Faculty Excellence at UMUC

Interviewer:

Please tell us about yourself—what made you decide to teach at UMUC? What kind of work do you do when you are not teaching at UMUC? What life experiences have influenced your teaching at UMUC?

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

I received my graduate degree in Biology with a minor in Marine Biology and promptly got pregnant with my first child. Three months after her birth I realized I did not want to work full time right away, and through a UMUC Adelphi professor who was on sabbatical on Guam, learned of UMUC. This was in 1984, and I started teaching one class per term at night when my husband was home to watch my daughter. I realized I really enjoyed teaching adults and stayed with it for 7 years. I then needed to be at home at night since both of my daughters were in school during the day, so I left UMUC and took a job as a biologist in an environmental consulting firm. I returned to UMUC a second time around 8 years ago as a full timer, but I continue to work with environmental firms on occasion. Currently I am on a project to identify the impacts of jet skis on a reef flat environment. Although I originally took the job because it fit my needs as a new mother, I ended up loving the work and returned to it as an 'empty nester'.

Interviewer:

Please tell us if you teach face-to-face, online, or both and explain what made you choose that format of teaching.

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

I teach both face-to-face and online. I started with face-to-face courses and learned about the online classes at a workshop in Yokota. I love a challenge so decided to try out the new format. I think that was 6 years ago. I'm not sure. Anyway, I continue to teach in both formats because each is very different, and I enjoy both of them.

Interviewer:

What do you find most satisfying about teaching in your chosen format(s)?

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

Face-to face classes allow me to interact more personally with my students, which I consider a privilege. There is simply no way to truly replicate that in the online environment. I see their faces, and occasionally see them light up when they 'get it'. I find that most students do much better in the face-to-face environment because of my physical presence. I can answer questions as they come up, not the next day via email or in the online classroom.

On the other hand, some students shine in the online environment, and for others, there is no alternative because of location, schedules, young children or other factors. Online classes also allow me the flexibility to log on at any time of day. I typically work in my classroom each morning right after my morning coffee for several hours before starting the rest of the day. In a strange way, it is very satisfying to work online with students in my pajamas. Flexibility is one of its strongest points.

Interviewer:

What do you find challenging about teaching in your chosen format(s)?

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

Probably the single most challenging issue would be that too many students are lacking in the skills necessary to succeed in academically challenging classes. Some of it clearly is motivation and time, but too much of it is skills they never learned sufficiently in high school and earlier. I realize this is not a UMUC problem, nor a military problem, it is clearly a national problem, but it can make for some very difficult moments for some students and frustrating ones for me. Our military contract disallows us from requiring students to take writing courses before all else, but that certainly would help. It is simply a challenge that goes with the job, and I have learned how to handle it in most cases.

Interviewer:

Please tell us about your chosen discipline—how long have you worked in or taught it? What made you interested in the area? What keeps you interested in the area?

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

I teach the biological sciences, and my background is in marine biology. I have taught with UMUC for a combined 15 years. I fell in love with the ocean after teaching high school in Palau, an island west of Guam (I currently teach on Guam), for two years. Snorkeling on the coral reefs there was an incredible experience for a Manhattan-bred lady, and I fell in love instantly. It took me three years of undergraduate requirements (in spite of already having a BA) plus three in graduate school to attain my goal, and I made the right choice. Besides teaching I have also worked full time as a consultant in my field for about 7 years, and still consult on a part time basis. What keeps me interested? Goodness, biology never stops moving forward, and it is endlessly fascinating. The more I learn, the less I realize I know. Education is a bit like that, so it is a perfect fit for me.

Interviewer:

What joys do you experience in teaching in this area?

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

My greatest joy is to hear from a student after the course is done that it was the most interesting course they have yet taken, in spite of the difficulty of the material. The course evaluations sometimes echo that sentiment. Even greater is the rare student, and I have had several, who changed their major to biology. I once received an email from a student a few years after our class was over to let me know that he had just been accepted into a graduate program in marine biology. Talk about a high! And this was a DE class that he had originally taken as a science requirement. That is what teaching is all about.

Interviewer:

What challenges do you experience in teaching in this area? Please describe any special challenges you face if you teach online in comparison to teaching in a face-to-face classroom.

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

The most challenging experiences are working with underprepared students. Clear course objectives and patience certainly help!

Interviewer:

How would you describe your teaching style or philosophy? What experiences or person(s) have influenced your style or philosophy?

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

This is really the hardest question for me to answer. I think I see myself as a sort of translator for another language, biology. I realize that all minds do not work in the same way, and many students are truly scared of the sciences, while others have absolutely no interest in them, usually because of past experiences. I think what I am best at is in making the incomprehensible comprehensible. I so often have a student ask a question that confuses them, only to have them get all excited when they understand my explanation. I have had several students tell me that it all makes sense once I discuss it with them. I think if I can do that, they will lose their fear, and enjoy not only the class, but leave it with enough of an understanding to appreciate the world around them. Our culture is inundated daily with new technologies, scientific concepts and products, and we all need to have a better understanding of what they mean, and ultimately how we got where we are.

Interviewer:

Please explain if you do something special or unique in your approach and how you developed that approach. What do you think it is about your approach that appeals to students?

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

I sometimes think I make a fool of myself in front of my students. I act out what I am teaching whenever possible, which can be pretty funny to see—my subject is, after all, biology. But if nothing else, my students rarely fall asleep in my classes, and I get my point across. I am sure there is a more elegant way of explaining biology, but I use my front-and-in-your-face location in the classroom (face-to-face, of course) as a stage to teach my subject, and forget any attempt at dignity. Biology is not very dignified. I think this approach, besides keeping the students awake, breaks down some of the fears they have and allows them to see science as being less dry than they expected.

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to students who are interested in majoring or working in your discipline?

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

You have to love it. But that is true of all disciplines, you have to love what you do. But if you are good at science, and want to pursue it as a career, take all the classes you can. You will not be able to major in biology with UMUC overseas, but take the classes that are available, get all those pesky requirements out of the way, and eventually you will need to go to a stateside institution to finish up. Learn to write well, that will help no matter what you eventually choose to do. Once you make the decision to go for it, don't look back. We need more American citizens in the sciences to keep our country strong. And if you are a female, this is one field that is wide open to you.

Interviewer:

What suggestion would you give to new faculty who are interested in teaching in your discipline at UMUC?

Gyongyi Plucer-Rosario:

I cannot speak for the Adelphi experience which I suspect is much more typical of what a stateside faculty would experience. However, those of us in the overseas divisions have a very different set of needs and experiences. We have non-traditional students, many of whom need more help than the typical stateside student. Many of them goofed off in high school, but are now grown up, extremely intelligent and motivated. Others come without the skills they need.

We also have issues with our facilities, though I have been pretty lucky in that way. Many of us teach in local high school biology labs that are not our own, which can be a problem. We have no bricks and mortar libraries that are comparable to those in stateside institutions (thank goodness for the UMUC databases and the Internet!).

Many of our students are active duty military and are often sent to another country or must participate in field exercises for a week or more at a time, with little or no notice.

These are all things we get used to dealing with. At the same time, we have to keep our standards high, student's work must be done, and it must be quality work. This takes patience, a huge dose of creativity, and the ability to work with students and their schedules. This is not a 9-5 job, and compared to stateside institutions, our facilities are not a 'given'. We have to be much more flexible, patient and creative than the average instructor. If you like things that way, you will do well in the overseas division, if not, well, you will find yourself very frustrated.