I believe strongly that students have their own definitions of what makes writing good, and my philosophy of teaching writing is one that encourages students to access and use their preexisting writing skills. Students come from wildly different backgrounds, and will arrive in my classroom with wildly different levels of access to educational resources. My goal, as their teacher of writing, would be to find what excites my students about writing. Because writing courses are often a part of a general education/core requirement, many students come into their first college writing course unenthused or unconvinced that writing would be important to them. I recognize writing as an essential, foundational, and access-creating skill. In order to most effectively teach this skill, I encourage students to identify what is important to them, outside of the realm of writing, and look for ways to connect those values and priorities to the forms of writing, speaking, and presenting that I aim to teach. 

I also believe that teaching is learning. In my classrooms, I am constantly adapting and learning and relearning things taught to me by my students. Although this cliche is one as old as time, it holds up, and the more I teach, the more I learn how to teach, and why I teach. 

I believe that every student seeking education should be able to access it. Because of this belief, I think frequently about the rapidly-changing social and political climate of our country, and try to hold space for the variety of beliefs that might exist within my students. However, in order to keep the classroom an accessible space for all students, I believe the classroom must have rules around hateful language and expectations of respect. I want students to write about what matters to them, because that is what I believe produces the best and most meaningful writing, but I also require a level of communal respect in the classroom that would supersede students’ right to discuss what they like if that discussion was harmful, hateful, or otherwise alienating toward identities that may be present in the classroom.

I hope to offer students a classroom environment that is accessible and meets them where they are coming from. I also aim to have a classroom environment in which students feel comfortable sharing with the class and/or each other. Part of the way I accomplish this is by sharing ground rules about communal respect and tolerance early into the semester. Writing is vulnerable much of the time and so it is imperative that I provide my students a place where they can safely be vulnerable and try out new techniques or ideas related to writing.

2025