Welcome back to Teaching the Unteachables, where we dive into teaching and learning
methodologies for professionals like you. HVAC Excellence is committed to
providing resources for HVACR educators. Learn more at escogroup.org and select
HVACR Education Resource Network.
Well hello everyone, thank you for joining us. We are spending time with our very
own Mr. Tom Tebby. How are you sir? Good morning Clifton, I'm very well thank you.
So you have wore many hats in the HVACR industry. Before we dive into all of the
different hats of an instructor, give us a little idea of the many hats that you
have worn over the years because they are many. Well I like the way you said
over the years because I'm getting up there now so I've worn many different hats.
Let's start from the beginning very quickly. I have been a helper with my
father, my family owned 11 air conditioning companies. From there I went to school
through United States Air Force and through a technical center to get my
specialist degree in HVACR. I became a teacher at public schools, at private
schools and so forth. Besides being a technician, a shop owner, a contractor and
a teacher for utility companies, for major manufacturers and so forth during
my career. I taught full-time at private and public schools, HVACR, community
colleges, technical colleges and on occasions I taught programs at four
year colleges regarding occupational analysis and program design. From there I
became assistant director at my school after teaching for many years and 25
years in the classroom. Became a director of a school which we now call Dean and
then I became a regional director over five schools in my career. So I've been
around the block a few times and I'm very very passionate about quality education.
I absolutely adore these conversations that you and I have because you shed
light into where you can go in this industry. You know a lot of people when
they get into the HVAC industry they expect that they're going to be in a
certain place and they never they never focus on where you can go and a lot of
that has to do with they've never been introduced to the opportunities and
you are just the epitome of all of the opportunities that can happen for an HVACR
technician. So we're so blessed to have you here. Let's thank you. Thank you. I'm very
flattered. I hope I can make a contribution and help some of the other
instructors realize how important these other roles are in education besides the
fact of teaching, disseminating, presenting information. That's exactly it
because many of us like yourself, like myself, when we make that transition from
being a good technician where we had some roles and responsibilities and then
we move into the classroom we don't realize what each of those hats are and
sometimes they can be a challenge. So the goal is like all of our podcast and all
of the efforts that we do is to be able to bring some enlightenment to each of
our roles and responsibilities to help make things easier, to make that
transition better and faster. So let's talk about the one that that gets
overlooked. I mean and it's probably the reason we all stay in these these roles
is because we become a leader and a role model and sometimes that's very new and
very difficult for people to accept. Okay I'd like to do that but if you don't
mind I'd like to just share a quick story with you about why I remain very
compassionate about providing quality education over almost 40 years of my
life. Yes. And I'll be very brief here. This goes back to within the first three
years that I became a teacher and my wife and I made a trip to Mexico. We were
going to be going for a month and back then you were stopped quite often by the
military on your way down to the portion of the country. Well we were stopped by a small
brigade who had rifles and so forth and surrounded our vehicles and they wanted
to see at that time your visa. Well on my visa it had as occupation it had a
professor. Oh. They didn't use the term instructor and they didn't use the term
teacher. So the captain asked for my papers he spoke English fairly well and
I gave him my papers and he looked at it he looked at why he says I see a lot
professor and I said well I'm a teacher at a technical and community college and he
says see and he turned around and he showed my papers to all of the others
that were with him under him and they all waved and so forth so I asked him why
did why did you do that why are you making a big deal of that? And he
said in our country a professor we see them as people that work with other
people to help them improve. Help them get a career to help somebody afford
them a better life. To us in Mexico that is the most honorable profession or
vocation a person can have in life. Wow. We hold professors in the highest of
esteem in all occupations in our country and thank you very much for
visiting our country professor and I've never forgotten that because it
reminds me every day of our responsibility that whatever we do
whenever we do it however we do it it's supposed to be in the best interest of
helping somebody else succeed. That gives me chills thinking about that I mean
that's the reason we're here that's reason I'm here and I know it's the
reason you're here and it's interesting how it has different perspectives and
in different places in the world but absolutely it is it's an honor it's a
privilege and it's a responsibility to be able to lead people into their own
roles and responsibilities in life. Absolutely. Now as far as role models
and leadership is concerned I think we all know that having you know pursued
many different studies that there are many different leadership styles you
know autocratic style the nurturing altruistic style of leadership the
democratic style of leadership but putting all of those fancy terms aside
in education I think that the the leadership style that's most appropriate
and serves and instruct the best is to lead by example. Yes absolutely. If I may
let me just say these are simple things but if we expect students to be on time
then the instructor should always be on time and start class on time. There's
nothing more offensive in my opinion to the class than to walk in late with a
cup of coffee and be a little dreary and say well look we're gonna wait a few
minutes because some are running late. That's very very awkward thing to do it
sets a very poor stage it actually discourages some people to not come at
all or come late like the others. Absolutely. Dress appropriately. We expect
students to dress appropriately for the profession so we should too. So so what
I'm saying is in my experience we didn't have a instructor dress code at our
school but I decided to go ahead and develop a uniform for myself with dark
blue pants light blue shirt and a little tie that was clip you can take off of
working around equipment. That ended up identifying me as the HVACR instructor
to school. Also made easy Clifton as you know not to have to get up in the morning
to decide what you're gonna wear. I had five pants five shirts. Right. So you can set that for
yourself to students the students like that because nobody else had it they
decided they were gonna adopt a hat that said HVACR students. Well it became
contagious the next thing you know everybody to school is doing it. Nice.
