Mina Shaughnessy, an early and well-respected writing teacher, said, “Writing
is something we’re always learning to do.” I agree. I learn something
about writing (and reading and teaching) every semester I work with student
writers—whether novice writers in first-year courses or reentry adults
in continuing education courses. Working with students at all levels with their
reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and listening is my focus and purpose
as an educator.
I have been teaching first-year and advanced composition since
1992 and have participated in a variety of writing programs. I’ve been
teaching in the first-year Rhetoric Program (English 1301 and 1302) for Southern
Methodist University since August 1998. Recently, I designed and occasionally
teach a course entitled “Writing the Memoir” to returning adult students
in SMU’s program of informal instruction. I prefer to teach writing as
a process, to workshop drafts in writing groups, to write along with students,
to conference with them one-on-one, to have access to computers during class,
and to use portfolio evaluation. Some of my pedagogical preferences aren’t
always sanctioned by the employer institution, however, so I adapt and work
as close to my desired praxis as I can while fulfilling institutional and departmental
objectives. My teaching is influenced by my research, and much of my research
is driven by my desire to be an effective teacher.
I completed the doctoral program in Rhetoric and Professional
Communication at New Mexico State University in December 1997. My specialized
areas of study are narrative theory and the teaching of composition. During
the research and writing of my dissertation, I became interested in the teaching
properties of autobiography as well as the powerful control hierarchical grading
systems hold on students, teachers, and notions of literacy itself. More recently,
I’ve become intrigued by the rhetoric of film and am integrating cinematic
texts into my writing courses.
To me, teaching is, and must be, a continual process of self-reflection and careful monitoring of objectives, behavior, and consequences within a specific learning context. Therefore, this mission statement may undergo change as I learn and grow as a teacher, reader, and writer. I doubt, though, that I’ll ever desert my strong belief that we make sense of our academic experience by connecting it to our lived experience through personal narratives.
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