Welcome to My Teaching Portfolio
Thanks for taking a moment to check out my teaching portfolio. If you're viewing this page, that means you're probably seeking information about me and/or my composition pedagogy. Well, I'm happy to oblige!
A Little About Me
I'm a fiction writer, a published journalist, a creative writing teacher, a father, a husband, and a dog-dad. Most recently, I've had the privilege of teaching 200-level creative writing and 100-level composition to University of Massachusetts undergraduates.
When I first started teaching, I discovered something unusual about my undergraduates. Many didn't understand how writing in college was different from writing they did in high school. Some students leaned on personal narrative or the five-paragraph essay, as many were taught those genres were what constituted “good” writing. Additionally, many were eager to do well in their college courses, but struggled to determine what their professors wanted. Some even resigned themselves to being “bad” writers.
During my time as both an undergraduate and a graduate student, I learned that writing isn't just something that people are either good or bad at doing. Instead, it's a discipline that can be taught---much like history or mathematics. As a teacher, I wanted to find a way to fix my students' misconceptions. I wanted to help them realize that with a little effort, they could learn to be better writers.
My instruction offers students the confidence to tackle college writing by unlocking some of the mysteries that surround it. Accomplishing those goals starts with a solid understanding of writing from both a theoretical and a practical perspective.
This portfolio is a culmination of my research into the field as well as its practical application. It distills much of the current scholarship into a theory of writing, and a theory of writing pedagogy in a way that will best benefit college-level writing students. Included here are also course materials born from these theories I've created for use in the classroom.
