About Me

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Sterling Heights, Michigan, United States
PhD in Rhetoric and Composition + Senior Lecturer in Composition at Wayne State University with a passion for education, health, and fitness (mental and physical). I teach writing, research composition, and blog about anything from teaching fitness, owning a small business, physical and mental health, to perspectives on body acceptance and body positivity.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Teaser Trailer


I’ll begin by introducing myself as a “risk taker.” Risky pedagogy – that’s all me.  If there’s any level of consensus about something that “shouldn’t be done in the composition classroom,” chances are I want to do it (respectful and within reason, of course)!  As I am devoted to composition scholarship and its rich history, I seek not only to enter into the ongoing conversation about the direction of the field but to also expand-upon and (in many respects) disrupt common composition classroom practices – especially when it comes to technology.

I also disrupt other practices, including maturity.
In the past few semesters, I have had great success with designing an in-class writing/conferencing workshop organized around the concept of “mini-conferencing” or “speed-conferencing.”  The goal of this activity is to have a very short conference with each student – about 2-3 minutes long – that will quickly address a question or two about their writing while offering them a kernel of knowledge about the progression of their paper. At the end of the class period before the planned workshop, I ask students to come prepared with a rough draft (be it full, partial, a few paragraphs – whatever stage of the writing process we’re on as a class).  Along with their draft, I ask them to prepare one or two specific questions either about the current project or their writing in general – this frames the mini-session so time is not wasted while the student attempts to divine a query about their writing. I implemented this workshop (as I began teaching) with access to a computer classroom. As you may have already guessed, this is no longer the case.*

As I share this workshop, I hope to open a dialogue about innovation – not only the kind we typically think of when provided a “surplus” of technology, but how we might imagine the spaces that are without the technology that ushered in a generation of English instructors.  Is it more beneficial to embrace the lack of technology or can we work towards increasing engagement (and retention in the long-term) by “taking back” those technologies that have long turned the composition classroom into a police state?

When I went from teaching in a classroom full of computers (a veritable playground of possibility) to a standard chalk-board/overhead projector set-up, I thought "What in the hell am I going to do with this?!" And then the gears began to turn.  This workshop – modified from its original version – is born from that recent challenge. 

*I hope I have been vague enough to generate at least one "Uhm, ok?" or, even better, an "I don't get it..." Because, really, if I gave you the details - why would I drive all the way to Ypsilanti to talk to you about it? ;)