NFE Reflections McLaughlin 2007-8
From CTLpedia
MCC New Faculty Experience Reflections, My Name, My Department, Mesa Community College, Contact me (mailto:myemail)
My Teaching Philosophy
I consider myself a lifelong learner and strongly believe that I should be constantly striving to learn more about my field and the world that surrounds me. Doing so makes me a well-rounded individual and competent professional. This is core to my teaching philosophy, to always be changing and adapting to new information in the field as well as the needs of my students. I feel this will make their learning experience as fulfilling as possible.
My goal is for students to be able to take the information from my classes and apply it to their lives. I am lucky in that many of the courses I teach are centered on health, wellness and understanding the human body, topics that are easily applied for everyone. However I desire to go beyond just saying “this is important for everyone to know and understand” and learn about the personal goals and objectives of my students. At the beginning of the semester I collect information from students regarding their interests, career plans, previous experience in my content area and goals for my class. Through this knowledge I can tailor some activities and assignments to make them applicable to student’s individual needs.
Everyone learns in a different way, so I believe in diverse presentation utilizing different tools and activities that will target visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners. I also believe in incorporating a variety of assessment methods. I think it is important for students to understand the content in my class, and testing can be an effective way of determining this. However some students do not perform well on tests and are more effective at expressing themselves in other ways. So I believe in using many methods of assessment (ie: written work, presentations and group discussions) to determine if students have understood and applied the information I am teaching. This allows students of different learning styles and equal opportunity to excel and show their grasp of information. Additionally, it allows me the opportunity to encourage them to apply the information directly to their life.
I feel my job as an effective instructor is not only to present information, but to facilitate learning and active engagement in material by making my students feel welcome in my classroom. Because many of the topics discussed in my class are of a personal nature, I believe in being open with my students regarding my thoughts and opinions. I like to develop a laid back atmosphere in the classroom which promotes discussion and students learning from one another as well as from me. As an instructor I feel that I am invested in my students’ future success and I believe in making myself available to them as a resource, support system and friend.
Reflection on Scholarly Teaching and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
I have always been and will continue to be dedicated to continuing education in my field to remain up to date on current trends and ideas. But to be a competent and effective instructor I need to do more than just remain current in the field. I feel that as a faculty member part of my job is to do continual self-evaluation and reflecting on my experiences in the classroom to grow my teaching skills to help optimize my students’ learning and success. I think that conversations with colleagues (such as those that we have had in NFE) can be invaluable to help reflect on struggles, share in successes and brainstorm ways to help enhance our teaching. I hope that I never stop learning, and I hope that I never think that I have become the best teacher I will ever be, because I hope that is a constantly evolving process where I respond to changes in my students and their needs to help them reach their best potential.
Understanding of MCC Culture Gained through NFE
Prior to my year as an OYO I had worked at MCC as an adjunct instructor for several years, but came in just one night a week to teach a class at 7:10 and was busy with my other job on the other side of the valley and was hardly engaged in the campus community. The NFE experience has been an amazing tool introducing me to policies, procedures and all of the different opportunities available for campus involvement. On such a large campus without knowing who to ask and where to go it would have been overwhelming to try to learn about all of these things, and potentially we may have failed to do things that were required of us or may not have found out about many opportunities during our first year here. While I am so thankful for the relationships that I have built with people in my own department, NFE has been a great opportunity to get to know and reflect with other faculty who are “in the same boat” as me in their positions as new faculty. I also appreciated the opportunity to hear perspectives on MCC from faculty in a variety of different departments, who have been a part of the MCC community for varied lengths of time.
Impact of NFE on my Approach to Teaching
As I mentioned in the first section, I have enjoyed the discussions with peers in NFE regarding teaching and learning. I feel very fortunate to be in a department that allows me to have these types of open, honest reflections with my colleagues, but I have really enjoyed the opportunity to share perspective with faculty in other disciplines. I feel that other instructors being open in sharing some of their successes, as well as failures (and the ways they overcame them) helped me to be more willing to take risks and try new things in the classroom without as much apprehension and fear of “failure”. The faculty presentations on the “Courage to Teach” text left me inspired to get back into the classroom…too bad our meetings were always on Friday afternoon, I would have loved to walk into class right after one of those sessions!!!
Reflection on my Experience in the NFE Community
I loved my experience in this group! I feel that it helped me to feel welcomed and important as a new member of the campus community. I think that NFE is an invaluable experience for any new faculty coming to MCC!
Reflection on My Future as a Member of the MCC Community
As I complete my year as an OYO at MCC I am in the process of applying for a residential faculty position in the Physical Education / Exercise Science department to begin in Fall of 2008. Regardless of if I am hired to fill the residential position or if I return to adjunct status, I look forward to continued involvement in the department and the broader community at MCC. This year has given me the opportunity to spend my days on campus and get to know the people, services and opportunities that MCC has to offer. I have taken advantage of the opportunity to get to work with faculty across campus through experiences in NFE, the FPLC on new technologies and the DLMG. I look forward to continued involvement in communities such as these and exploring other opportunities for interdisciplinary engagement to help stimulate my growth as an instructor and to help enhance the community of MCC for our students.