Another piece of advice on leadership is be prepared. We expect our students to be
prepared for class so we should have a fun-filled activity day. It shouldn't be
catch-catch-can. It's exactly right because it kind of leads into the
entertainer role because we actually have a role of becoming an entertainer
and for many technicians that might not feel comfortable so we may have to work
on our entertainer perspective of our new position. Absolutely and on this
leadership role be excited about what you're doing. Yes. That transfers to the
students immediately. If you're not passionate you're not excited about the
day's activities how can we expect them to be excited and engage in everything
that's happening. So I like I think it's beneficial to call a group together in
the morning and tell them exactly what the day is going to provide what the
objectives of the day are. We even do that in textbooks. Something to look
forward to to know exactly what's going to happen throughout the course of the
day. It's not do this do that type of activities. As a leader you can present
them with problems and different challenges. You can put problems before
the class starts on the whiteboard and provide extra points. You can have
treasure hunts. You can have competition between the various groups of students
if that happens to be your situation in class and obviously let me make this
clear what the roles we're talking about now are full-time air conditioning
refrigeration instructors at community and technical colleges. Exactly. A little
bit different when we're talking about industry trainers and so right
obviously. Another thing to be a good leader be respectful. You want to be
respectful to all your students. Those are the marks of a leader in anything and
everything that you do. Become a leader be respectful and treat all AIDS levels
the same. Don't make any exceptions. That's when you get in trouble. Nobody
ever complains that the rules are enforced equitably and consistently.
No so true. I'd like to leave that leadership part with a quote if I may.
Yep. It's always stuck with me. It was from one of the older CEOs at General
Electric named Jack Welch. You may be familiar with him. He said once you
become a leader a teacher your success is about growing others. Wow so true.
I guess that's a lot. That is your job to grow other people now to help them. Now
entertainer if I may go on for a second. Sure. Entertainer I think all instructors
in somewhat some way feel that passion to be an entertainer. I believe so.
Nothing we all love more than to get in front of that audience. There's no
greater satisfaction for them to enjoy what you had to say and get a lot out of
the class. Just watch it come alive. Oh baby watch it come alive. Remind me of somebody. Remind me of somebody that says well hey hey how are you?
Welcome to the Esco HVAC show. My point there is you got to start the day lively.
You do. You've got to have a little energy yourself because how you project
yourself in the morning and throughout the day is exactly what they're gonna
mimic throughout the day. You come in sluggish, bored, tired and everything else.
That's exactly what you're going to transmit to the class. That's the way
they're gonna feel. So start off positive. Tell a story. Each person has
their own way of entertaining. I can tell you the one that I've always
liked to call it like the class together in the morning. I think every instructor
should set the stage for the day. State the objectives of various groups.
But I would walk in like you do with the hey hey hey. And I will say good morning.
It's going to be a wonderful day. I have so much planned for you students that
you're just gonna be jumping with joy. We're gonna be energized all day. I can't
wait to get this started. I'm on a high. I hope you all feel safe. And they would look at
me sometimes and one guy raises his hand. I said see that? Look at that. We already have a question.
He said Mr. Tebby, my question is we don't know what kind of medicine you may be
taking but can you get us some? Well it's not medicine. It's attitude. You got to
come in lively. So I suggest doing that. And add a
little humor to the class. There's nothing greater than to tell the students about your
successes and your failures on the job. Some of them are silly mistakes that you
made. Some of the things that you had problems with in school and overcame or
some of the silly things that you did. Keep it lively. Keep it respectful. And
also give them an opportunity. You want to dialogue always with the students. You
want it to be conversational because they always get more out of that and
then you're including them in on everything that's happening. And always
encourage that dialogue and always when it comes to being that entertainer be
challenging. You can be challenging. Exactly. I was getting ready to bring
that up. You know we can be professionally challenging. I think it's
very healthy to have that in our dialogue. Well that that's correct. The
dialogue with the students is important and I'm gonna talk about that. You
know when you're ready a little bit more about why it's important to engage the
students in the dialogue and a little bit more about retention. Sure. When we
get to that. I don't know if you had a particular format that you wanted to
follow. No. This is all positive things for us to talk about in different roles
and different opportunities we have in front of the classroom. So no let's keep
going. Okay well I don't want to steal your thunder. But the next thing is mentor.
