Tammy Crow

Tell us a story:

When you're my age, you have lots of stories. But something I think students might find interesting about me is that I have been employed full time in at least one job since I was 14. The only exception was the 60 days I was required to be unemployed, when I retired temporarily a few years ago.

During my working years, I have also worked a lot of part-time jobs. Some of the more entertaining were as a party clown, a model and a goat farmer. My most enduring part-time job was teaching adjunct for four different colleges and universities. That part-time job started after I did some contract technology training for the State Department of Education, spanned more than 10 years and resulted in the best job I've ever had, sharing my experience and helping my students become the best counselors they can be.

Which classes do you teach online?

COUN 5123: School Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice, COUN 5243: Human Growth and Development in Counseling, COUN 5503: Crisis and Disaster, COUN 5863: Research in Counseling, and COUN 5543: Counseling Pre-Practicum

What do you want your students to take away from your class(es)? What do you want them to learn?

A passion to counsel students and the skills to make them effective in their new role.

What's the best advice you could give your students?

One of the best teachers I've ever known always said, "Failing is not failure. Failure is when you quit trying." It is a play on a quote by Gordon B. Hinckley, but I prefer her version.

What is the one book you think everyone should read?

It is just wrong to ask a former librarian to choose one book. I think you should read something you enjoy every day. It's a beautiful form of self-care.

What qualities make someone particularly successful in education?

My parents always said success wasn't about how smart you were, it was about how hard you were willing to work. And while I think intelligence is somewhat important in education, I tend to agree with them. It has been my experience that students who have an appetite for learning and are willing to read the material and learn to navigate the technology required for online learning may well be more successful than a counterpart with higher innate intelligence.

What do you think is the biggest challenge that educators face today?

In online courses, I think the biggest challenge that educators face is ensuring that navigating the technology does not impede learning. Of course, when I took my first online class in 1998, we had to build a website where we could post our assignment submissions before we could post any assignments. They didn't tell us we had to build a website until after we paid for the course.