24 years and counting…

Fall semester. 1999. Appalachian State University. I stood in front of a room full of expectant freshmen for the first time with no experience teaching college students.

Hell, I’d never taught anyone who wasn’t wearing a bathing suit, or was over the age of ten.

As an undergraduate I taught little kids how to swim. I also coached summer swim teams, but I never had any formal teacher training. When I was awarded a teaching assistantship in my second year of graduate study, I had to attend a day-long preparatory workshop the week before classes started. I was handed a syllabus from a previous term, then instructed to “make it my own.” The workshop amounted to little more than a crash course of do’s and don’t’s. I was told to get my finalized syllabus approved by my faculty mentor, and that he would need to check the feedback I scribbled on my first batch of papers. That was it. Go.

The same week I started teaching two classes, I also started a required graduate-level composition theory and pedagogy course. About halfway through the term, I exasperatedly proclaimed in class one evening that I was going to chuck my syllabus out the window and start over. I didn’t. But I was tempted.

I will never forget what Dr. Georgia Rhodes told all of us that evening: “You will spend the rest of your lives apologizing to your students for the harms you do to them. But it’s okay. It’s okay. Go ahead and forgive yourselves now.”

Nearly a quarter of a century later, I still rely on what I learned from Professor Rhodes.

I’ve taught nearly non-stop since 1999. The 2023 fall semester at Keuka College marked the start of my 24th year of teaching at the college level. In that time I have taught well over two hundred courses—from adult basic writing and reading, to mythology, British, American, and world literatures, cultural studies, professional, technical, and creative writing, and advanced digital rhetoric.

Below is a curated sample of my 24-year career, with accompanying reflections on my experiences teaching, designing courses, and engaging in institutional cultures.

Curriculum Design
From syllabi and essay assignments, to progressive assignment sequences, labor-based contract grading, formative feedback processes, and using Google Docs for collaborative annotation—to online, multimodal, and interactive lessons, I have developed a host of materials to forward a truly engaged pedagogy. More resources can be found at Praxis|Connect.

Davidson County Community College (2002-2009)
DCCC Reflections: Falling in love and finding a career

  • ENG 095: Reading and Composition Strategies
  • ENG 111: Expository Writing
  • HUM 130: Myth and Human Culture

Northeastern University (2009-2016)
NU Reflections: Renewed commitments and critical pedagogy

Tufts University – Experimental College (2012)
Ex College Reflections: A fun experiment and a new research focus

Fairleigh Dickinson University – Metro (2016-2018)
FDU Metro Reflections: An unexpected return to administration

  • ENGW 098: Fundamentals of Academic Writing I
  • ENGW 1101: Academic Writing
  • HUMN 3009: Digital Space and Social Change

Keuka College (2018-present)
KC Reflections: Becoming Keukonian