A Q&A with
You matter to us . . .
Professor Jack Berger
Panther had the pleasure of having a Q & A with Professor Jack Berger
What is the most powerful saying that you
remember (Quote, proverb etc.) that has
influenced your teaching?
“Anything that is worth teaching can be presented
in many different ways. These multiple ways can
make use of our multiple intelligences”.-Howard
Gardner
What motivates you about teaching?
I hope that I’ll be able to gain insight into my
students’ multiple intelligences as they apply it to
a subject that I have approached with my limited
intelligence.
What is your view on teaching and learning and
how it has that changed from face-to-face class
room to online?
Online teaching and face to face classroom
teaching can each employ the same or different
ways/methods of teaching, resulting in different
students benefitting or struggling with each.
Is there a teacher that you remember that
inspired you? If so, please explain how?
Whether it was mathematics, foreign language,
science, history, literature or typing, those teachers
that were able to get across their love of teaching
and/or the material in a way that increased my
own personal confidence to acquire knowledge
and skills were the most inspiring. I can think of
a teacher in each of those subjects that had that
ability.
Why did you become a educator?
Being a teacher/educator has always been a
secondary job, to provide some sort of positive
give and take with students and colleagues in an
inspiring reviving way, to counter my main job
which at best drains inspiration as I deal with a
CYA paranoid atmosphere for hours on end. The
main job will get rid of me or I’ll get rid of it at
some point to allow for teaching to be more than
just a liberating experience.
What makes you an effective educator?
If I am an effective teacher, it is due in part to the
effective teachers I’ve had over the years, some
insights I picked up in education courses and
dealing with students in a respectful sort of way I
hope.
What is your passion?
My passion is still sports, but in addition I have a
passion for learning, which has transformed over
the years into studying foreign languages, which
like mathematics: The more you know, the more
you realize how much you don’t know, which can
be as frustrating as it is inspiring, but I try to take
it in an inspiring way. It isn’t original, I heard it
from a math student, and it probably goes back to
Socrates.
What is unique about you?
I have always felt what is unique about me,
although not totally unique, because so many
people share it, but it is the ability to adapt,
whether it be to an inspirational learning place or
to a corporate draining place, to one language and
culture or to a different language and culture, with
the understanding that all languages and cultures
are inspiring unlike workplaces.
http://www.amcollege.us
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10/29/13 11:59 AM