TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
I teach because I believe that I bring something valuable to students—mentorship. For many students, I am the only teacher they have that knows their name, let alone anything else about them. I make an effort to get to know my students as learners and as people. Office hours are an integral part of my teaching effort. Students know that they are encouraged to come see me throughout the semester, not only when they have a question. I frequently meet with students to chat about how they are doing, to help them with the college transition, or simply to listen. For me, teaching is about more than passing on information, it is a way of establishing intellectual communities and making sure that students feel like a part of that community.
Many of my students have only the vaguest notion of what college will be like. They may be first-generation college students or simply the first of their friends to pursue higher education. Few are prepared for the level of academic rigor that they find in my classes. Therefore, I consider it my responsibility to teach students about academic culture. My students vary in age, parental status, and professional development, so I attempt to construct courses that will meet all of those needs. I spend the first day of every course going over the syllabus, explicitly outlining what their responsibilities are as well as the freedoms that come with the college schedule. In all of my course policies, I work to counteract the infantilization of college students while still providing a safe environment for my younger students to make mistakes as they learn how to navigate the adult, academic world. Discomfort may be useful, but fear rarely is.
As adults, my students have lives outside of the classroom and their time is valuable. Many of them have full-time jobs, families, or other commitments. To this end, I do not require attendance at every class meeting, recognizing that other obligations may occasionally take precedence. My assignments are focused and purposeful so as to respect the time of students, while recognizing that a certain amount of time for curious, seemingly aimless, inquiry is also necessary.
I am a guide, knowledgeable in the subject and course content, but not infallible. Students are welcome to respectfully challenge the assumptions, opinions, and topics I propose. It is not my job to impose a particular set of ideas or thoughts but to enable students to begin a process of discovery. Every class should be the beginning of a student’s ever-deeper exploration of a given topic, and I strive to enable my students to continue exploring each topic on their own through information literacy. My two teaching goals are that my students will be able to think deeply and critically on the content of the course and that they will be able to effectively communicate those thoughts verbally and through writing. My students learn to thoughtfully challenge their own assumptions, attitudes, and actions. I encourage them to become civically engaged, to see themselves as members of communities and to feel empowered to benefit those communities.
The structure of my courses remains consistent, reflecting my overall teaching goals, while individual lessons vary widely, reflecting the needs of specific subjects and students. Participation is extremely important to me, but recognizing that some students fear in-class participation due to a variety of factors, I provide a wide range of options for participation: in-class writing, online discussions, take-home writing, group work, or speaking in class. This empowers students to tailor their participation to their own learning style.
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I also expand the world of my classroom beyond our physical space whenever possible. Technology plays a significant role in my courses, whether through Learning Management Systems, the larger internet, or smart boards and mobile devices on site. When possible, I prefer to send my classes into the surrounding communities to see the course content in context. In all of these scenarios, I am trying to bring the outside world into our classroom discussions and intellectual work.
These principles are the bedrock of my teaching philosophy. In all that I do, both inside and outside the classroom, I do with the intent of providing my students with the tools they need to succeed in academia and in their lives. I give them structure, but only as much as they need to safely push themselves to think more deeply, communicate more clearly, and engage more authentically with their world.