All in a day’s teaching
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Videography Michael Oki/UC Davis; script by Samantha Dullea
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Techie poet uses write stuff for students’ creative learning
“Just reminding you, there might be a knock on the door in the middle” of the interview, my subject warns before we even start. The videographer nods, explaining in that event, we will just stop the tape.
Andy Jones continues, “I have a student coming in to meet with me, but I’ll just ask if she can come back in half an hour.”
His eyes light up behind his glasses as a thought passes through his mind. He suggests we film the interaction between him and the student for part of the video that my partner and I are making.
Sure enough, just as the conversation between us starts to flow, a timid tapping sounds through the aluminum door. Jones smiles and hails the student who decides she would rather meet with Jones in private after we are through with the interview.
When she leaves, he tells us about the woman; she is a former student who continues to seek his counsel because she is interested in becoming a teacher, too. As we huddle in that small office in the basement of Wellman Hall and the camera rolls on, I begin to understand why Jones is such a popular teacher at UC Davis.
Giving individuals innovative learning
At a university as large as UC Davis with more than 31,000 students, the benefits of size are abundant. Countless opportunities exist that allow students to get involved and personalize their college experience to their own liking. But one aspect of a large institution is not easy to overcome — how to give each individual student an innovative learning experience.
That’s where Andy Jones comes in. A lecturer in three departments on campus, Jones is an example of UC Davis teachers who employ creative ways to help students discover the fascination and intrigue of learning sometimes lost in a large lecture hall.
He also has become a teacher and technology mentor to the UC Davis faculty itself through his position in the Teaching Resources Center.
Jones has been at UC Davis for 19 years, beginning with graduate school. After he graduated from Boston University with a major in English and a minor in psychology, Jones admits he never saw himself setting down roots on the other side of the country, let alone in a small city that is in such striking contrast to the nation’s capital where he was raised.
Each Wednesday evening, Andy Jones goes on air at KDVS. As part of the program, he features distinguished teachers on a monthly basis. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis photo)
After one road trip west
Nevertheless, after one road trip west, Jones didn’t look back. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at UC Davis in the small city he grew to love.
Jones pauses as he reflects on just how it feels to be a part of this campus.
“That urban East Coast kid that I was when I was your age,” he gestures in my direction, “would be amazed that I would be so comfortable — even complacent — in Northern California, a world away from where I grew up.”
A part of Jones never did grow up, though; he retained a passion for poetry and literature first developed in his youth. Today, he teaches on subjects such as the short story for the English department during Summer Session, as well as writing instruction for the University Writing Program during the academic year.
The University Writing Program offers a cross-section of courses that explore writing in several careers, ranging from freshman-level to pre-professional advanced composition. Its mission is to help the active student to hone the paramount skill of writing.
Writing ‘a very important skill’
For students, writing is “a very important skill for their success after they leave the university,” Jones takes care to stress.
Finally, undergraduate students will find Jones teaching in Technocultural Studies, a fairly new academic program developed at UC Davis to explore technology across the media (Web, video and audio recordings) and its effects on culture.
Jessica Young, a technocultural studies and film studies double major, is taking Jones’ class, Writing Across the Media, this quarter.
“Unlike other classes,” she says, “this class focuses on all aspects of media. I’ve enjoyed learning how writing can be used in various mediums of art, such as film, video games and photography.”
Using his university connections and love of poetry, Jones has taken advantage of the city of Davis’ size and location to infuse his own methods of entertainment into downtown culture. Every other Wednesday, he can be found downtown at the Bistro 33 restaurant, home of Poetry Night.
Enticing traveling literary artists
A collaborative creation between Jones and Brad Henderson, a fellow University Writing Program lecturer, Poetry Night has brought traveling literary artists before students, faculty, staff and members of the community since its inception two years ago.
When asked if he performs his own work, Jones says, “Sometimes. I try to make it more about others than about me.” Instead, he will usually get the crowd warmed up with a short comedy routine.
‘I really like how Andy tries to make everything interactive and very open. He is also very open to different forms of creativity’
UC Davis technocultural studies student Jessica Young
It’s clear that there’s a pattern here: Andy Jones finds good teaching to be essential, plain and simple. He concedes that at a big university like UC Davis, there’s a cost for learning because students don’t have as many chances to interact with their professors or with each other as they would at a smaller school.
“So, it’s my goal to help faculty think about new ways to teach, whether it’s through group work or sections, or using technology to encourage interaction and deeper learning.”
And it seems to be working. His technocultural studies student Jessica Young asserts, “I really like how Andy tries to make everything interactive and very open. He is also very open to different forms of creativity.”
Teaching a two-way street
As any good teacher knows, teaching is a two-way street. While Jones believes that the most rewarding part of teaching is inspiring students and pushing them to continue to set new challenges and accomplishments for themselves long after they’ve left the classroom, he also acknowledges the power of his students.
“Every class is an opportunity for a teacher to learn from his students. UC Davis students, because of their curiosity, independence and diligence, are always ready to teach me something new.”
He leans forward as if to share a well-kept secret, “I’ve vowed to become a lifelong learner, and so to have them as my teaching assistants, insofar as they’re teaching me, has been a big help in my reaching that goal.”