About teaching/professors and what we are doing in this class

When I read the class notes from Thursday, I realized it was a good time to clarify and follow up on something that was mentioned as an aside.  I was commenting on stylistic difference between Coogan and me, but being tired and stressed that day, I don’t think I explained it well, or why it mattered to our conversation.  So I’m taking the opportunity to say more here, on the blog.

Coogan teaches at a large university with a different set of expectations and opportunities. He sometimes has 75 students in a class! And he teaches more upper-level rhetoric and writing classes. And when he started the project that resulted in Writing Our Way Out, he did not have any VCU students in the class, and the participants in the jail did not get academic credit. Since he first started the writing project, he has grown and transformed the program as well as educating many other educators on how to create similar projects. Currently, Richmond judges can, at their discretion, “sentence” non-violent adult offenders to take Coogan’s writing class and if they successfully complete their memoir, they will have no criminal record.

Our project in the spring will be different.  I have always worked with juvenile offenders, and from the beginning I wanted the project to include university students AND incarcerated youth.  My interest is in the way stories build bridges between strangers. And I have developed this project because of who I am and what I teach.  I specialize in teaching first-year college students, helping them to gain skills in academic writing and research that will help them meet college-level requirements across all the disciplines. Here is my teaching philosophy statement:

I believe people are born curious and ready to learn. We learn our language and how to take care of ourselves and many complex skills before we ever enter “school.”  I like to find ways to minimize the amount that school makes us doubt, and maybe even forget, our natural abilities.  My method for doing this is to create learning communities that engage all the members in wondering, discovering, connecting ideas in new ways, trying things out, reflecting, transforming, and leading.  My classes always engage with the world outside of school in some way, which makes for a degree of unpredictability that causes some students discomfort. I don’t think discomfort is always a bad thing.

I design every class I teach with learning goals in mind.  This class has student learning goals related to this specific course in the policy/syllabus statement.  And I also based the design on these goals for the Endeavor program: 

self-efficacy, community, intellectual engagement, and ethical understanding

I challenge you to  re-read the policy statement and also the definition of the Endeavor goals and write/reflect about:

1. what progress are you making toward the class goals so far?

2. what progress are you making toward the Endeavor goals?

3. what is your learning philosophy statement?  What do you believe and value related to learning?

Is there any part of these reflections you would feel comfortable sharing with the class? Post it to the blog : )

Doing these reflections will be great learning which will prepare you for your portfolios.