Faculty awarded for excellence

Rockney Walters said he doesn't teach for recognition or awards.\nWalters, a professor of marketing in the Kelley School of Business, was one of several professors recognized during the Teacher's Excellence awards ceremony Monday.\nHe received the "Creator of the Best Learning Environment" award at the ceremony.\n"I don't lobby for awards, nor do I teach to achieve awards," Walters said. "I just do my job and the good stuff happens."\nAlpha Kappa Psi, a professional business fraternity, began hosting the Teacher's Excellence awards ceremony four years ago. This year's ceremony awarded six professors and honored eight others for their achievements in teaching at the Kelley School of Business. \nSarah Tolson, the chairperson of the Teacher's Excellence Committee, served as master of ceremonies. Even though this was her first year on the committee, she has served as a Director of National Education for the past two years. The committee handled all of the arrangements for the evening including buying the awards, ordering the food and decorating room 736 of the Business School for the ceremony. \nThe committee was also responsible for tallying the results of the votes, which all undergraduate business students were eligible to cast. Once the tallying was done, Alpha Kappa Psi members notified the winners by sending out invitations to the ceremony. The six main winners received white and silver award certificates in silver frames with an engraved Alpha Kappa Psi pen, featuring the Alpha Kappa Psi coat of arms on one end. Tolson said the ceremony was successful because many of the winning professors took the time to be recognized. \n"We had presenters interview the winning professors beforehand so they could say a little about them before they presented the professor with an award," Tolson said. \nApproximately 60 people attended, a large portion of the audience representing Alpha Kappa Psi members and pledges.\nVoting for the professors started approximately a month ago with Alpha Kappa Psi members setting up voting tables inside the Business School. \n"We had a great response this year with over 300 ballots turned in," Tolson said. "There was one change in this year's ceremony in that we decided to honor those teachers who got a significant number of votes, however not enough to win in a particular category. Therefore there were also eight honorable mentions."\nThe six categories students could vote in were "Teacher Who Cares Most About His Students," "Teacher that Students Learn the Most From," "Creator of the Best Learning Environment," "Teacher with Most Creative Teaching Methods," "Overall Outstanding Teacher" and "Best Motivator." \nDaniel Greiner, who won the award for "Teacher that Students Learn the Most From," has received this award for the third time in a row. \nGreiner said he felt honored and glad when he received the award. \n"I have been heavily involved with administrative work this semester and was concerned that my teaching was not where it had been in the past," Greiner said. "It's good to know that matters didn't slide too far." \nGreiner attributes his teaching method by having a good feel for how capable his students are at a given time. \n"I've learned over time just when and how far to incrementally push students deeper and deeper into the subject," Greiner said. "If you push too hard at a given point, you can really discourage students, confuse them and stall the whole process."\nWalters said he was surprised when he was notified of his win. He said his family was very pleased when he shared the news with them. \n"Because humor is a big part of my teaching philosophy and personal style, my family tells me all the time that I am funnier at the office and class than at home," Walters said. \nWalters has won six awards from Alpha Kappa Psi in the past four years. He said he usually wins two or three awards a year. His advice for fellow professors is to "be fun, have a passion for learning, get to know students and show enthusiasm."\nOther winners for the evening were Keith Dayton for the "Teacher Who Cares Most About His Students," Susan Keenan for the "Teacher with the Most Creative Teaching Methods," Tom Heslin for the "Overall Outstanding Teacher" award and David Rubinstein for "Best Motivator." The eight honorable mentions included Walter Blacconiere, Sue Brown, Mikel Tiller, Jane Mallor, Martin McCrory, Eric Richards, Thomas Lenz and Carolyn Wiethoff.\nThe keynote speaker for the ceremony was Dick Canada, a marketing professor and advisor for Alpha Kappa Psi. Canada recommends that other schools on campus have an awards ceremony similar to Teacher's Excellence, if they are not already recognizing their top professors. Canada said Alpha Kappa Psi wanted to recognize top professors because of the "life-long impact that really, really good professors have on a student's life, career and subsequent success"