Formulating a course proposal and finishing the semester!

To culminate my learning in Advanced Interpersonal Teaching and Training I decided to write a course proposal. The assignment guidelines indicate that we cannot write a proposal about a class we have taught however, since this was my first semester teaching Comm 101 and I took all of my course materials - syllabus, assignments, tests etc. - from the Comm 101 director, Dr. Reeder allowed me to redo/revamp my course based on the teaching philosophy I developed this semester.

It's been an interesting journey this semester, my first in graduate school and my first teaching in my own classroom. While teaching in itself has been a fantastic learning experience, I have learned so much teaching for the first time while also taking this class. Each week in this class we would learn teaching and training strategies and how to apply them in the classroom. And each week I would plan my classes and wonder how I could implement the strategies we learned in my own classes. It's been fun and challenging. Communication lends itself very well to active learning strategies so in the one sense it's been easy to implement some of these ideas in my classes. On the other hand, working with tools that do not necessarily fit with my philosophy has made it a little more challenging. So planning my next semester with this course proposal should be an interesting way to bypass that challenge.

After I graduate I really want to continue on to teach at the college level. I came in with that goal but teaching this semester and taking this class, and other graduate classes, has really cemented that goal in my mind. I have loved teaching and learning about teaching and can't wait to apply this stuff in my classroom as I continue to teach. Watch this space!

As a final note, I just want to thank Dr. Reeder for being a wonderful, supportive and inspiring instructor, I have learned so much from you, not just in this class, but in all the classes I've taken from you and I hope that can continue in the future. Thanks also to Kristine, Lacey and Jim. You have all been great classmates and your encouragement and feedback has helped me to learn even more :)