Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy is grounded in a lifelong commitment to learning, and my goal as a teacher is to instill students with this same spirit of inquiry and thirst for knowledge. To accomplish this, my approach to teaching fuses a deep respect for the liberal arts and the fundamentals of journalism with power of multimedia technology as a pedagogical tool.
My career path to academe is unorthodox and has included several stops on trading floors on Wall Street and in newsrooms in New York, London and Atlanta. Although trading millions of dollars of bonds and foreign exchange and delivering breaking news on the fly were certainly stimulating and demanding, I’ve always enjoyed teaching and have volunteered to train co-workers throughout my career. My first experience in front of students was when I was 24 years old teaching a class on foreign exchange swaps and derivatives to traders twice my age hoping to transfer into this relatively new and profitable field. Nearly 20 years later, as I prepared for my first semester at Emory, I drew on all my personal and professional experiences to form the foundation for my approach to teaching.
The starting point for my teaching philosophy is my own liberal arts and graduate education. My four years at Dartmouth College and two years at Columbia University prepared me for a lifetime of learning and three distinct careers I never imagined for myself. Before I even started teaching at Emory, I decided my classes would be about more than the fundamentals of good reporting, writing and ethical journalism. At the start of each semester, I share my career path with students and urge them to think about their own education in broader terms. I talk to them about the three core competencies that have carried me through my professional life:
· Critical thinking skills: the ability to analyze, evaluate and synthesize information
· Communication skills: the ability to produce effective oral and written work across several mediums
· Collaboration skills: the ability to be both a leader and a team player
I explain to students how developing these broader skills will pay off in the long run and offer professional options and a full intellectual life long after they leave college.
I approach each course with these core competencies in mind and start by offering a detailed syllabus that lays out what students will learn and what I expect from them. In return, I come to class prepared to actively engage my students for 75 minutes. I begin each class with a PowerPoint slide listing what I hope to accomplish that day. While this blueprint is not rigid, it helps students know what to expect. Typically, I start class with a student presentation or news quiz and follow that with a 20-30 minute interactive lecture on the topic of the day. I pepper my lectures with current news stories from all mediums and ask students to analyze and evaluate them as we go along. I expect everyone to contribute at least once during the class and seek to include students who are reticent. After the lecture, I introduce an interactive activity that involves in-class writing and analysis or collaborative learning. This format helps everyone get to know each other well and creates a sense of community, which is especially helpful when we review each other’s work. While students are typically uncomfortable critiquing a peer’s story, I find these classes among the most productive in improving student writing thanks to the camaraderie we share.
Outside the classroom, I am devoted to giving my students as much individual guidance and feedback as possible. I review and approve each story idea and challenge students to pursue original stories that require them to gather the facts from multiple points of view. I teach them to report each story with an open mind and to let the facts lead where they may. To improve their writing, I have students submit a first draft for my comments and critique. I often write a full page of specific suggestions to improve their story and hold them accountable for these changes in their final draft. In most of my courses, I require a one-on-one meeting with me to go over these comments. I also contact at least one source from every story to confirm the accuracy of the information the student reported. While this is incredibly time consuming, it helps me hold my students to the highest standards. I am a demanding instructor invested in each student’s progress and personal growth. As one student commented in my evaluation, I am “helpfully pushy”.
I hold myself to these same high standards, particularly when it comes to improving my teaching technique and staying current with advances in technology. I am a huge believer in the power of technology as a tool to engage students and help teach storytelling and writing. Thanks to my professional background and courses I’ve taken both on and off campus, I’ve introduced podcasting, digital storytelling, blogging, WordPress, social media, non-linear editing and iPads to my classes to promote more active learning and engagement. I am not afraid to experiment with a new technology and designed an assignment for JRNL 301 using the iPad2 as part of ECIT’s pilot program to determine if the iPad is indeed a transformative technology in the classroom. I’ve also embraced new and unfamiliar approaches to teaching and can learn as much from a failure as a success. This was the case in my “News Literacy in a Digital Age” class when I allowed students to self-assess their digital story assignment. While research shows self-assessment encourages students to set higher goals and commit more personal effort to a project, one team with arguably the worst digital story gave themselves a grade of 98. I urged them to revisit the grading rubric and reconsider their assessment, which they did but not by enough in my opinion. Instead of abandoning this aspect of the assignment this fall, I made the teams smaller and assigned each person a job, revised the grading rubric to make it more specific and included a caveat that stated I reserved the right to change any grade that did not assess the project fairly. I am happy to report that this time, all the self-assessments accurately reflected the outcomes and that the projects as a whole were far superior to those in the spring.
Experiences like these reinforce my commitment to a multi-faceted teaching philosophy that includes a deep respect for my students. My passion for teaching journalism is only eclipsed by a heartfelt dedication to them. My students inspire me to learn more and try harder to help them reach their potential as critical thinkers, eloquent communicators and future leaders.
