Teaching

My teaching philosophy is to teach how I want to be taught. I didn’t learn well in a classroom environment when instructors repeated what I had read. I learned best by doing, consistent with the LEAP initiative (Liberal Education and America’s Promise) championed at UW-Whitewater. Most of my students respond well to my teaching approach and appreciate the additional effort I put forth to incorporate High-Impact Educational Practices (HIPs) into the classroom. HIPs are teaching and learning practices promoted by LEAP, like service-learning, collaborative real-world projects, undergraduate research, and global learning, that benefit college students from many backgrounds.

Students in my courses work on a project for a real-world client. I firmly believe first-hand experiences provide a much richer experience for students to acquire, test, and retain new knowledge. Students work on service-learning projects in my classes, which are projects focused on solving problems in their community. Allowing students to give something back to their community is an important college outcome that prepares them for citizenship, work, and life.

Service-Learning Experiences Wiki

This wiki is a public space where any faculty can find and share examples of Community-Based Learning (CBL). Faculty can review, borrow, and contribute ‘testimonials’, summaries of specific outreach experiences that students completed highlighting skills demonstrated along with benefits resulting from the experience. The wiki features a template to guide faculty in sharing their CBL examples in a way that will have broad appeal across campuses. Specifically, the ‘LEAP’ skills students can demonstrate while engaged in CBL are featured.