Subject Preparation

Many of the classes I have taken to fulfill my English major requirements have been literature classes. I have studied everything from Shakespeare's works to Hamilton, and many of my classes have had a focus on gender and sexuality. The most beneficial aspect of the Bryn Mawr English major for me has been the freedom to design a course load that focuses on any material we, as students, prefer. We do not have specific requirements as to the genres, time periods, or areas of focus, so I was able to craft a major that exposed me to a world of literature and research that I may not have worked with otherwise. Having as diverse a course load as I have had has strengthened my enjoyment in the subject of English literature and my appreciation for work outside of the western canon. I have been asked to question aspects of race, gender, and power in every text I have read and learned how to contextualize books, narratives, and stories both in the time they were written and in modern day. My appreciation for and comprehension of the material and subject matter that I will one day be teaching has grown exponentially over the past 3 years. This is incredibly important in preparing to teach material to others. The most effective teachers are those who are passionate about what they teach and who have a background in the study of their subject. In high school, I always learned from and enjoyed most the teachers who explicitly demonstrated their passion for class material. Seeing my World History teachers excited about looking into the past made me more excited about learning. For this reason, I have put great effort into becoming an ardent reader, writer, and thinker while preparing to teach.

In addition to my many literature courses, I have taken several theory courses that introduced me to critical lenses through which we can study the world around us. My favorite of these courses was one called “Materializing Disability: Text and Technology.” This was a course focused on disability studies and the physical representations of and reactions to disability in the material world. Being that one of my biggest interests in education is special education, I found this class valuable to the development of my understanding of the ways in which disability can influence design, technology use, and societal systems. I was able to apply our discussions and readings to concepts regarding education and students: the element of accessibility in infrastructure and classrooms, the potential use of technology to support learning, and the intentional redesign of curriculum to better differentiate for learners. This class, like my literature courses, taught me by example how to facilitate discussions on important subjects, but it also gave me a glimpse into the real-world contexts on which our learning has an effect. Everything we study inside the classroom can and should be applied to outside of the space, and this class showed me a way to implement that into class material and activity. My concept of working with students has greatly grown not only because I have a deep background in my subject area, but also because I have seen what effective pedagogy looks and feels like.