'You be you, and just be the best you that you can be'
If you ask James "Jimmy" DeNicco for his definition of great teaching, he can’t give you a simple answer.
"I don’t think there is any one way to be a good teacher," said DeNicco, a lecturer in Rice's Department of Economics. "I think that is somewhat unique to the individual. You have to do you and just try to be the best you that you can be."
But DeNicco does observe a common thread among great teachers: the ability to connect with students — one of the traits that helped make him this year's winner of the university's top teaching honor, the George R. Brown Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
"Engagement is absolutely necessary to connect, but it can be done many ways," he said. "This is where you need to be yourself and engage students the best way you can. I think once you can really find ways to connect with your students on the material, that makes teaching a lot of fun. That is one way I gauge how I think a class is going. If I am having fun, I feel like I am really connecting. I feel like connecting is, in large part, teaching."
Organization is also an important part of the process, DeNicco said.
"Proper, prior planning leaves you in a position to concentrate more on engagement during the semester," he said. "I put a lot of energy into my classroom presentations. If I am not a little tired by the end of the week, I am disappointed in myself."
DeNicco said teachers must care deeply about their craft and work hard at it.
"Good times in the classroom are sure to follow if you do," he said.
When DeNicco thinks back on memorable teaching moments, it's the firsts that stand out.
"The first time I stood in front of my own classroom was extremely important," he said. "Up until that point, I could never see myself making a career in academia. I just didn’t think I would fit in and in some ways I still feel a bit like I don’t exactly fit in, which is OK by me."
It was during that first year of teaching in graduate school at Drexel University, where DeNicco earned his Ph.D. in economics in 2013, that he started falling in love with teaching.
"It is the connection I think that I love, the connection you get to have with your students and your classroom," he said. "It's something very special."
Many people throughout his educational experience have inspired his teaching.
"As an undergraduate student, my Western Civilization instructor, Richard Abels from the United States Naval Academy, certainly stands out in my mind," he said. "He was an incredibly knowledgeable and passionate teacher who encouraged learning through engagement and hard work. He not only improved my writing dramatically, but he inspired me with his passion and the value he placed on hard work in learning."
Another inspiration was Christopher Laincz, one of DeNicco's professors in graduate school.
"Dr. Laincz was my dissertation adviser who grew to be a mentor, a co-author and a good friend," he said. "As far as teaching goes, I owe him so much. His brand of honest — and sometimes brutally honest — criticism didn’t discourage me, but rather encouraged me to continue to work hard and push myself."
The George R. Brown Prize is not DeNicco's first teaching accolade at Rice. He previously received the Sarah A. Burnett Teaching Prize in Social Sciences and the Nicholas Salgo Outstanding Teaching Award, both in 2018, and received the Malcom Gillis Award for Distinction in Undergraduate Teaching in Economics from his department in 2016.
As for his latest award, DeNicco calls it "quite gratifying."
"It is always nice when your hard work is recognized," he said. "There are so many amazing faculty members at Rice, so it feels very special and somewhat unreal to be recognized this way by our recent alumni. I still interact with a fair number of them, and I am certainly very appreciative of this. Thank you so much to them."
When he's not teaching at Rice, DeNicco spends time with his wife, his three children and his pets. He enjoys cooking for his family, everything from vegetarian fare for his daughter to Texas barbecue. On the weekends, he's usually following his kids' sports activities, spending time outside walking or hunting, or watching the news, sports or science fiction and horror movies.
"It is a privilege to be given the responsibility of managing a small piece of our students’ academic journeys," he said. "I have been lucky enough to find a position that allows me to focus all of my efforts on that task. At this point I have taught over 4,000 Rice undergrads in my six years here. I feel truly blessed."