February 17, 1999
___Ed Spann, Dallas Baptist University
___"I consider my work at Dallas Baptist University as much of a ministry as any other position I've held," said Ed Spann, professor of music and dean of the College of Fine Arts.
___Encouraging servant leadership among students at DBU is a meaningful way "to help determine the eventual outcome of careers and extend my own life experience and training," said Spann, a former music missionary in Brazil.
___Students give him high marks with such glowing terms as "extremely knowledgeable," "an excellent, enthusiastic instructor" and one who "encourages learning and represents his faith and Christ-like behavior."
___He also has a reputation as somewhat of a Renaissance man--teaching arts-related courses and pursuing his own artistic expressions in music, painting and writing. Spann is founder and director of DBU's University Ringers handbell choir and teaches music to the DBU Lab School children as a labor of love. He also is active in the choir at his local church and promotes community arts activities.
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___Students have a hard time keeping up with Bruce Tankersley, professor of religion at East Texas Baptist University.
___It's not that Tankersley (or "Tank" as he is called) talks too fast in the classroom, but that he's so active at 61 that he outpaces some 21-year-olds.
___He seldom misses a campus recital or athletic contest. He makes custom furniture in his home wood shop. He rides every year in the Wichita Falls "Hotter Than Hell" 100-mile bike race. He and his wife are avid campers, and he has led several recent lecture tours abroad to places such as Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
___This enthusiasm and energy spill over into his classes in Christian ethics, Greek, philosophy and New Testament. In the classroom, he draws upon his experiences working at Bell Helicopter, becoming a theology student later in life and starting a new career at age 40. He also draws upon the real-life context of ministry in the local church, where he serves as a bivocational pastor.
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___At the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, George Musacchio not only teaches students to achieve academic excellence, he demonstrates academic excellence himself.
___UMHB trustees twice have recognized the professor of English for "Excellence in Scholarship."
___He is actively involved in professional travel, research and writing and has been a visiting professor at schools such as Baylor University, Calvin College and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
___Keep an eye peeled for Musacchio away from the academic world as well, though. He also enjoys being an extra on the television series "Walker, Texas Ranger."
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___When the books are opened in his math classes, Philip Almes seeks to ensure the work is challenging, yet accessible to all those enrolled in the course.
___His enthusiastic teaching at Wayland Baptist University has been a hallmark of his career.
___"I have a deep desire to help students learn," he said. "To make this work, I am constantly motivating students to continue trying.
___"My philosophy has always been that teaching is not so much lecturing, but helping students discover for themselves how to relate concepts and to understand material. It is fun to see a student's face light up with the sudden realization of where a line of involved reasoning is going in a proof, or how a solution can be obtained to a problem."
___His success in motivating students comes from the interest he expresses in students as individuals and from his own strength as a role model.
___"The first and highest way to integrate faith and discipline is to, with God's help, live the Christian life and encourage students to do the same," he said.
___He uses unique ways to present illustrations of faith to students in his classroom. "The Apostle John was a logician," he said. "In his writings are 18 examples of the use of the contrapositive to set forth the equivalence of ideas."
___His Calculus IV class ends with a Bible study on the order of God's creation. "This study is followed by a week of using vector calculus to derive the basic laws of celestial mechanics," he said, "which govern planetary motion and show that every equation that expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God."Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!