Teaching

Welcome to my teaching page! If you're registered for one of my classes, or if you're thinking about registering for one, the following information should help you know what to expect. My current teaching schedule is available online.

I've been a full-time English teacher since 1986, when I began teaching at Mesa High School. In 1996 I moved to Mesa Community College and have been here since. I have three degrees from Arizona State University (and, yes, it took a long time!): a BS in Business Administration, an MEd in Secondary Education/English, and a PhD in English with an emphasis in rhetoric and composition. Currently, as MCC's English department chair, my time is divided between administrative work and teaching. However, it's telling that when people ask what I do for a living, the first words out of my mouth are, "I teach English."

I've been profoundly influenced by the educators and scholars I've worked with over the years, both as their student and as their colleague. Every one of these women and men clearly loved teaching, cared about their students, and brought a sense of joy, civility, and academic rigor to the classroom. For them, teaching was a calling. Not surprisingly, these are the very qualities that I try to bring to my own work. This is also why I find working at MCC so gratifying: it's a college that values good teaching and learning above all else.

As a composition teacher, my job is to help students grow as writers by presenting them with carefully-sequenced, increasingly-complex writing tasks and providing instruction and feedback at every step in the process. I'm much more likely to comment extensively on rough drafts while there's still time for revision than on the final draft. It's also my job to help students think like a scholar, which means, among other things, providing evidence for claims/assertions and engaging complex issues from multiple viewpoints. I recognize that the language students are asked to master in college--carefully edited, written English--is not their native language, so I tailor my comments with an eye toward revision, specifically to help students consider the audience and purpose in any given rhetorical situation. I hold daily office hours, during which I'm very happy to work with students on their writing.

Finally, I thought you might like to read what my students have to say. At the end of each semester, students evaluate the course (and me) by completing an anonymous evaluation (no names, no points). The link below is from the ENG 101 course I taught in the Spring 2013 semester. No responses have been omitted or edited. If you have further questions, please contact me.