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TEACHING
PHILOSOPHY:
RECENT
IDEAS: In recent years, I have been using film and television more often
in my classes, since film and TV are such powerful influences on the
thinking of most Americans.
STUDENTS
LEARN BEST: Through modelling and practice--basically through the
"total immersion" that is so helpful for people learning a new
language. The thinking habits
of the college-educated are like a new language to beginning students, and
I believe that those habits are best acquired through intensive contact
with those who already speak that "dialect"--in person and in
written texts.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
In
March 2000, I gave HFCC's annual Faculty Lecture, entitled "Kids
Nowadays: Popular Images of Generation X."
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TEACHING
INNOVATION:
In
Fall 2001, I will again be teaching English 234: The Literature of
Generation X. It is a fun
course that looks at popular culture, especially postmodernism, punk, and
other "alternative" strands of popular culture.
HOW
ENGLISH COURSES LINK TO OTHER PROFESSIONS:
My
orientation is to develop students as complete human beings, especially in
encouraging them o explore ideas that they have not encountered before.
If what I do works the way that I hope it does, students will not
only be better equipped as thinkers in any job but also better equipped to
1) evaluate the type of work to which they would like to devote their
lives and 2) the place that their work should hold in their lives.
PERSONAL
INTERESTS:
Poetry,
Film, Popular Culture, Music, History (especially local and family
history).
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