Teaching Philosophy

As a teacher of English literature, creative writing, and first year writing it is my goal to engage my students in a way that builds their self-confidence and ability. I try to help them do this by finding their voice through experimenting with, and implementing, a variety of techniques and mediums that will allow them to participate in community dialogue. I refer to this dialogue in my classrooms as civil discourse. Civil discourse seems to me to be the most vital thing we can teach our students: how do they engage in conversations as part of a community, especially when other members of the community don’t see eye to eye with them? This goal is the same whether I’m teaching freshman writing, literature, or creative writing. The only difference between these spheres of learning is the material we use and create, and the methodology of communication dictated by genre.

Specifically, when teaching, my three goals are to: help facilitate the students’ thinking, further develop their ideas, and recognize how they respond and interact with the world; help the student to learn to effectively share and communicate their ideas through writing; and, most importantly, help the students to develop their ability to share. This entails sharing their ideas, hearing another’s ideas, and creating a back and forth conversation. For my students these goals translate into lots of assigned readings, lots of practice writing, and in-class dialogue about both. After all, the fastest way to learn is by doing.

Through teaching experiences at multiple levels of education, I have found that interaction with students is a balancing act: holding students to high expectations while letting them know that I care about them. One of the first course reviews that I received said, “I wish he wouldn’t get so frustrated when we didn’t do the work.” Initially I found this comment ironic. After all, they were admitting they didn’t do the work. This was college. There were expectations that they do the work. I felt vindicated. However, the longer I contemplated what this comment was saying, the more I realized the problem wasn’t that my student hadn’t done the work, but that they felt my frustration. My balance was off.

A large part of my development as a teacher is a continual search for ways to progress in my instruction. This development comes from pedagogical workshops I’ve attended, department meetings about teaching practices, one-on-one discussions with other professors about their methods, and asking my students for their feedback. Because of the comment above, I adapted my instruction. Now, in my classes, I try to arrange the course and assignments in a way that account for my expectations, so if a student doesn’t do the work, I don’t need to be frustrated, I just let the consequences take place. This allows me to focus on the best practices for healthy learning. This often takes the form of open book reading quizzes due before in-class discussion on the readings, front-loading my course schedule with assignments that build the habit of my expectations while having larger papers spaced out at the end of the semester, and an increase use of rubrics in my grading. These changes allow me to focus on individual student needs and building a relationship with my students, without sacrificing my expectations. Which in turn leads to a more balanced classroom and a better learning environment.