teaching portfoliosrnteach.us/portfolio/annual2011/srn_portfolio.pdf · 2011. 5. 31. · teaching...

TEACHING PORTFOLIOMAY 23, 2011

S u s a n R h o a d e s N e e l • t e l e p h o n e : 4 3 5 . 6 1 3 . 5 2 7 9 • e m a i l : s u s a n . n e e l @ u s u . e d u • w w w. s r n t e a c h . u s

http://www.srnteach.us

http://www.srnteach.us

Teaching Responsibilities! 1

College of Eastern Utah! 1

Utah State University-Eastern! 1

Teaching Philosophy and Methods! 2

Statement of Teaching Philosophy! 2

Teaching Methods! 2

Teaching with Technology! 5

Course Websites! 5

Classroom Presentations! 6

Blackboard! 7

Student Learning! 8

Curriculum Revisions and Teaching Improvements! 14

Course Websites! 14

Student Assignments! 14

Classroom Activities! 14

Goals for Improvement of Teaching! 16

Peer Review of Instruction! 16

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning! 16

Developing New Courses! 16

Appendix A: Sample Syllabi! 18

Appendix B: Student Evaluations! 19

Appendix C: Analysis of HIST 1700! 20S u s a n R h o a d e s N e e l! Te a c h i n g P o r t f o l i o

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Appendix D: “Taking it Digital”! 21

Appendix E: “Blended Civ”! 22

Appendix F: Student Essays! 23

S u s a n R h o a d e s N e e l! Te a c h i n g P o r t f o l i o

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Teaching Responsibilities

College of Eastern Utah

My primary teaching responsibility has been the legislatively-mandated American insti-

tutions course, American Civilization (HIST 1700). I teach three or four sections of HIST

1700 each semester with 45 students in each section. This is a 3 credit hour one-

semester survey of U.S. history. In addition, I teach one section of the two-semester

survey of U.S. history for majors (HIST 2700.2710). Enrollment in this course is two to

five students.

Utah State University-Eastern

Beginning Fall semester 2011, my primary teaching responsibility will be USU 1300,

American Institutions, which will replace HIST 1700. I will continue to teach the HIST

2700-2710 sequence and begin teaching the second half of the World History sequence

(HIST 1510) as well as an upper division course in environmental history for RCDE.


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Teaching Philosophy and Methods

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”William Butler Yeats

My passion for teaching history is rooted in a fairly simple conviction—history mat-

ters. The study of history is valuable because it compels us to look beyond the familiar

and superficial. I want students to emerge from their engagement with history carrying

not only a good body of knowledge but also with a lingering curiosity about the human

experience. My goal as a teacher is to cultivate within students an enthusiasm for deep

thinking and hearty, healthy civic

discourse. Wherever they go,

whatever career they undertake, I want my students to have the skills and the lifelong

desire to engage the world around them, to think and question, to reason and care. Re-

gardless of what job a person has or aspires to, the ability to think critically and care-

fully and to communicate with clarity, intelligence, and compassion are vital to a suc-

cessful and fulfilling life and, not incidentally, to the democratic vibrancy of our nation.

Teaching Methods

I teach through a combination of classroom lecture, discussion, and active learning pro-

jects. In HIST 1700, for example, I present a lecture at nearly every class meeting, but

these lectures often include multimedia presentations and include a lot of traditional


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Final Impressions: “Neel is AWESOME!”

“call and response” in which I ask students to guess what comes next, offer possible ex-

planations for events and a vari-

ety of other short questions. Lec-

tures are tied to a series of active

learning projects in which students engage in research with materials I have prepared

for them online and then write short essays. Assessment is through a staged series of

assignments, practice quizzes, exams, and a concluding summary essay paper.

One of the particular challenges in designing a learner-centered history survey courses

is the need to cover vast amounts of material in a single semester, which can make it

difficult for students to en-

gage in in-depth examination

of issues or themes. My ap-

proach in HIST 1700 is to organize the course around a strong, single theme—the his-

tory of freedom—and examine it during four discrete time periods. This allows me to

divide the semester into four

coherent yet reasonably digesti-

ble units. Students take in in-

formation from a variety of

sources, but primarily through lectures and a textbook, and then are given the opportu-

nity to engage the material through a variety of graded tasks, including small weekly S u s a n R h o a d e s N e e l! Te a c h i n g P o r t f o l i o

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Room for improvement: “more moves

less lekers more pikturs”

Room for improvement: “Not spend too much

time on irrelevant facts.”

What I liked: “She was very organized

which provided an easy learning and un-

derstanding environment.”

projects, a larger project for each unit, a term project, and four exams. For examples of

how I implement these teaching methods, please visit the course websites at srnteach.us

or view the sample syllabi in Appendix A.


