TCR:  What exactly is this award and how were you chosen?
Bizzaro:  I was nominated by the College of Arts and Sciences.  Altogether, there were five nominations from the College of Arts and Sciences plus the School of Medicine.  I had to put together a portfolio containing my teaching philosophy and methods I use in the classroom, copies of syllabi, a summary of my Student Opinion of Instruction Survey (SOIS) student ratings, a letter of support from Bruce, our departmentís chair, letters of support from 3-5 former students, and a peer evaluation which Jim Kirkland wrote for me.  The selection committee chose six Board of Governors Distinguished Professor for Teaching awards from ECU.

TCR: What is your philosophy of teaching?
Bizzaro:  I usually talk about this on the first day of class. This is what I wrote in my statement of teaching philosophy for the portfolio for this award: I compare the way I teach to the game show "Family Feud," where everyone participates and brings their own knowledge and background to the table, versus "Jeopardy," where one person, Alex Trebek, has the one and only answer and dictates that answer to everyone else.

TCR:  What was your best teaching moment?
Bizzaro:  I donít know how this happened, but once I was teaching about forms in poetry, and I composed a sestina at the board in front of my students.  I ended up getting it published some years back.

TCR:  What about your worst?
Bizzaro: It was my first full time teaching job at a community college in northern Virginia. I had graduated in 1974, and there were no jobs, so I taught at Northern Virginia Community College in Manassas.  It was a developmental writing course with five students in the class, and the class was for five hours per week.  This was a prerequisite course they had to pass in order to continue at the college level.  I had my worst teaching evaluation from these students.  I could literally feel the anger in the room. They didnít want to be there and didnít appreciate me trying to make them learn.

TCR:  What do you think the relationship is between scholarship and teaching?
Bizzaro:  I think itís important to do research and important to publish, but thereís no greater honor than for someone to give me an award for my teaching.  This is what itís all about.  But, yes, my teaching jumpstarts my research, and I hope I bring my research back into the classroom in such a way that it interests people who want to be professionals in English studies.  Teaching is the most important thing I do, but I also like directing writing programs.  I like getting things set up, getting things started.  A lot of my teaching is indirect.  I teach pharmaceutical students about writing in their discipline, and right now Iím working on A Short Guide to Writing in Education.  Prior to this, there has been no formal curriculum writing guide for K-12 teacher education, so this is a good start in helping people develop curriculum.

TCR: Between creativity and teaching?
Bizzaro: For me, itís all creativity.  I like to get to know my studentsósee where they are, so that I can adjust my teaching.

TCR: Do you think having teaching awards is a good thing?
Bizzaro:  Yes!  We donít acknowledge enough good teaching. I think there ought to be enough awards so that when someone comes out of class after fifty minutes and has done a really good job, those kids come out charged up, theyíve learned something, that person ought to get an award as soon as he or she comes out of class.  On the other hand, I think there should be some sort of punishment for teachers who abuse their students or make them feel like second-class citizens.

The humbling part of winning an award like this, though, is that there is so much good teaching that goes on at this university that goes totally unacknowledged.  Iíve had great semesters where Iíve felt my teaching was at its best and gotten low scores on student evaluations, and then Iíve had mediocre semesters when I was uninspired (I think inspiration has a lot to do with teaching)óand Iíve had high scores.  Our methods of evaluation are wrong.  SOIS scores reward personality types, high grades, etc., while peer reviews turn into ìbartering.î (You write a person a good review so that theyíll write you one.)  There starts to be a rhetorical sameness in these peer reviews.  To really evaluate teachers would require asking people to put together portfolios, like the one they asked us to do for this award.  I think there should be a committee that evaluates teaching, but that probably wonít happen because itís too time-consuming.  People want numbers because itís easy and safe, but this is never going to reward good teaching.

TCR:  Who are your influences, mentors, or writers you most admire?
Bizzaro:  I donít think I had good teachers in high school. They told me I would fail out of college, which I took as a challenge.  At SUNY as an undergraduate, having been injured from playing football, I was hanging around in the English department.  The poet, Bill Heyen, came up to me one day and said, "Are you Pat Bizzaro?" I said yes, and he said, "Letís go get a cup of coffee."  We got a cup of coffee and talked.  He asked me if I was having trouble adjusting to not playing football, and I replied that the bigger problem was the pain. We became friends.  I used to sit in his classes.  He was a young man at the time, 27 or 28, and I was an undergraduate, so he was about ten years older than I was.  He was an All-American athlete in college, so he understood my lifestyle and was really sensitive to me.  Heyen is one of the best poets writing today, and yet, for a man, heís the man, you know?  So heís probably my greatest influence.

And then when I went to graduate school and was working on my doctorateóI liked William Blake (even my catís name is Blake).  The most Blakean individual I ever met in my life was my dissertation director, Roland Duerksen.  He appealed to a different side of me than Heyen did.  His notion of consciousnessóthe doors of perception, seeing things as they really areóopened up all kinds of possibilities for me, because Blake never really was in the box to start withóhe was entirely outside the box.  Roland influenced me with his kindness, with his patience.  He taught me that if youíre patient, things will come to you.

So these are the two biggest influences.  And Iíve had some really great colleagues: Jim Kirkland has been a wonderful friend, and Bill Hallberg, but I donít want to start naming names because Iíll leave someone out.  Probably the best teacher I know is my wife.  Sheís the most accepting, understanding, and yet demanding person Iíve ever met.

TCR:  What advice would you give to new teachers?
Bizzaro:  Donít be too prepared.  Trust yourself.  Trust yourself to think on your feet.  Respond to whatís actually there, not what you think ought to be there, because what you think ought to be there will never be there.  Students will come to your class late, theyíll read the newspapers and not do their assignmentsóand if you freak out over thatóor if you canít teach because of that, youíve done yourself and them a disservice.  I think that you accept things the way they are and you deal with that.  Itís easy for me to say this now, but Iíd say be patient with your students.  Be patient with yourself.  The first class I taught, for the first three weeks I wrote down almost everything I said.  I was done in twelve minutes, and Iím looking at the clock saying, "Now what do I do?"  So I asked them, "What do your teachers usually do?" They said, "They let us go."  So I let them go, but if I had prepared less Ö who knows.

But thatís what they always say to teachers: ìPrepare more than youíll need.î
Thatís a lie.  Do less, but be very careful about what you do.  Think:  "How did you learn?"  I learn best by doing.  For me, teaching is like a tennis matchóIím serving the ballówhat are you gonna' do about it?  If you choose not to hit it back, then youíve wasted your time.  Not only that, but you donít get my respect.  If you hit it back with a little top spinóa little mustard on itónow weíre in business, now you challenge me.  If you challenge me, you will get absolutely the best I can give.

TCR: Is there anything youíd like to add?
Bizzaro: One thing I would really like to add is the importance of my students.  Itís like I said: if I serve that tennis ball and they hit it back and thereís a little something on it that takes me by surprise, theyíll get the best from me, and so any successes I haveóas a teacher, as having said something that someone remembersóhas to do with my students.  Iíve had some really terrific students, and your generation of graduate students is the best group Iíve had since Iíve been here.  Iíve also had some really lousy studentsóones whoíve quit on me.  But like my college football coach used to say, "Quit on me now, youíll quit on me in the fourth quarter."  Iíd rather they quit now than further on down the line.  But I do love working with graduate students.