Johnson to Receive Teaching Award
Just because Dean Johnson is a popular teacher doesn't mean his students
slack off. Graduates who have taken his finance classes at Michigan Tech
have excelled in nationwide, standardized tests on the subject, and his
colleagues have honored him twice by awarding him the MTU School of Business
and Economics' departmental teaching award.
Now, Johnson has been named to receive Michigan Tech's 2000 Distinguished
Teaching Award in the assistant professor/lecturer category. The award
will be presented this Wednesday at MTU's annual Convocation, which is
slated to get underway at 3 p.m. in the new Rozsa Performing Arts Center.
"We're extremely pleased and proud," SBE Dean Gene Klippel said. "Since
he came here in 1996, he's not only been an excellent teacher, he's been
active in research and won the Innovative Teaching Award twice. We're
fortunate that he joined our faculty."
Johnson earned the innovative adjective largely by spearheading the Applied
Portfolio Management Program. "He created this class, where students manage
real dollars, not just Monopoly money, on behalf of the Michigan Tech
Fund," Klippel said. "He started with just $20,000." However, thanks largely
to Johnson's efforts with outside donors, that amount has swollen to nearly
a quarter of a million dollars.
"I am part of the advisory group, and it's really interesting to see
the intensity in those students," Klippel said. "Because they are working
with real dollars, the class takes on a whole new dimension. Plus, Dean
has a great rapport with his students. To create that level of excitement
in a smaller program is great."
SBE Associate Dean Terry Monson, who nominated Johnson for the award,
noted that Johnson's students were not only very well-educated but also
his enthusiastic supporters. "He consistently receives very complimentary
comments on the SBE's senior satisfaction survey," Monson said. "The following
are very typical: 'By far the best instructor I have ever had . . . 'Engaged
me in a subject (finance) that I originally had no interest in' . . .
'Always willing to help.'"
Johnson's courses include Derivative Securities and Managerial Finance,
as well as the popular Applied Portfolio Management. "The students are
applying their academic knowledge to real-world situations, and that's
something they really appreciate," he said. But he believes his success
as a teacher stems mainly from his intense interest in his students and
their subsequent response.
"To me, it's a combination of me caring about them and, them, once they
realize that, responding," Johnson said. "Everybody can develop the same
nifty teaching tricks, and there's nothing wrong with that; you have to
be a fundamentally sound teacher. But to get to the next step, you have
to care about the students."
"That's what it's all about, getting to know them as students and as
people who will lead lives, raise families, and have successful careers,"
he said. "It's my job to give them the tools that will make them successful
in life.
"It's not that I am so good at it; it's that the students understand
that I care about them as individuals," he said. "They become responsive,
which allows me to give them more-challenging material."
His students agree. "He has the ability to connect with students and
make each one feel important," wrote one. "He demands a lot from his students,
but is willing to do what it takes to help them."
Said another, "He is the best professor that I have had at MTU due to
his tremendous respect for each student and a willingness to do whatever
is asked of him for his students to be successful."
Johnson notes that there are many good teachers at MTU, including his
SBE colleague Amy Heitapelto, who was also a finalist for the Distinguished
Teaching Award. "We are all in different areas, but what we have in common
is that we clearly communicate that teaching is more than a job for us,"
he said. "If it's just a job for you, then it's just a job for your students.
But if you go into class with the attitude that you have fifty minutes
to influence these persons' lives, your students will respond, and its
amazing what they'll accomplish."
The Distinguished Teaching Award includes a $1,000 cash award plus $1,500
for professional development. The awards will be presented in September
during President's Convocation.
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