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http://srnteach.us

http://srnteach.us

Teaching with Technology

Each year, I further develop the integration of face-to-face with online instruction. I

believe that technology opens up new possibilities for me as an instructor by freeing up

my imagination with great digital tools. And I am convinced that digital delivery is an

advantage for my students who, regardless of their career goals, will be living and

working in an increasingly digital world. Getting comfortable with a digital environ-

ment in a college course will serve them in good stead as they move on.

Course Websites

I create websites for each course I teach and use this as an “interactive syllabus.” A tra-

ditional syllabus, outlining the

course learning objectives, re-

quirements, grading, and the

schedule of readings and lectures,

is provided in both an online and printable PDF version through the course website.

All of this information can also be accessed through the website. This redundancy is

especially valuable for beginning level college students. They can find answers to their


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In 2009 my use of technology in teaching was recognized by the Utah

State Board of Regents with an Award of Merit.

What I Liked: “All the stuff on the web-

site was great like the study guides and

movies.”

questions about requirements, due dates, and grading through multiple points of access

available 24/7. Using a course website expands the utility of a “syllabus” for students,

who can access the information whenever they need to. The website also provides stu-

dents access to detailed instructions about course requirements and study aids.

Classroom Presentations

I make extensive use of audio-visual materials in my courses, especially HIST 1700. I

prepare a Keynote slideshow for each lecture and then post a PDF version on the course

website. Many students print out the PDFs, bring them to class, and take lecture notes

directly onto the printed pages. My Keynotes are carefully designed to serve the needs

of students with diverse

skill sets and knowledge

base. I utilize a con-

scious graphic design,

with icons, fonts, and colors, to unify all the presentations, the course web site, and the

course Blackboard page. My goal is to embrace students in an instructional web so that


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I taught a workshop for College of Eastern Utah faculty on how to

design and prepare course websites using Dreamweaver.

What I Liked: “I like how she uses the power-

point & explains things in a way we can clearly

understand.”

they have a conscious sense of “being in class” regardless of the format being used at

that moment.

Blackboard

I use Blackboard extensively in HIST 1700. Students take four, open-book exams and I

allow a four-day window of opportunity in which each exam can be completed. This

reduces issues over missed exams and gives students some flexibility in scheduling.

Students can take the test

from any location at the

time of their choosing dur-

ing the window. This is extremely helpful to students involved in CEU- sponsored ac-

tivities, such as athletics. Blackboard makes this a realistic approach because it delivers

a random selection of questions from a large test bank to each student. Blackboard

scores the multiple-choice and matching questions, thus freeing my time to score the

short answer questions. With 100-150 students per semester, this is a very efficient way

for me to give multiple tests, which I find a better approach with beginning- level stu-

dents then a large midterm and final. Blackboard also allows me to automatically set

particular conditions, such as extended time, for disability students. Over the past sev-

eral years, I have moved more of the class activities to Blackboard. Students use Black-

board to turn in assignments and beginning this year they did course evaluations

through Blackboard as well.


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Final Impressions: “She should be awarded for

her teaching ability!”

Student Learning Students do best in survey history courses when they can “discover” the past them-

selves. As with most survey courses, there is a huge knowledge gap--students simply

do not know much or have wildly inaccurate knowledge--and much of the burden in

the course is to acquire basic

factual information. Yet this

alone is not adequate, either

for cultivating critical thinking skills or student engagement. With this in mind, I have

designed experiences for students that draw them into the process of discovering the

past for themselves. Below are screenshots of some student projects. For further dis-

cussion and examples of student projects, please visit my Professional Portfolio at

http://www.srnteach.us/portfolio/professionalPortfolio.html.

Civil War Letters

One of my goals is for students to understand the past from the perspective of the peo-

ple who lived in different historical contexts. Role playing is one effective method to

accomplish this. During the unit of HIST 1700 on the Civil War, students assume the

role of either a Northerner or Southerner and then write a set of letters to an imaginary

family member reacting to certain events during the war. To help stimulate their imagi-

nations, each student receives a set of daguerreotypes copied from the Library of Con-


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Final Impressions: “I never really did like

history. But she made it fun and not boring.”

http://www.srnteach.us/portfolio/professionalPortfolio.html

http://www.srnteach.us/portfolio/professionalPortfolio.html

gress. Students use the course website to conduct research and then complete the pro-

ject on Blackboard.

Altered Textbooks

I taught Women in American History one semester for a group of students who were

not history majors and did not have a background in the humanities. Since one of the

lessons I wanted students to take away from the class was that history had for a long

time been written only about

men; however, in recent years

historians had worked to put women back into history. To re-enforce this theme, I had

students prepare weekly learning journals in the form of an altered textbook. I gave S u s a n R h o a d e s N e e l! Te a c h i n g P o r t f o l i o

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Final Impressions: “I loved this class!!!”

each student an old textbook and a box of scrapbooking materials. Each week they “al-

tered” the textbook by writing their own impressions about reading and lectures, past-

ing in pictures and facsimile documents, and adding historic quotations.

