Tim Lehman Teaches Former MS Students at Goshen College

Tim Lehman with Annie Martens ('07), Corine Alvarez ('10), Weston Troyer ('08), Kevin Kleptz ('06), and Trevor Daugherty ('07).When Tim Lehman, social studies teacher at Bethany Christian Middle School, agreed to serve as an adjunct professor of history at Goshen College, he didn’t realize he would be teaching some familiar faces. But sitting in his World Regional Geography class that first day were four students whom he taught in middle school—and a fifth who attended Bethany, but did not have Lehman as a teacher.

For most of these students it was just happenstance that the course they needed to take was being taught by Lehman, who is filling in this semester for a professor on sabbatical leave. But for Corine Alvarez, a first-year student at Goshen College, it was intentional.

“Tim was one of my favorite middle school teachers, and I have fond memories of his classes from mummifying a chicken [when studying ancient Egypt], to making boomerangs in woodshop, to trying to find words in a giant word search in his classroom. Some friends and I continued to stop by his classroom occasionally to visit, and he even helped me find sources for my senior research paper. So, when I found out that he would be teaching this course, which counts towards a history major, I thought, ‘why not take the class now?’—and see what it would be like to have him as a teacher again.

Though if seemed a bit odd at first to have him as a teacher in a college setting—she still calls him Mr. Lehman, rather than Tim, in class—Corine has enjoyed the class and perhaps even had an advantage. “I remember from middle school that he made us read our textbooks and that some of his test questions came directly from the text. So when he told our college class to read the text, we ‘Tim-alums’ knew he was serious.”

GC senior Trevor Daugherty also found the experience interesting and says, “I like to think of it as coming full circle academically. Perhaps more interesting than having Tim as a teacher again was having some of my classmates from seventh grade in this class now—though we’ve learned it’s not appropriate to act like we did then.”

Lehman too noticed and appreciated a difference in the maturity level. “As college students they are more polite. They actually raise their hands when they have a question and don’t interrupt class to sharpen a pencil or ask to go to the bathroom.”

Lehman, despite his recognition as an outstanding middle school teacher—Indiana Geography Teacher of the Year in 2005—and serving as a national education consultant and workshop presenter, worried that his knowledge base might not be adequate to teach college students. Instead, he was surprised to find that many of his students lacked basic geographical knowledge, though some have asked challenging questions and written sound thesis arguments. His biggest challenge ended up not being his knowledge base, but rather sticking to the goals and objectives of the course and not branching off into other interesting topics.

Lehman worked with Bethany’s administration to arrange his teaching schedule to make this opportunity possible. He spends mornings teaching middle school students, afternoons at the college, and then back to Bethany to coach high school softball.

While Lehman has enjoyed the challenge of teaching at the college level, he continues to enjoy teaching at the middle school level as well. “It is much easier to get middle school students engaged in learning, and I enjoy the excitement that they show when they know the answer or learn something new and interesting.”