Hi, my name is Wendy Hampson. That's my usual introduction when I meet somebody new. Depending on the situation however, what follows might be one or several of the following descriptors. I'm a graduate student, I'm training to be a clinical psychologist, I'm from the Caribbean, I'm a runner, I have a shoe fetish, I'm an extrovert, I love the color red. Of course I could go on and on.

I've listed these descriptors in order to demonstrate that we are all complex and multi-faceted, with a plethora of past experiences, skills, and preferences that make us unique individuals. Some of you may be wondering, how this relates to teaching? Well, let me explain. For this TA issue of Core, I developed the following three-part theme:

1. What is your background (e.g. identities, ethnicity, family, personal experiences)?
2. How does your background impact on how you learn to teach?
3. How do the answers to the two previous points influence you when you teach?

The idea for this theme began as I thought about the teachers who have had the greatest impact on me and who had inspired me to want to teach. These teachers differed in their teaching style, age, gender and ethnicity. Yet despite their differences, they all shared one commonality. They were great teachers!

This led me to question why I thought they taught better than other teachers. Eventually I came to the conclusion that these great teachers had effectively used their backgrounds, experiences, passions and views of the world in their teaching. Some may argue that bringing your own views and experiences into your teaching isn't unique; in fact, it can be argued that it is almost impossible to avoid. But what I realized about these excellent teachers was that they were able to use their unique backgrounds to bring the content of their subject to life, to connect it to themselves and thus allow me to connect with, and find my own meaning from the content. These great teachers helped me to mediate my connection to and understanding of the course content.

The first teacher that I remember who made this connection for me was my grade four teacher, Mr. Deon. His love of ancient civilizations and prehistory was infectious. Today, because of his influence, they are still interests of mine. Mr. Deon's passion and creativity were reflected in his unusual ideas for class assignments. For example, while doing a unit on ancient Rome, we elected a class Senate and put on a production of Julius Caesar for the school. Mr. Deon's love for teaching and his ability to impart his own personal love of the material inspired me to teach.

In more recent years I had the opportunity to attend classes taught by my supervisor, Harvey Mandel, as his TA. I think I learned more about Abnormal Psychology in his class than I did when I took it as an undergraduate. Professor Mandel as ability to effectively use personal stories and experiences in his teaching brought the subject to life, giving a face to the many disorders discussed. His sense of humour was instrumental in helping to alleviate the inevitable feelings of discomfort experienced by students because of the nature of some of the lecture topics. He allowed students to appreciate the challenges of the people diagnosed with these disorders, while at the same time maintaining a sense of their humanity.

During the past year in my position as one of the Graduate Teaching Associates for the Centre for the Support of Teaching, I've seen, heard about and read many examples of good teaching practice. I have had an opportunity to talk with many TAs who are, like me, teachers in training. Many of those conversations have focussed on pedagogical skills and how we can fine-tune them to better fit our own style of teaching. My teaching experiences have been in the discipline of psychology. It's a subject that lends itself easily to personal anecdotes, jokes and references to my own experiences of the world of human behavior, thought and emotion. However, I also believe that even if I were teaching statistics or physics, the unique aspects of my background would still emerge and serve as a way to connect the students with the content.

As teachers we serve as agents to help motivate our students' interest and desire to learn. One of the ways we accomplish this is by revealing ourselves. Now don't get me wrong, I am not advocating the revelation of all aspects of our personal lives to our students. In clinical psychology, self-disclosure (revealing personal information to clients) is something that is used cautiously and sparingly. In fact, in our clinical training we are taught that we should only self-disclose if the information will benefit the client. I think that when teaching a similar rule should apply. If some aspect of my experience, background or views about the concept I am teaching will provide a higher level of insight for the students, then I think it's appropriate to mention. I think that this engagement of the students is key to good teaching and I would go so far as to say that its what sets good teachers apart from great teachers. In the pages that follow you will have an opportunity to read articles written by TAs who explore aspects of their unique backgrounds and the impact it has had on them as they learn to teach. I hope that you enjoy this issue and that it causes you to reflect on the unique aspects of your own teaching style.