History of Music and Food

I try to impress on my students that history can be about extraordinary people and

events but it also is about ordinary and simple things, too. One assignment in HIST

1700 is for students to study some aspect of the history of food in America or the history


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of music. Those students choosing food projects prepare historic recipe books (includ-

ing a brief essay) and bring some

relevant samples for a class presenta-

tion. The music students prepare a

CD and liner notes; they also make class presentations, so we can listen to historic music

while munching on “historic” goodies.

Pre/Post Knowledge Exercise

Since my HIST 1700 course is organized around a central theme, the history of freedom

in America, I use an “icebreaker” exercise at the beginning of the course that links stu-S u s a n R h o a d e s N e e l! Te a c h i n g P o r t f o l i o

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Room for Improvement: “Give more

cookies & candy in class.”

dent learning to a final essay. I had out boxes of historic images and facsimile docu-

ments to teams of students. As students paw through the boxes, I ask them to quickly

think of three words that define America. They write these on a card. Inevitably, most

students write “freedom” or “democracy.” I ask the students if they think the subject of

freedom would be a good focus for the course. They usually agree.

Then I ask them to turn their

cards over and quickly write

down three things that

mean “freedom” to them.

As students read these aloud, I ask if they think people from America’s past would pick

the same things. We have a good discussion about how “freedom,” like “love,” can be a

complex concept and that it’s meaning has changed over time. I tell students at this first

class meeting that their final assignment will be to write an essay about the changing

meanings freedom and that the goal of the course is for them to be able to do more than

quickly write down three things. Many students begin their final essays by saying that

at the beginning of the course they hadn’t given the idea of freedom much thought and

it was hard to come up with even three bullet points, but now they understood it much

better. This has proved an effective way to introduce students to the process of learning

and for them to reflect back on how much they have accomplished over the semester.

(See Appendix F for examples of student final essays.)


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What I Liked: “It was fun to learn from such an

enthusiastic teacher who obviously loves the

subject she teaches.”


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Curriculum Revisions and Teaching Improvements

Course Websites

I update and improve my course websites every semester, adding more study aids,

more detailed instructions for assignments, and other materials.

Student Assignments

I have moved all student assignments to Blackboard. I have moved from doing group

projects in HIST 1700 to individual projects. Group projects, while interesting to many

students, proved problematic because of poor attendance and high student drop out

rate. This meant that in some groups a few students carried the burden of the work,

while others disappeared or didn’t contribute. Students complained bitterly about the

unfairness of this, so I discontinued group projects. Instead I instituted individual pro-

jects for each unit of the course that students can complete online. I developed websites

for each project where students can find detailed instructions, and a host of research

materials.

Classroom Activities

In the past I had students complete a brief weekly project. Many students simply did

not turn them in and I found a high rate of plagiarism. So beginning last fall, I decided

to do most of these projects during class. I hoped this would increase student engage-

ment and improve student success in HIST 1700. The Vice Chancellor provided money


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to purchase six netbooks so that I could divide students into study teams and have them

conduct online research during class.


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Goals for Improvement of Teaching

Peer Review of Instruction

The College of Eastern Utah has not had a viable system for peer review of instruction.

My goal is to have a formal peer review of my instruction within the next year.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

I have begun to disseminate some of the lessons I have learned over the past five years

teaching HIST 1700. This past year I presented a paper entitled, “Blended Civ: Integrat-

ing Blackboard and the Web to Teach American Civilization,” at the Southwest Technol-

ogy Conference and a paper entitled, “Taking It Digital: Online Engaged Learning Ac-

tivities in the U.S. History Survey,” at the Technology, Community, and College World-

wide Online Conference. These papers were accepted through a peer review process

(See Appendices D and E for copies of these papers). I plan to present a draft of a paper

entitled, “Teaching: Scholarship or Practice?” at the Utah State University Regional

Campus and Distance Education Teaching and Learning Journal Club later this sum-

mer.

Developing New Courses

As a result of the merger of Utah State University with the College of Eastern Utah, my

teaching assignment has changed and my primary goal for the next few years is to de-


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sign and teach these new courses. These new courses are USU 1300 (American Institu-

tions), HIST 1510 (The Modern World), and HIST 3950 (Environmental History).


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Appendix A: Sample Syllabi


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Appendix B: Student Evaluations


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Appendix C: Analysis of HIST 1700


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Appendix D: “Taking it Digital”


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Appendix E: “Blended Civ”


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Appendix F: Student Essays


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teaching portfoliosrnteach.us/portfolio/annual2011/srn_portfolio.pdf · 2011. 5. 31. · teaching...

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