I’ve taught college-level English at several institutions.

Texas A&M

As a graduate student at Texas A&M, my classes ranged from the standard Introduction to Composition to Introduction to Literature to Introduction to Creative Writing (as both a multi-genre and a poetry-specific course).

While we graduate students tended to keep ourselves separate from the rest of the Aggies, I actually found an interesting inspiration in the strong sense of tradition there. Drawing on connections I’d made at Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, I began having my composition courses do research on the history of a person, event, or tradition at the university. It tapped into an interest that was already present for most students, whether they defined themselves with or in opposition to the general perception of the institution, and it created a respect for both primary materials (old papers, letters, photographs, and other materials from the Archives) and libraries/librarians. I’ve continued to use a variation on this project.

Given the freedom to design my own classes within certain basic parameters, I was able to bring to bear a real survey of literature in Introduction to Composition, ranging from Aristophanes to Fight Club. I considered it necessary to at least introduce my students to literary theory, and so we also covered “ten cent tours” of theory, applying, for example, elements of Feminist theory to The Arabian Nights (what do we do with a story containing misogynistic elements when it is framed as the tale of a woman being held against her will by a misogynist, that tale in turn being told by a variable real life narrator, possibly a female relative?) or considering Romeo & Juliet from a Marxian perspective (ever notice that their marriage doesn’t change anything?).

Creative Writing was all about inspired group efforts. Sometimes this took the form of the gradual transition from (copious) private commentary from me to each student into full-class workshopping. Sometimes it took the form of “Sign of the Turtle,” a part-American-Sign-Language-part-spoken-word performance piece I created, inspired and assisted by one of my students. Our world was at times very physical, as in an exercise involving the feel of grass at different levels of hand pressure (notice how the more pressure you apply, the less you’re describing the grass and instead describing your muscles), and at times quite virtual, as in an assignment to create or update a Wikipedia page for an underserved author.

Hesser College

At Hesser College in Concord, NH, I taught a hybrid literature/creative writing course in Mystery Writing and the Detective Story for one summer semester. It was my first time teaching nontraditional students, and it was an eye-opening experience all around – from learning to adjust to (and harness for lessons) the realities of students doing 9-5 (or longer) work and then coming to class at night to introducing them to stories that, unlike the literature they remember having to read in high school, made them feel alive and involved.

The University of New England

UNE was my first experience at a private university since I’d attended Illinois Wesleyan University as an undergraduate. I was lucky enough to have a great deal of autonomy in the classroom once again, and I was able to spend my year teaching there to refine my techniques, particularly some of my discussion-based lessons. I commonly offer a paper option at the end of a semester of composition wherein students can create original works of nontextual media, or at least media for which text is a secondary concern (a song, a political cartoon, etc.). The best political cartoons I’ve yet received came out of my classes at UNE, really smart and biting work that I was able to keep for use as examples in future classes.

The University of Tennessee at Martin

Here I am at UTM. I’m an adjunct professor in the Department of English and Modern Foreign Languages. I’ve been teaching a smattering of composition courses, drawing on some old lessons and trying to adapt them to a new place (that historical research assignment, for example) and coming up with new ideas (using the first three collected editions of Jeff Smith’s excellent comic book Bone to talk about the intersection of text and image). This is a place that combines all my previous experiences with students – the first-timer at college, the nontraditional student, the dedicated young scholar, the go-home-on-the-weekend crowd, the stay-a-little-longer-for-a-good-open-mic crowd. I’m collaborating with my new colleagues on some creative writing initiatives. Things are going well. It’s a good feeling.