When reflecting on my experiences as a college professor, several themes from The Wizard of Oz often surface. This well-known story provides a metaphorical view of behaviors that I strive to achieve in my ongoing work with students. In the familiar foursome’s journey to the Emerald City, I see characteristics necessary for teaching excellence—the need to improve, fine-tune and revamp as we travel with students through courses and curricula. Like Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man, successful teachers must have courage, passion and brains.

I believe a good teacher, first, has a powerful faith in the future. Like the forester planting an oak seedling knowing he or she will never see the tree in all its glory, I know I may never see the fruits of my labors as teacher. My calling is to plant and nurture seeds that will grow and shape tomorrow.

By Steve J. Thien, Kansas State University

I am committed to the liberal arts ideal that education should familiarize students with the intellectual, spiritual, artistic, and scientific traditions that women and men have turned to in order to better understand their lives and their world.

As part of a special section in a recent issue of Teaching Psychology, Bill McKeachie, author of the best-known book on college teaching, the venerable Teaching Tips, first published in 1950 and now in its 11^th edition, looks back to ascertain what's changed and what has stayed the same. This retrospective appears in a section that celebrates a 100-year-old book on teaching psychology written by William James, Talks to Teachers and to Students.

In 2002, Campus Compact, with help from a Carnegie Corporation of New York grant, began investigating best practices in civic engagement. The three-year project looked at community colleges in the first year, which produced a set of resources that community-college leaders can use to help improve engagement with the community.

In his influential Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, Ernest L. Boyer proposed that the definition of “scholarship” be broadened beyond the predominant emphasis on the scholarship of discovery to encompass the scholarship of application, the scholarship of integration, and the scholarship of teaching. What are the objectives of these four different domains of scholarship?

Now there's an article title that gets your attention -- at least it got mine. The article that follows this title (reference below) is a bit depressing, but the points it makes do constitute worthwhile reminders.