My teaching philosophy is grounded in a lifelong commitment to learning, and my goal as a teacher is to instill students with this same spirit of inquiry and thirst for knowledge. To accomplish this, my approach to teaching fuses a deep respect for the liberal arts and the fundamentals of journalism with power of multimedia technology as a pedagogical tool.
My career path to academe is unorthodox and has included several stops on trading floors on Wall Street and in newsrooms in New York, London and Atlanta. Although trading millions of dollars of bonds and foreign exchange and delivering breaking news on the fly were certainly stimulating and demanding, I’ve always enjoyed teaching and have volunteered to train co-workers throughout my career. My first experience in front of students was when I was 24 years old teaching a class on foreign exchange swaps and derivatives to traders twice my age hoping to transfer into this relatively new and profitable field. Nearly 20 years later, as I prepared for my first semester at Emory, I drew on all my personal and professional experiences to form the foundation for my approach to teaching.
The starting point for my teaching philosophy is my own liberal arts and graduate education. My four years at Dartmouth College and two years at Columbia University prepared me for a lifetime of learning and three distinct careers I never imagined for myself. Before I even started teaching at Emory, I decided my classes would be about more than the fundamentals of good reporting, writing and ethical journalism. At the start of each semester, I share my career path with students and urge them to think about their own education in broader terms. I talk to them about the three core competencies that have carried me through my professional life:
· Critical thinking skills: the ability to analyze, evaluate and synthesize information
· Communication skills: the ability to produce effective oral and written work across several mediums
· Collaboration skills: the ability to be both a leader and a team player
I explain to students how developing these broader skills will pay off in the long run and offer professional options and a full intellectual life long after they leave college.
I approach each course with these core competencies in mind and start by offering a detailed syllabus that lays out what students will learn and what I expect from them. In return, I come to class prepared to actively engage my students for 75 minutes. I begin each class with a PowerPoint slide listing what I hope to accomplish that day. While this blueprint is not rigid, it helps students know what to expect. Typically, I start class with a student presentation or news quiz and follow that with a 20-30 minute interactive lecture on the topic of the day. I pepper my lectures with current news stories from all mediums and ask students to analyze and evaluate them as we go along. I expect everyone to contribute at least once during the class and seek to include students who are reticent. After the lecture, I introduce an interactive activity that involves in-class writing and analysis or collaborative learning. This format helps everyone get to know each other well and creates a sense of community, which is especially helpful when we review each other’s work. While students are typically uncomfortable critiquing a peer’s story, I find these classes among the most productive in improving student writing thanks to the camaraderie we share.
Outside the classroom, I am devoted to giving my students as much individual guidance and feedback as possible. I review and approve each story idea and challenge students to pursue original stories that require them to gather the facts from multiple points of view. I teach them to report each story with an open mind and to let the facts lead where they may. To improve their writing, I have students submit a first draft for my comments and critique. I often write a full page of specific suggestions to improve their story and hold them accountable for these changes in their final draft. In most of my courses, I require a one-on-one meeting with me to go over these comments. I also contact at least one source from every story to confirm the accuracy of the information the student reported. While this is incredibly time consuming, it helps me hold my students to the highest standards. I am a demanding instructor invested in each student’s progress and personal growth. As one student commented in my evaluation, I am “helpfully pushy”.
I hold myself to these same high standards, particularly when it comes to improving my teaching technique and staying current with advances in technology. I am a huge believer in the power of technology as a tool to engage students and help teach storytelling and writing. Thanks to my professional background and courses I’ve taken both on and off campus, I’ve introduced podcasting, digital storytelling, blogging, WordPress, social media, non-linear editing and iPads to my classes to promote more active learning and engagement. I am not afraid to experiment with a new technology and designed an assignment for JRNL 301 using the iPad2 as part of ECIT’s pilot program to determine if the iPad is indeed a transformative technology in the classroom. I’ve also embraced new and unfamiliar approaches to teaching and can learn as much from a failure as a success. This was the case in my “News Literacy in a Digital Age” class when I allowed students to self-assess their digital story assignment. While research shows self-assessment encourages students to set higher goals and commit more personal effort to a project, one team with arguably the worst digital story gave themselves a grade of 98. I urged them to revisit the grading rubric and reconsider their assessment, which they did but not by enough in my opinion. Instead of abandoning this aspect of the assignment this fall, I made the teams smaller and assigned each person a job, revised the grading rubric to make it more specific and included a caveat that stated I reserved the right to change any grade that did not assess the project fairly. I am happy to report that this time, all the self-assessments accurately reflected the outcomes and that the projects as a whole were far superior to those in the spring.
Experiences like these reinforce my commitment to a multi-faceted teaching philosophy that includes a deep respect for my students. My passion for teaching journalism is only eclipsed by a heartfelt dedication to them. My students inspire me to learn more and try harder to help them reach their potential as critical thinkers, eloquent communicators and future leaders.