NFE Reflections Rathkamp 2007-8
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MCC New Faculty Experience Reflections, My Name, My Department, Mesa Community College, Contact me (mailto:myemail)
My Teaching Philosophy
When I was fourteen I received a desk chair for my Christmas present. My brother’s finale gift was a 6 disk CD player. I was shocked, downtrodden, pissed off. I wanted something just as good. Although the chair had wheels, it wouldn’t budge through my yellow, shag carpet. Two days later my mother packed her belongings and left the house and I had nothing to do the rest of vacation but sit in my chair and wonder when she would return. When school started again in January my teacher opened her book to a poem: Li-Young Lee. It was while reading “Mnemonic” that I realized my gift and the one given to the speaker of the poem were the same, something we didn’t value until it was all we had left of the person who gave them to us.
It was this realization that brought me to writing and to teaching. Although I have never met Lee, except from the back of an AWP lecture hall, somehow I felt I knew him. The idea that we, two disparate people, were somehow the same was a revelation. I learned something from a poet that I never knew was possible—we were connected.
As a composition instructor, I feel this connection to my students is crucial to a successful semester. Students need a forum where their ideas can be openly expressed and discussed—not a classroom where they listen to an instructor drone on about MLA citation and comma splices. Pedagogically, I want to aid my students in becoming their own and each other’s teachers. I do not want to be the only expert, the one with the answers, but, instead, want my students to find their own answers from their own ideas, making me a partner in their education. Group learning and large in-class discussions are paramount to my teaching strategy. It is my belief that a student will improve as a writer only when she or he learns to improve as a thinker. I teach my students to interrogate their preconceived notions and decide for themselves where their ideas about their surroundings originate.
To help in this process, I have developed new units to supplement texts from the prescribed composition books. These new units on media, fashion, and cultural taboos force students to look at their ideas anew. They are topics that are relevant to their lives, and once analyzed, the students begin to understand why they feel they way they do about the topic. We deal with controversial topics so students have a chance at writing something “new,” instead of writing something that has been said time and time again. It is this questioning that students find interesting. Through their writings they become part of the dialogue, expanding its borders, instead of just learning that the borders are there.
In addition, it is my goal to have students write not only from a personal standpoint, a singular view, but also through cultural and historical analyses, which widens their grasp on the topics and enhances the cultural significance of whatever they choose to write. This, in turn, will make students own their ideas. It will empower them. This idea of interactive learning manifests itself into the actual form of the class. With each new unit we start from scratch, learning about the topic at hand, whether it is media, fashion, or an argument for free parking for full time students. The units are broken down into writing and revising processes and I stress and re-stress that the process is invaluable. A student can not receive a passing grade on a paper without turning in drafts, topic worksheets, and in-class assignments. In this way, I am teaching that the process required is as essential as the words on the page. I urge my students to remember nothing comes out perfect the first time, and although they may initially groan about the drafts, eventually they learn to value the process as much as the product.
Larry Levis wrote, “Deity is in the details, and we are all details among other details/ and we long to be teased out of ourselves.” It is this idea—this notion that writing can make us more than what we are, can make us godly, can make us complete—that drives me in the classroom. It is through details and the experiencing of them together as a writing community, whether they be in-class writing assignments, lectures on image, line-break, or form, that my classroom becomes a place where students collaborate and learn. We question our aesthetics and ourselves so that we are not forcing our own ideas onto other writers. It is not my job as teacher to tell writers what to write or how to think, but to foster a community where experiment, creativity, and innovation are common and welcomed and desirable.
Reflection on Scholarly Teaching and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this. I should do this.
Understanding of MCC Culture Gained through NFE
I help to make MCC what it is. Although this seems apparent and simple, it isn’t quite so. I have learned that culture at MCC changes and that I am part of that change. There are so many intelligent people here that want the best for everyone—me, my students, my colleagues. The culture is one (I hope) of openness, of compromise, of best intentions, and hope.
Impact of NFE on my Approach to Teaching
I didn’t give much thought to scholarly teaching before the NFE experience. I am constantly keeping myself up to date within my field, but I have forgotten why I should keep myself up to date pedagogically. I need to always remember I am here for my students and my students will be the ones to suffer if I only care about my area of expertise and not how I deliver the information that I find so influential.
Reflection on my Experience in the NFE Community
Thank goodness there are people with as many questions as I have, with as much passion for teaching as I have, and with as much hope for the future of our students as I have. Thank goodness there are also caring mentors to help me along the way.
Reflection on My Future as a Member of the MCC Community
I am entirely excited to be a member of Mesa Community College. I love my department, my colleagues, my students, and everyone that has helped me along the way, whether it is reserving a room for a reading or helping me fill out my travel forms. I could not be luckier to be here. I can’t wait to start rebuilding the creative writing program at MCC.