Yes. And this is big. We sometimes forget that we're not just dispensers of
information. We're mentors of any of these students. The whole complexion of
how education is delivered and the role that instructors play has dramatically
changed just as technology has changed dramatically over the past couple of
days. I mean seriously changed. Yes. And let me just say this criteria or if you
will or research criteria has shown that there is definitely a direct connection
between a caring and a knowledgeable teacher and a secure and a motivated
learner. Students need to know that teachers care about how they learn and
the things that help or hinder their learning. And I'd like to say that just
recently I conducted a survey of young men and young women in their first year
of technical college. The most important thing to them is to know that their
instructor really cares and they believe that. They can tell whether or not they
said they can anyway that an instructor really cares or don't care. And I said
well what is your biggest dislikes in doing many of the students? They said
what we don't like or discourages us the most is when an instructor wants to come
too far down to our level using our type of language our type of dress to be one
of the boys. We want them to remain maintain their professionalism that
professional distance from the students. We don't want them to become one of us.
Exactly. That was an interesting statement. That is that's profound
actually. Yeah I thought that they would want you to and they said not really we
want to we want to you to be the role model we look up to. Yeah. We already have our
own group of people. And let me just say this about being a mentor. The only way
you can truly be a mentor is you have to learn about the defining
characteristics of the students that are in your class. You I mean how can you
mentor somebody if you don't know anything about them? So exactly. What
little bits you know about their social, their economic, their cultural background,
particularly their learning styles, their needs, their abilities, their aptitudes,
and interests. How do you do that in such a short period of time? So let me just
suggest there is a way of getting at least a handle on all of this. If you're
going to be a true mentor then you have to know something about that background
because they will come to you with things other than academics. They will
absolutely absolutely that may need help regarding their future. Well it becomes
very important to start learning everyone individually because a an
additional role that we play that we may not realize is we may there hopefully we
become an employment agent for our students trying to place them in a
proper career path once they leave the program. Absolutely and another thing I
would like to say that that we are responsible for but we don't always do
and I think we need to as a mentor create a love of learning. Yes. I think we
have to make sure that the all of the students understand how important and
how relevant the HVACR industry is to our way of life and I would suggest
telling the students from time to time that you're entering a very honorable
and necessary industry how what we do affects human comfort conditioning, food
preservation, food processing, various manufacturing processes, transport
refrigeration, the medical field and let them know that it's a more than maybe
just fixing residential air conditioning systems which I use the term human
comfort conditioning because I remember the utilities preferred to use that when
I talked with them they said Tom you're not teaching residential air condition
you're talking human comfort conditioning because you're talking
filtration, yeah about purification, humidity control, not just heating
conditioning. So I said and I think we need to let the students remind them
what an honorable profession they are entering and what a necessary
prevention you know profession it is to our way of life. Now getting back to
leadership for just a second if I may. Sure. It's okay. Another thing you can do
about being a leadership if you're having a little difficulty to class you
know everybody doesn't need to even consider this all the time but sometimes
depending on on the level of students you have the type of students you have
in the class a written contract has been recommended for years in other words to
maintain discipline you say okay as your instructor I guarantee I'll be here on
time I'll be prepared for class I'll have engaging activities I will return
your test papers on time in a timely manner etc etc as a student your
responsibility is to be here on time to be prepared for class etc etc and that
way if there's ever any type of a disciplinary problem let's see who
violated the contract. Exactly it's a written proclamation. Because students
have a share in this we have a commitment to teach they have to make a
commitment to do all of the things that a student should do sometimes that you
basic contract is just a good reminder like hey I didn't even think of it that
way I'm just a student I don't really have to do anything if I don't want to
sure a contract could be helpful. Well in that contract would you feel it relevant
to address professional development? Because it's one thing to be a good
instructor but what about being a good instructor that tries to stay up to date
with changes in the industry to be able to provide a current and applicable
curriculum? I couldn't agree with you more and I'll say this that obviously
instructors need to take the time keep informed about changes that affect the
way we deliver in our material and technical improvements in the industry. I
don't believe any instructor should be complacent about what they know you have
to stay current if you're truly going to give students the opportunities for the
jobs that exist today. There's an overwhelming amount of information that
escalates in my opinion the pace of research and discovery that instructors
have to do and that's not going to have to take time to do. The one thing we want
to avoid is teaching any outdated principles and technologies. We're not
doing the contractors we're not doing the industry we're not doing the student
at this service because they're not going to be prepared for the world today.
And there's a lot of opportunities out there for students to suit different
students organizations as well as there would be for instructors. There's
webinars, there's conferences, there's trade shows, there's industry classes and
so forth that can help students and instructors appreciate the different
types of learning dynamics and technical advancements that have been made. So it's
just a matter of taking that energy and placing it in the right way and I'll say
this I always follow that up that little speech I just made with the students
with these are things and opportunities for you to take advantage of and
remember the choices you make determine the life that you lead. So every day you
make thousands of choices the choices you make regarding education and
studying and showing up for class for time and getting engaged in the
suggested product are going to determine how successful you are. You're the one
that controls your future not me. Tom Tebby, such a plethora of knowledge. We're
blessed to have you with us and we thank you so much for your time today. Thank
you it's been a pleasure to be here.