teaching
Across my diverse experiences—from a co-teaching a graduate pedagogy practicum to teaching lower-division research-based argumentation to working with community college students as a faculty writing center supervisor—four key principles sustain my pedagogical approach:
- I am committed to teaching as praxis. I seek authentic writing situations for assignments and invite students to understand their compositions as active interventions in the world around them.
- I insist on flexibility, both from me and from my students. Because “good writing” is always contextual, I aim to provide students with the strategies they need to read situations and respond to them effectively. In turn, despite being a thorough planner, I leave room in my classes to engage with students’ own interests and needs.
- Curiosity is essential. When designing a course or a lesson, I begin with questions, and I model this inquiry-based approach to learning for my students. Together, we “ask our way into” course content and explore academic ethos, research methodologies, genre conventions, social conventions, and more.
- Knowledge is for everyone. As a first-generation college student, I spent many of my early years in the academy feeling like I was behind and like I was missing the signals and rhythms that came easily to other students. Keeping these experiences close, I strive for transparency in my teaching. I am explicit about how I scaffold assignments and how process work aligns with course objectives. I stick to the course schedule whenever possible. I am candid about the demands of the class and my expectations for student engagement, and I encourage students to provide feedback about their progress and the course regularly, not only in end-term evaluations.