Over the past 20 years of teaching at UNCC I have learned a tremendous amount about myself and the continually evolving nature of education, and I regard teaching as an opportunity to empower and inspire students. In the classroom I aspire to create a positive environment of mutual respect between myself and members of the class where they are encouraged to question and to think critically. To do so, I continually revise and improve my teaching methodology with the objective of making course material relevant and meaningful to all students. I want each of them to feel impacted by their involvement in my various courses.

Although students are ultimately responsible for their own learning, I seek to encourage their desire to learn. I am passionate about what I teach and truly believe in the importance of it and how it continues to impact our culture. Also, as I learn about my students and listen to their experiences, I connect course content to their own lives as learning is most successful when students are engaged with the information; thus, the students are active learners and participants.

At the beginning of each semester I inform the class that learning is collaborative: they will learn from me just as they will learn from each other; subsequently, I strive to make the classroom environment conducive to learning that encourages dialogue. During class the students often meet in small groups and discuss assigned readings. To maintain productive discussions, I designate an alternating leader for each group. This person’s responsibility is to facilitate the small group discussion and ultimately present this information to the entire class. As this role alternates, each will eventually participate in leading discussions, and students have informed me that they enjoy this process as they all have the opportunity to be the leader at varying points throughout the semester.

Furthermore, as learning is interactive, my methods dictate a “show verses tell” approach. For instance, to demonstrate the simple (though challenging) life of Colonial American children, I bring to class and incorporate hands-on props: replicas of Colonial toys and games for the class to try and 150+ year old children’s books and magazines to browse. We discuss and compare these to the students’ own childhood experiences. My students then are required to construct a historical toy using only methods from this era: hand sewing, sawing, etc. They quickly learn that these processes are not as easy as they appear.  To further reinforce concrete learning, I have hosted “Depression Dinners” in which the students research and prepare foods of the Great Depression and bring them to share on a designated night. Also I have invited guest speakers who can provide true accounts of life relevant to various courses. For example, survivors of the Great Depression, reformed gang members, as well as numerous experts in the fields relevant to the class present first-hand experience and knowledge.

As I now teach many of my courses 100% online, I continue to provide students with the interactive lessons that I have always constructed. I use the many resources available with technology to my advantage by providing students rare and unique elements of past life via slave spirituals and folktales and examples of Native Americans’ forced assimilation into white culture. Additionally, in Second Life, students experienced the 1930s in a replicated town during the Great Depression, and with their avatar, they “shopped” for and dressed in 1930s clothing, listened to music, radio programs and FDR’s first Fireside Chat, they watched popular thirties movies and shorts in the town’s movie theater, spoke in thirties slang, hung-out in the speak-easy, and witnessed life in the hobo sub-culture in a Hooverville. I have repeatedly demonstrated that classes taught online can be just as engaging as the traditional face-to-face format; the experiences are exciting and the opportunities are endless.

Teaching is a learning experience. I learn to be flexible in my methods to better educate unique students. I receive as much as I give, because when I am instructing in the classroom, I am energized and impassioned – it is where I belong and where I will stay. I love to learn, and I aspire to spend my life teaching and researching the fields I love and increasing my proficiency in these areas.