Betsy Berry, Ph.D.

Great texts alone do not make a great class. Nor are great classes the result of flash over substance. No matter how much visual technology one uses—and I use a lot—teaching literature for me is mainly a matter of using the human voice to connect with my students. Teaching well involves caring about what you're teaching, how you're teaching, and whom you're teaching. Striving to bring to my students the sense of wonder and accomplishment that reading well evokes is my goal in every class. I have been teaching many years, but each semester I am reminded anew about this wonderful giving-back element possible in my profession. It springs from purposeful, positive, and memorable human interaction with so many fresh young minds—and, for all of us, retaining the best of what we have learned together.