I have been a classroom teacher for most of the last 20 years. My work has ranged from teaching “at risk” students and former drop-outs in an urban night school, to guiding college students as they came to terms with the challenges and realities of project design for international development, to advising undergraduate Individual Studies Program students in designing their own majors and completing their theses, to teaching Master's students as a Fulbright Scholar in Moldova. As a high school teacher, I cut my teaching teeth against the backdrop of learning disabilities, significant social and economic hardship, substance abuse, and apathy. Rising to meet these challenges drove me to invest in offering the most intellectually stimulating, practically relevant, and personally engaging courses that I could, an experience that has shaped the way I teach university students today.
For all of the courses I discuss here, I have developed my own curricula and have been able to explore and hone my personal teaching philosophy, which takes a highly individual approach to student engagement while seeking to foster an atmosphere of deliberative dialogue. Scroll down to read more of my teaching philosophy.
I have received seven teaching and mentoring awards for this work, including the Undergraduate Education Recognition Award for exemplary teaching and service to the University of Maryland and three Merrill Presidential Scholar Faculty Mentor recognitions. But my students’ own words speak to my efforts far better...