Concomitant with the goal of a liberal arts education, the study of English provides our students with new freedom to become better readers and writers of the human experience. As a teacher, I strive to provide a learning environment that engages my students with meaningful ideas, helps them translate their own experiences into a broader cultural context, and fosters their writing competence so that they can develop the literacy skills needed to succeed as they launch their academic careers. My hope is that my students will recognize that literacy transcends the creation of a well-constructed essay and is inextricably linked to a greater cultural context.
Academic success requires confidence and discipline. To foster both, I attempt to find the optimal balance between support and challenge in order to encourage students to take intellectual risks and embrace their own connections to our course of study. I also provide multiple opportunities for students to engage with their classmates, whose diversity so enriches our learning.