At Todd Pagano’s mother’s retirement party, his second grade teacher asked him if he remembered what he wanted to be when he was a kid. Pagano was certain he had wanted to be a baseball player, but the teacher had his old drawing of a man with beakers and a lab coat to prove that he always wanted to be a scientist.
“My artistic abilities haven't gotten any better since those days,” Pagano said in an interview at his laboratory classroom at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, “but I've always had that passion for science.”
Though he was named the 2012 U.S. Professor of the Year by CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching this month, he said his passion for teaching snuck up on him.
Today, Pagano is the director of the school’s Laboratory Science Technology program, a two-year degree program that trains students to become laboratory technicians. He also teaches chemistry and instrumental analysis classes and is currently researching molecules found in water that may be associated with climate change, the deposition of carcinogens in the lung from the smoking process, and, in what little free time he has, plays fantasy football.
How do you feel about being the teacher of the year?
The two things I like about this award is it's given me sort of a national platform to talk about things I'm passionate about. Calling attention to these incredible deaf and hard of hearing students has really been one of the best things about receiving this award. These students can become hard working, quality scientists in the workplace, and they are. Our co-op satisfaction rate for our students is among the best in the entire college, and that's something I'm really proud of.
My final platform is that teacher/scholar balance. I really think that a college faculty member has to have that balance. It's so critical to involve the students in that research process. I've brought students with me across the country to present the results of their research. Students who have never left New York State before have gotten to see the country because of their research. They've gotten their names on publications as associate degree students. That's something I'm very proud of, and I'm trying to educate other people on how to do the same thing. This award has given me an audience who will listen to me talk about these things, and that's the most remarkable thing about it.
At Todd Pagano’s mother’s retirement party, his second grade teacher asked him if he remembered what he wanted to be when he was a kid. Pagano was certain he had wanted to be a baseball player, but the teacher had his old drawing of a man with beakers and a lab coat to prove that he always wanted to be a scientist.
“My artistic abilities haven't gotten any better since those days,” Pagano said in an interview at his laboratory classroom at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, “but I've always had that passion for science.”
Though he was named the 2012 U.S. Professor of the Year by CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching this month, he said his passion for teaching snuck up on him.
Today, Pagano is the director of the school’s Laboratory Science Technology program, a two-year degree program that trains students to become laboratory technicians. He also teaches chemistry and instrumental analysis classes and is currently researching molecules found in water that may be associated with climate change, the deposition of carcinogens in the lung from the smoking process, and, in what little free time he has, plays fantasy football.
How do you feel about being the teacher of the year?
The two things I like about this award is it's given me sort of a national platform to talk about things I'm passionate about. Calling attention to these incredible deaf and hard of hearing students has really been one of the best things about receiving this award. These students can become hard working, quality scientists in the workplace, and they are. Our co-op satisfaction rate for our students is among the best in the entire college, and that's something I'm really proud of.
My final platform is that teacher/scholar balance. I really think that a college faculty member has to have that balance. It's so critical to involve the students in that research process. I've brought students with me across the country to present the results of their research. Students who have never left New York State before have gotten to see the country because of their research. They've gotten their names on publications as associate degree students. That's something I'm very proud of, and I'm trying to educate other people on how to do the same thing. This award has given me an audience who will listen to me talk about these things, and that's the most remarkable thing about it.
Why and how did you get into teaching?
I always had a passion for science. For discovering the unknown, asking why things happen, then experimenting.
When we give presentations in school going all the way back to elementary school, we teach our classmates about a topic. Then during the summer I taught tennis to kids and I really liked it. Then when I got into college I tutored chemistry courses, mostly for the non-sciece majors who were struggling. Then when you get to grad school you get to be a TA, and I had the great fortune, when working on my doctorate, to actually be assigned courses to teach all by myself. It was a progression, each step of the way really enjoying the teaching and feeling that I could do it and was good at it.
I think sometimes people sort of tailor their lives based on what they're good at. I think at some point I decided, through the small teaching opportunities I had, that I was good at it.
Now that you’re a teacher, what’s the hardest thing about the job?
It's absolutely time management, without a doubt. I'm a strong believer that a university college professor should be a balanced teacher/scholar, with a lot of attention paid to your teaching and being self-reflective. What worked and what didnt work? Then modifying your approach after that.
I think too many times faculty will fall into "this is what I taught last year, so I'll teach it again," whether or not it worked successfully last year.
I work in chemistry, and the field's awlays changing. It takes a lot of time to keep up with the teaching, but also the research. I'm doing cutting edge research science that's contributing to the wealth of knowledge in the field— and involving my deaf and hard of hearing associate degree level students. Balancing those two things that I'm very passionate about takes a lot of time, and on top of that, being the program director, changing the curriculum, and one of the things I'm most proud of is our program's job placement, which is near 100 percent. Using and expanding my network, calling on these folks to help get my students jobs; you put all that together and there's not much time for hobbies.
What do you find most rewarding about your work?
It's seeing the look on a student's face when they get it, and you can see it. I have small classes, and when there's a concept that they haven't been getting and I'm able to actually get it through to them, you can see it, and that's just a phenomenal feeling.
I'm not teaching easy stuff. I have high standards in my classroom, and teaching and learning chemistry is not easy. It's theoretical and abstract. When a concept they understand helps them land a job, that changes their lives. When I have students come back who say they had an interview and got the job because they mentioned some small nugget of information, something routine but important that I taught them, it's extremely rewarding.
Do you have a favorite teaching memory?
I think early in my teaching career, because I had all those opportunities to teach progressively in progressive sophistication from elementary school through grad school, I had quite a bit of confidence in my teaching ability. Then when I arrived here on the first day and I did not know any sign language, I walked into class and I kind of froze.
The way the tables were set up, they looked to me like electron orbitals. I'm frozen, I don't know what to do, and the tables look like electron orbitals, so I jump up on the desk. I show an excitation of energy through my movement, then I jump to the next desk and show more movement. The students are like, "what is this guy doing?"
It was a great way to teach very visually to students the absorption of light by a molecule and how it jumps to higher excitation energy levels. It was a great icebreaker, and really my career from that point has been a series of great interactions with my students, but it could have started pretty rough. It was probably three seconds I was frozen, but it felt like three minutes. I sort of jump started my career.
How did you overcome that language barrier?
When I arrived, I had no knowledge of sign language. I would actually have to spell out my name using my body like a cheerleader would at a football game. I knew nothing.
Typically we'd have a faculty member not teaching while they learn sign language, but the program was new and they had no one to teach it, so I did not have that opportunity. I had to be teaching, so I had the use of an interpreter for my first quarter here. I'm proud to say by my second quarter, which is three months' time, I was in the classroom teaching by myself in sign language. I attributed that to immersion and a desire and motivation to interact with my students.
These interpreters are incredibly skilled. They're fluid. I don't sign like them and it's not my job to sign like them, but I like to have that direct communication with my students. Even that first quarter, having the indirect communication really got to me. I learned it because I wanted to communicate with my students and my deaf or hard of hearing colleagues as well.
When you have that passion, that's how you learn.
