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believe students learn the most when they experience the learning process. For this reason, I use a lot of group projects and experiential learning techniques in my teaching. I also encourage students to learn from each other. I explain that I expect to learn more about the material through my interaction with them throughout the course.

It is important to challenge students to go beyond the basics. This means exploring new perspectives, using their critical thinking abilities and helping them to work at a higher level. I work to be tough, but fair in my courses. I am always looking for new methods to improve my teaching and to make courses more effective vehicles of learning. To that point, every semester I reserve part of one of each final course period to allow the students to make recommendations on how the course could improve from their perspective. Often, we share refreshments, which lends itself to a more informal discussion of ways the course can be improved. These discussions go far beyond the feedback received through formal evaluations.

Technology is important in most of my courses. This may be primarily the result of the subject areas I teach, but it is also part of my vision for the future. So far, I have used a couple of Web-based distance learning software packages in my courses to enhance my teaching and to allow students to learn the materials using different methods. This technique has been effective, particularly in my minorities and media production course (MC4971).

All grades in my courses are earned, not given. An “A” should represent a strong measure of achievement and should require a student to go beyond the basics. I also encourage students to ignore the grades and focus on learning. The more students learn, the more their grades improve and the more likely they are to show work ethic, critical thinking skills and produce quality assignments. These are all qualities I can brag about in a recommendation letter when they go looking for a job or internship. In the real world, earning a recommendation letter is more important than the grade in many ways.

One of the most rewarding parts of teaching is following students through their careers. I love to hear what they accomplish and help them move to the next level. I think learning is a life skill and I enjoy helping students learn long after they leave my classroom. Critiques, advice, connecting them with my contacts and just acting as a sounding board are all aspects of teaching I enjoy as I follow students through their careers.

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