Teaching

It’s cliché to talk about the student-centered classroom, but since my research focuses on experience, it’s difficult for me to consider teaching through any other perspective. For me, one of the joys of entering a new class at the beginning of a semester is learning the dynamic of the room. The physical space. The placement of windows, if any. Is there room to move around? Can we reconfigure the seats? And then: the mood. Do my students already know each other? If so, who’s left out? Who feels too shy to speak up? Who lingers after because they’re afraid to ask questions during the session? If we are virtual: who speaks up? Who seeks clarification, and why, and how?

Some of these are so-called “little things.” Some are huge. But each factor impacts experience. No two students are having quite the same experience. But what I have learned to value in helping shape those experiences is connection. So much of what I teach is around communication—writing is a conversation, and so reading, and playing—and so it is personal, embodied, and deeply entangled with the rest of our lives. When we are working at such complex intersections, connection—with a teacher, a peer, an audience—can change everything.

University Courses Taught At GVSU

  • DS 201 Digital Identities and Communities
  • DS 330 Game Culture
  • WRT 180 Fake News & Disinformation
  • WRT 200 Introduction to Professional Writing
  • WRT 350 Business Communication
  • WRT 351 Writing for the Web
  • SI 620 Case Studies in Social Innovation

University Courses Taught At Purdue

  • ENGL 106 First-Year Writing)
  • ENGL 106 8-week Summer Session
  • ENGL 106E First-Year Writing for Polytechnic Major
  • ENGL 106T First-Year Writing for Purdue Statewide
  • ENGL 106R First-Year Writing Learning Community
  • ENGL 205 Introduction to Creative Writing
  • ENGL 420 Professional Writing
  • ENGL 420E Professional Writing for Entrepreneurs
  • ENGL 420Y Professional Writing/Distance Learning
  • ENGL 421Y Technical Writing/Distance Learning

Other Courses Taught

  • ENGL 106 for STEAM ABC Incoming Polytechnic students; summer session
  • Enrichment Instructor, “Analog and Digital Programing” (K-1), New Community School, Lafayette, IN
  • Enrichment Instructor, “Pirates!” (1-2), New Community School, Lafayette, IN