Sometimes Facebook gives you unexpected bad news. Such was the case last week when I saw the obituary for an old shipmate, Steve Coleman. I was lucky to serve with (and teach with) Steve at my first teaching job, Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI. Steve graduated from Annapolis two years before I did, and over the years, our naval careers took similar paths. We both were destroyer-men…and Steve was my mentor at OCS.
His obituary noted that he passed with a smile on his face, which fit Steve. During the three years we served together at OCS, he and I taught similar classes, and his smile and laugh was one aspect you always remembered about Steve. The other thing I remember is Steve’s handouts.
Teaching back in the late 1970’s meant that “edtech” was an overhead projector. Steve taught me to supplement every class with a personalized handout, usually run on a mimeograph machine. To this day, I can smell mimeograph fluid when I think about those old handouts.
The dictionary defines “handout” as:
As a newly minted instructor, I am not sure if “needy” or “printed” fits better…but Steve’s handouts taught me about learning long before I knew what pedagogy was.
Fair winds and following seas, Steve!