years was used to promote information competency in allied health between 1999 and 2001. Au Yeung helped create modules for nursing students to use when researching the Internet that show how to find and evaluate information.
Another $48,000 grant, awarded in 2002, is funding the creation of modules for various other courses. Au Yeung, a Gavilan librarian since late 1989, plans to film a series on how to search databases, to air on the Gavilan cable channel.
