I have taught in some capacity since middle school. I used to teach little ones to read and then I moved to teaching seniors art and how to use computers and the Internet. I’ve also taught preschool, and let me tell you that you don’t know true panic until you count the little kids you’re teaching and you realize that you’re missing a child. Don’t worry, he just went to the bathroom without telling me, but my gosh the shear panic I felt.
Now, I teach college English, and I have done so since 2015 and I hope to continue doing so until, well, until I retire. I absolutely love what I do. There’s something magical in guiding students and watching them learn and find their voices as writers. I think that I’m a pretty good teacher, although there is always room for improvement. I hope that I always feel like there is room for improvement, because I never want to get stagnant in my teaching or become so egotistical as to think that I know everything there is to know about teaching. Indeed, students continually prove that I do NOT know everything, and there’s something really neat about that humbling aspect about teaching.
I’ve gotten to this point in my teaching abilities largely because of other teachers’ advice. Also, I constantly learn from my students (you can check number #10 on this list for proof of that) and from my mistakes (and, oh, I’ve made some fun ones). Here, I hope to pass along the guidance that I’ve had to other teachers as well as give some tips and tricks that I wish that I had known when I first started.
At the Foot of the Sierras 