Dr. Marlee Spafford

For optometry professor Marlee Spafford, teaching is all about successful communication. It goes beyond her classroom topics, which include health care ethics and communication, and systemic disease.

It's fun to help people understand something," she says.

It helps that Waterloo has the only English-language optometry school in Canada, drawing bright, engaged students, some with multiple degrees, from across Canada. They quickly suss out if you know what you're talking about, Spafford adds. They also sense if you really enjoy teaching. 

I have fun when I teach, and they know that."

Like successful communication, successful learning flows both ways. It's a good lesson when Spafford realizes shes learned something from a student: either a piece of knowledge, or an idea on how to teach the lesson better next time. 

To learn more about Marlee Spafford, please watch a youtube video about her teaching experiences at the School of Optometry.