I believe we’re all students in one way or another, and it’s in that spirit that I approach the teaching of writing. I believe the writing classroom should be a community of writers of all levels collaborating on their learning by sharing experiences. I think we grow, not only as students, but as people when we have the support of our community. I envision this as a reflective classroom, where students and teacher will spend time discussing what we agree are the goals for the semester and setting boundaries to be aware of, a set of group norms for our community. I see this as a way to incorporate critical thinking into the environment of the classroom.
In my experience, students learn best when they see how their work benefits them and when they are allowed to explore under their own direction. My goal in teaching first-year composition and freshmen students is to instill a confidence in their own voice and choices. I do this by using storytelling and personal narrative to introduce students to the practice of writing. The unit builds the student’s writing through exploration, feedback, practice, and revision, with supporting texts to create a toolbox for students to reference during their process. I think it’s important to give students a chance to make their own choices about topic and style by offering time to invent, play, and remix with existing text and their understanding of them. I want students to be supported in their choices to ensure they will build confidence in what they produce, based not on the scholastic merits of their writing but on the labor they put into creating texts.
More than anything I view community college and/or the first two years of college as a place to explore what learning means to you and your future. This is a time when students are figuring out what they want out of higher education. I want them to come out of it with strong ideas of themselves and how their perspectives inform how they approach learning. I found my passions in a community college and I saw the labor involved for students to come to learning. I teach because I want to honor the steps it takes to come to higher education, make their stories visible, and embody the support necessary for students to succeed.