At Hawkes Learning, we love shining a spotlight on dedicated educators who are making a difference in their students’ lives. We’re excited to introduce you to Melinda Clardy, an experienced math instructor at South Louisiana Community College (SLCC) who has been using Hawkes since 2016. In this interview, Melinda shares her teaching experiences, challenges, and insights into how technology has transformed her classroom.
*Interview responses have been lightly edited for content and clarity.
To get started, which courses do you teach with Hawkes?
I have been teaching Math 83 (Remedial Math), our co-requisite model with College Algebra, College Algebra as a standalone course, Trigonometry, and Statistics, all using Hawkes. We also use Hawkes as a course shell for our online Trigonometry and Statistics courses–it’s great to use just one software across these courses and it’s much easier for the bookstore, our students, and myself. I’m a big fan of the Hawkes experience!
Could you tell me how long you’ve been teaching and if you have a secret to teaching?
I’ve been teaching at SLCC for about seven years now, but in a way, I’ve been teaching my whole life. I was part of a really big class in a really small school, and whenever I finished my work my teachers always said, “go help someone else,” and I did! I think the secret to teaching is to stay in practice. I often tell my students, there’s really no reason that I’m better at math, except that I practice it all the time.
What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned as a teacher?
The most valuable thing I’ve learned is to be aware of “expectation drift”– the more you do something, the more it becomes second nature. You stop remembering what it was like to struggle with it. The analogy I use often is tying your shoes; as a child, it was the hardest thing and you probably thought about giving up a couple of different times. Now you do it without giving it a second thought. The same thing applies to algebra when you’re the one teaching the content every year, so I try to be mindful of that.
Regarding your classroom structure, what setups and styles have you tried and what have you found has worked and maybe has not worked?
Most of the classes that we were teaching pre-pandemic were traditional lectures. I was using Hawkes as a supplement to do the homework, to do the tests and keep everything more uniform that way. Other than the traditional lecture, the most important kind of separation from that would have been the co-requisite. So initially, any teacher could teach the co-requisite. It’s not necessarily the teacher doing the 1105, and we found that didn’t really work. We tried to use it as a separate OER thing, which is fine. However, adding the layer with Hawkes here has really made that a little bit more cohesive. They get a chance to actually see the items in sequence. This is the prerequisite skill and here’s what we’re doing, side-by-side, all presented in the same way, because how you ask a question can make a big difference in how people answer it. The more consistent that we could be, the better off it was.
What would you say is the biggest challenge that students are facing today?
For our students, everyone has their own life behind the scenes. Finding that balance between their personal life and struggles in school is different for everybody. I think there’s this supposition that you’re the only one having trouble. You think everyone else has it figured out because we all fake it ’til we make it. It’s easy to think, I must be the only one who doesn’t get it. That lack of faith in their own ability, or overestimation of their peers, or the combination of the two is probably what is the hardest thing for a student to get past and learn how to communicate that effectively.
What would you say is the greatest challenge that teachers are facing today?
Being interesting in a TikTok society is really hard to keep up with. Because most expect instant gratification, the attention span that some people have these days can make people unaware of their expectation drift as well. How engaging should something be before it’s actually important to you, if that makes sense? There’s also that feeling that any information you want is immediately available. So why should I bother to remember something? In a classroom setting that obviously doesn’t work well because exams really do test that underlying comprehension and memorization. It can be a real struggle to try to get everybody on the same page with that. Between that and academic integrity, I think those are the biggest things facing teachers right now.
With academic integrity, what are you referring to?
Academic integrity is a big concern in the digital age where students have access to various resources. It’s essential to ensure that students are genuinely learning and not taking shortcuts.
I want to circle back to when you’re talking about trying to remain interesting with TikTok culture, what are some ways that you’re trying to combat that personally? And what are some methods that you’re employing in the classroom to be relevant?
One of the things that I try to do is also something I’ve talked about on your blog before. It’s the idea of being willing to be a little bit silly if it makes an idea stick. One of my most memorable student moments is of my trig teacher in college. She was such a huge inspiration to me going forward. At that moment, she was just some weird little hippie lady, and she was trying to explain the unit circle. It was a little bit incomprehensible to me at the time because we didn’t do trig with the circles as much in high school, but I digress. It was the unit circle she was trying to explain, and she was just up there doing a free-flowing movement with her skirt. And she’s said to imagine that the unit circle is like a spool of thread. I don’t know why, but that one little thing made so much sense. That’s what I try to do.
Do you have any other tips or strategies for instructors to maintain student engagement in the classroom?
The other thing is embracing and understanding that you can’t please everyone. You do the best that you can, and you hope that it gets through to as many students as possible. Really embrace the idea that you’re not going to get everybody on the same page, and that’s okay.
How has Hawkes helped you in your classroom, especially with online learning?
It’s given me a lot of tools to be able to identify the things that I need to do. More than anything, it’s given me more freedom to do some of those higher-order thinking things and be aware of the things that they’re really getting hung up on, and what I need to focus on. It’s been a lot more than just giving them a homework tool.
Do you have any memorable success stories with students who have used Hawkes in your courses?
One student who stands out was actually my favorite high school student because she was a female in a math class, which was relatively rare. She went on to work in a math-related field, and I was really proud of her for it. She just used the extra practice, and she knew that she needed to. She was like, “well, I didn’t get it the first time, so I did it again.” And that’s just it – you’re not just going to get something because you looked at it once. I think that’s something that a lot of people come to college expecting, but that’s really not the case. That’s what we’re here for.
Finally, what advice would you give to instructors who are new to using Hawkes Learning or similar technology in their classrooms?
One of the things I think is the most valuable is to really have a reason for what you’re doing. I think in a lot of situations, I don’t use the software the way that it’s intended to be used and I’m okay with that because it’s about making my class work for my students. There’s not really a “right” or “wrong” way to use any learning tools; it’s about what’s best for your students. Having a reason for what you’re doing and knowing what you want to get out of it, and not just doing it for the sake of doing it is important.
We would like to thank Melinda Clardy for sharing her insights and experiences with us. Her dedication to teaching and innovative approach to using technology in the classroom are inspiring examples for educators everywhere. If you’re interested in sharing your own experiences with Hawkes Learning or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you!
