Faculty Seminars

For many years, I have presented seminars to faculty members at law schools on teaching students how to learn. These seminars include "Process vs. Substance," "Linear Thinking: from Frogs into the Top Ten," and "Teaching Writing and Legal Analysis." Faculty members have told me that my seminars have entirely changed their thinking and approaches.

Most recently, I have been working with faculty on developing sample answers for their students. I believe it extremely important for law students to be able to see model answers upon which they can model their answers. As a student, I found it extraordinarily helpful to be able to review faculty model answers. My peers and I were better able to understand what was expected of us on exams.

I am available to present seminars to faculty members covering a range of topics. I am available also as a consultant to help faculty members develop effective academic support programs.

Faculty Training

I would like to invite other law teachers and lawyers to become Skillman Method^TM teachers (TSM teachers). Initially, a faculty member in-training must watch The Basic Exam Course for Law Students^TM. Then, the faculty member must sit in on teleconference classes and private sessions with students for a year to become a TSM teacher.

Given modern technology, a TSM teacher can work from anywhere in the world. In fact, one summer one of my bar students joked during one of our private sessions, "You know professor, you could be on the beach right now."

My response was, "Well, I didn’t want to boast, but I am at the beach." Actually, I was a block away from the beach at Waikiki, but I think you get the point.

I invite you to become a Skillman Method^TM teacher. The work is extremely empowering.

Articles

My article, "Misperceptions that Operate as Barriers to the Education of Minority Law Students" has been widely cited. I wrote the article in 1984 when I was working exclusively in academic support programs designed for students of color. Now, that I have taught my courses in so many different setting, I would change the title of the article to "Misperceptions that Operate as Barriers to the Education of Law Students."

With encouragement from other faculty members, particularly Professor Ann Ijima from William Mitchell College of Law, I am in the process of completing several articles to enable other faculty members to apply my methods. If all goes well, I will have completed several new articles by the summer.

Nerissa Bailey-Scott Shklov Skillman

Founder, The Skillman Method^TM