Teaching Portfolio
Personal Statement: A Brief Reflection
While there have been plenty of instances in my life when I’ve found writing frustrating to the point of tears (writing my dissertation comes to mind), I can’t recall a time I didn’t enjoy some aspect of writing. Writing comes naturally to me, and so I enjoy discussing the act of writing just about as much as I enjoy doing it. I think of myself as a writer first – mostly because from a young age I have written stories, poems, essays. But I am also a teacher. The teaching of writing is my profession – almost a calling (without sounding too sentimental) – because I love working with students who love to write, hate to write, or who are just indifferent to it altogether. Much like speech, writing is a way for students to critically engage in the world through communication forms much altered thanks, in part, to new media. And my own professional pursuits have admittedly been impacted by the same constituents as the students with whom I work.
The following links under this tab, Teaching Portfolio, are just one way for me to capture, much like a snapshot or Polaroid picture, the work I do as an instructor. Although there is no way I could represent all of the work I do in my teaching profession, I hope this, as well as the other information presented on my website, will serve as a digital portfolio – ever changing – of the work I do as I explore the written word…. in the classes where I teach, my research and other scholarly pursuits, my freelance work, and my personal writing pursuits. The information presented in my Teaching Portfolio serves as summary representation, and so you may find expanded information in other areas of my website. For instance, I have included some of the New Media activities I’ve incorporated into my courses, but I have also posted more elaborate information about my pursuits in the Disco-Tech (Technology) tab.
Like any portfolio, my Teaching Portfolio is a work in progress where information may change or new updates will be incorporated over my teaching career. But I hope this serves as a useful resource – a reflective tool where I might improve my approaches while remaining grounded in the past.
Please reference the corresponding links under the Teaching Portfolio tab, but you can expect to find the following included in this portfolio:
