Teaching Interests and Philosophy
During my undergraduate career, I attended Moravian College, a small liberal arts college in eastern Pennsylvania. That experience shaped how I teach my classes. With small class sizes and strong connections between students and faculty, Moravian excelled at hands-on learning, experiential learning. Further, the History Department emphasized the skills of a historian early in my undergraduate tenure, lessons that have stuck with me.
As an educator, I attempt to emulate my educational experience in the classroom. Each of my classes have two simultaneous goals. First, I aim to provide my students, especially in the survey courses, with tools to improve their abilities to write. Regardless of the level of course I teach, I have my students write papers that scaffold on one another. In my survey courses, my students begin with primary source analyzes, short examinations of documents. A second paper compels them to engage secondary sources as they weigh the arguments of several historians. Their final paper incorporates both primary and secondary materials. For advanced courses, I introduce a similar approach--starting with a proposal and biography, then moving to a primary source analysis, a book review/secondary literature review, and an introduction and outline of the paper before they turn in a final paper. Second, my classes incorporate a series of workshops and activities that often connect to this scaffolding approach. Throughout the semester, I break my students into groups, where they work on reading primary as well as secondary materials, engaging questions proposed by me or other students and debates about the interpretation of those materials.
In this approach, I connect much of my teaching to the question identity in American history, but encourage my students, with my help and guidance along the way, to uncover their own answers. For history majors, this process provides them with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the work of a historian early in their career. Additionally, my teaching style also provides all students with the ability to learn critical thinking and writing skills they can transfer to any of their courses.
As an educator, I attempt to emulate my educational experience in the classroom. Each of my classes have two simultaneous goals. First, I aim to provide my students, especially in the survey courses, with tools to improve their abilities to write. Regardless of the level of course I teach, I have my students write papers that scaffold on one another. In my survey courses, my students begin with primary source analyzes, short examinations of documents. A second paper compels them to engage secondary sources as they weigh the arguments of several historians. Their final paper incorporates both primary and secondary materials. For advanced courses, I introduce a similar approach--starting with a proposal and biography, then moving to a primary source analysis, a book review/secondary literature review, and an introduction and outline of the paper before they turn in a final paper. Second, my classes incorporate a series of workshops and activities that often connect to this scaffolding approach. Throughout the semester, I break my students into groups, where they work on reading primary as well as secondary materials, engaging questions proposed by me or other students and debates about the interpretation of those materials.
In this approach, I connect much of my teaching to the question identity in American history, but encourage my students, with my help and guidance along the way, to uncover their own answers. For history majors, this process provides them with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the work of a historian early in their career. Additionally, my teaching style also provides all students with the ability to learn critical thinking and writing skills they can transfer to any of their courses.
Sample Syllabi
Below you can find examples of syllabi from recent courses that I have taught. You may click on the links below to access examples of my courses.