In my classroom, I foster a mutually respectful learning environment in which students can express themselves and are challenged to step out of their academic and rhetorical comfort zones to consider their work in constructive and impactful ways. My teaching practices are strongly situated in building relationships between learners and in working together to create knowledge and knowledge-making practices that we can all share. I have worked with students in diverse learning environments and classroom settings, and in these spaces and places, I have been reaffirmed in my belief that students come into the classroom with a deep desire to share their stories.

I use the inherently social and cultural nature of the classroom to create a community of learners that works together to create an environment where class members feel comfortable engaging with and sharing their work, work that can be very personal and vulnerable. I help facilitate a more personal relationship with the creating and composing process by asking my students to consider their work as part of larger conversations and to understand that the work they do can be impactful both within their own communities and to our shared global society.

The materials students engage with in all of my classrooms include voices from diverse communities to model for my students the ways in which factors like culture and community can shape the ways stories are shared. Looking at pieces written by marginalized peoples, having students bring in and lead discussions about relevant materials of their choosing, and non-alphabetic, multimedia content like movies and social media, allows my students to see that their stories are not alone, and they can be joined into larger conversations. This multimodal practice helps them to understand that, as writers, their work can push beyond traditional modes of composition. This is an idea that I have carried out of my composition classes and into my own rhetorical scholarship and courses outside of composition.

My students engage in active construction and critique of rhetorical strategies in their own writing, in the work of their peers, and in the course materials through workshopping and classroom-wide writing process discussions as they draft. With a priority on student learning and knowledge making practices, I use the class time to introduce ideas to students and work with them hand-in-hand to become critical participants in the course content. We share the progress of our work and our stories to help break down the purely student/teacher audience of the writing classroom and instead open it up to a class community of peer mentors. Beyond that, I assign regular journaling, peer review, and self-evaluation to facilitate student empowerment in the practice of writing as more than simply the means to a satisfactory grade, but instead as an essential part of cultural and scholarly engagement.

In my classroom, I focus on enhancing my students’ relationship with composition by positioning them to engage in the practice of writing as a worthwhile and lifelong process. I teach my students to value their writing and their stories, and that by doing so they will improve the quality of their work. When my students follow me class to class, and I am able to see them grow as not only stronger writers, but also as creators of engaging content, it assures me that the time spent fostering these skills empowers them as active learners.