Know Your Profs: Camosun economics instructor Bijan Ahmadi

Campus July 17, 2013

Know Your Profs is an ongoing series of articles helping you get to know the instructors at Camosun College a bit better. Got someone you want to see interviewed? Email editor@nexusnewspaper.com and we’ll get on it. This time around we caught up with economics instructor Bijan Ahmadi and talked about robot teachers, cell phones, and taco night.

Camosun instructor Bijan Ahmadi (photo provided).
Camosun instructor Bijan Ahmadi (photo provided).

1: What do you teach and how long have you been a teacher at Camosun?
I teach in the economics department. Micro and Macro, mostly. This September I will have been here a year.

2: What do you personally get out of teaching?
I like to watch the students applying what they have learned to the real world. That’s when they start thinking like economists.

3: What’s the one thing that you wish your students knew about you?
I see patterns in everything, kind of like that Numb3rs guy. But I’m not such a dorkÉ or maybe I’m more of one.

4: What’s one thing you wish they didn’t know about you?
I might seem cold and calculated, but I’m actually a big softie at heart.

5: What’s the best thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
I had a student change their schedule so they could take my class the next term.

6: What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to you as a teacher here?
I recently read a scathing review on ratemyprofessors.com and it really hit me hard.

7: What do you see in the future of postsecondary education?
Robot teachers. Well, hopefully not, but I definitely see the virtual classroom idea opening up.

8: What do you do to relax on the weekends?
I pack in as much fun and excitement as my kids can handle. There’s lots of running around and screaming.

9: What is your favourite meal?
Innovation is the cornerstone to gastronomy, but I do love build-your-own taco night at our house.

10: What’s your biggest pet peeve?
The intrusion of cell phones into the classroom, and our lives in general, has led to a real socialĘdisconnect. I’m all for digital learning, but it still irks me to watch a student staring blankly at their phone the whole class.