Megan Elder-Taylor

I emphasize creating a classroom context for learning based on relevance and building useful skills for employment and personal growth.  I use high impact learning techniques with activities and class participation to promote relationships between the students.  I have been a student in classrooms that emphasized theories to the exclusion of application, but I find that giving students useful skills is a very important function in education.  The theories serve to give them the words, so students can discourse about their interactions, but they are a stepping stone to learning the skills essential to functioning as strong communicators and critical thinkers.  I have found that this approach creates active learners and strong communication habits that will serve them outside of the realm of academia.       

 

Every person learns differently and there is no perfect or correct way to teach, or learn, but I find my style combines some organized lecture with more input from the students in terms of active participation, thoughtful interactions, and using the skills to make good decisions about communication.  My classrooms depend on small groups or pairs of students to work together collaboratively on a variety of activities, each designed to help them explore content deeper and practice theories.  Group work helps students understand the value of different facets of communication, including social awareness, developing relationships, communicating with clarity, and building influence with others.  It also gives students a chance to see situations from others’ points of view and to practice empathy and the strong problem solving that comes from addressing an issue from more than one perspective.        

 

Though the work in the classes is often completed through interactions, I believe in the assessment of individuals for learning and skills.  I use the course objectives to guide major goals in the course and then supply minor goals or benchmark topics that will serve as a foundation for those goals.  I create my assignments to make sure that I can adequately assess student learning and skills.  I find it useful to use my objectives and benchmark topics to create a foundation for leading class discussions and creating activities to emphasize the importance of the relevant skills and knowledge.  I do not want to be simply someone who imparts knowledge.  I want my students to have the semester long experience of a journey, during which they discover the knowledge for themselves.  As they travel the road, I give them challenges along the way that serve as stairs cut into the steep hill of learning.  Climbing those stairs show that they've established new levels of skills.  The stairs are coupled with moments for reflection along the way.  Ultimately, my goal is for students to think critically and apply the theories to different contexts and make their own connections and predictions.   

 

The foundation of my classroom management style is that the teacher is not the “sage on the stage” but rather a “guide on the side.”  I do not lecture on most material in the textbook.  When lecture is called for, I do it by supplementing the information provided and using discussion, conversation, interaction, and practice inside and outside of class.  My role as the teacher is to monitor students for skills building, critical thinking, and self-awareness.  I see it as the students’ role to be actively engaged in the assignments, ask questions of me and his or her peers, and be prepared to learn and practice new concepts.  I believe that interaction between everyone in the classroom is the key to a successful learning environment and building a community where everyone is responsible for learning.