Linda Smail Loved by Her Students



Professor Linda Smail

 by The Third Eye
"She is the best professor who teaches at AUIS ever." said a student. "I can't describe her great personality and pedagogy even if I write a book about her. She is just an amazing professor whom I have ever had class with." stated another student. "Statistic is almost the only class I enjoy this semester and this is all because of Professor Smail." added another student.

The Third Eye wanted to know more about who Professor Smail was. In a brief interview with her, Prof. Smail briefly talked about her background.

“I’m French-Algerian,” She said. “I studied in France and got my Master and PhD in Applied Mathematics from a French University Called Marne-La-Vallee University. I worked for French universities before moving to the States to work for New York Institute of Technology that sent me for to work for its campus in Amman, Jordan. I spent five years working in Amman. It was my first experience with students from the Middle East.
Professor Smail described her experience at AUIS as the most remarkable one.
“A different experience and a remarkable one started for me when I joined AUIS in  Fall2011.” she added.
One of the AUIS students introduced AUIS to her.
“I was teaching at NYIT when a visitor student attended one of my Math classes as guest.” she stated. “It turned out that he was a student from AUIS visiting NYIT campus with his relative. He liked my class and he asked me: “why don’t you join AUIS, you’ll like it and the students will love to have you as a teacher.”
Professor Smail attended AUIS in April 2010.
“I didn’t know about AUIS before that,” she said. “So I started reading about it from its website. From the first sight I liked what was done a short period of time so I applied online. I was interviewed January 2010 and after my visit in April 2010 I decided to join AUIS.”
Professor Smail described AUIS students as the most hard-workers.
“I like the university and the students,” she added. “This is the first time after I start teaching in the Middle East that I see students are really trying hard to succeed in their studies and taking their learning seriously.”
All the students are talking about how great Smail is in teaching her students. The words, "She is punctual, respectful, intelligent, and hard-worker," are the words that a person will always will hear from her students.
"STT is almost the only class that I have never felt tired with," said a student. "I was really afraid to be failed at the first beginning of the semester because I was really bad in statistic. However, it went exactly the opposite of what I have predicted. I have the highest grade in statistic this semester and this is all because of professor Smail. She is best of the best. I can understand her very clearly."
The AUIS students wanted Professor Linda to stay forever.
"I hope Professor Smail will stay and teach at AUIS forever." a student stated."She is a great professor. She never left anyone and anything behind during the class. She is always concerning about whether all the students understand the subject or not."
Professor Smail stated that her contract was for two years, and she would be staying at AUIS for these two years.
In a response to the student's comments, Smail was happy and said that she wanted to not only hear good comments, but also bad ones to improve her pedagogy.
“I’m always happy to hear student’s comments,” she said. “Good comments are as important as bad comments for me because it helps me improve my teaching methods.”
Professor Smail told the students, “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
“Students should know that we, as teachers, are here to help them achieve their goals and to learn skills that will help them to become long-life learners,” she said. “I believe that I’m trying to do my best to help all students in my classes to understand the material and be able to answer questions. But this is not enough, students should try to work hard even outside of the classroom and use all available resources to achieve best results.”
Professor Smail said that she would do her best to help the students achieve their dreams.
“I’m here to help AUIS students,” she said. “Come to my office hours, send me emails, or call me.”
The Third Eye will be continuing to bring not only those who are loved by their students, but also those professors who are to be blamed by the students to the eyes of everyone. We, on behalf of the Third Eye, believed that those who are loyal for their jobs and hard-workers should be appreciated, and those who are not doing what they need to do should be criticized. In addition, we want to create the best and most comfortable environment at AUIS where everyone feels nothing except great!