The Power of Cheese: If You Feed Them, They Will Come

One of the challenges of teaching the majority of our classes on a campus 30 minutes from where we live is the lack of ease in which students are able to come over to hangout. It takes a lot of effort to coordinate a time for us as teachers to stay on campus to see students, or for students to ride the city bus for close to an hour to our apartment. At the start of the semester, my teammate Deborah and I like to tell our students that if they make the trip to our apartment, we will cook for them. This invitation has been well received so far this semester. It is always a joy for us to share a meal with students, play games and laugh together outside of class. We have also noticed that this makes a difference in the classroom as well. The students that have taken the time to visit with us outside of class are more comfortable speaking and participating in class. It is just fun to get to know our students on a personal level and hear about their family and friends, their college life struggles as well as their successes. On a couple occasions, our students have wanted to cook Chinese food for us! What a blessing and privilege it is for me to have the opportunity to invest in the lives of these students.