To: Tenure Committee

CC: Tim
Date: November 4, 2015
RE: Final Tenure Thoughts

Part 1: Teaching
I came into my position at Highland confident in my teaching abilities. I felt by no
means perfect, but I felt clear in my goals and sure of my passion for teaching. Over
the last five semesters, my confidence has ultimately grown. I feel stronger in my
content knowledge and in my teaching practices, and I have even clearer goals
moving forward.
My most successful course has been COMM 090. From the beginning, this class has
been my favorite to teach, and I feel even more strongly that 090 is my best course
with every passing semester. I love teaching those students. I draw immense
satisfaction from helping pre-college level writers achieve even small gains in their
writing skills. Additionally, my course evaluations from this class are consistently
high, telling me that I create a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere for these
students who have likely seldom been happy in a classroom before.
When I began, my least favorite and weakest course was English 122. I had never
taught a research-based class before, and it took a couple of semesters before I felt
entirely comfortable teaching the course. However, I learned a lot about
composition course content and about teaching through my 122 courses. Since the
spring of 2015, I have taught that class as a hybrid, and since then, that class has
begun to gel for me in ways that I am satisfied with. I worked hard to teach that
course in a way that fit the needs of my students and my teaching style, and I am
confident in those results.
I will continue to set goals for improvement for my 121 courses. I have tried
multiple methods and styles of presenting the course content, but I am not yet
satisfied with the way the course runs. I have found success in relating to my 121
students, which was a challenge at first, but I am still not convinced that I have the
course content organized in the most useful way for my students. They learn, but
they could learn better. This course is one that will need work moving forward.
A significant strength that I have fostered in all courses during these five semesters
is my rapport with students. My first goal for each class is to foster a feeling of
community in my classrooms. Students should feel comfortable with me and with
each other. I pride myself on achieving a positive, welcoming classroom atmosphere
with nearly all of my classes. My course evaluations and many comments from
students support my belief that I maintain a positive classroom atmosphere in every
course I teach.
Part 2: Non-teaching yet work-related

I have always been interested in helping my institution grow and achieve to the best
of my ability. I am interested in helping to improve Highland both inside of and
outside of the classroom, and I have had many opportunities to serve on
committees and groups since I began teaching at Highland. My most noteworthy
contributions have been serving as AQIP co-chair of the Helping Students Learn
category of our accreditation portfolio, helping to spearhead a faculty work group
tasked with revising our student evaluation process, and serving on the Strategic
Planning Committee. I can and do aid students in the classroom, but my committee
work also aids students by helping to affect institutional change.
As for my individual professional growth, I am thankful for the opportunity to take
ION courses about online learning. This semester, I will earn my Master of Online
Teaching certificate, which boosts my credentials. More importantly, however, I have
learned a lot about teaching theory and particularly about online teaching practices
that have honed my courses in valuable ways. Im confident in the structure and
design of my hybrid courses because of the classes I have taken through ION, and
they have helped to shape my face-to-face teaching practices, too.
Finally, my affiliation with Highland has afforded me the opportunity to join several
teaching organizations, namely the Illinois Community College Faculty Association,
the Midwest Regional Association of Developmental Educators, and the Illinois
Learning Specialists and Developmental Educators association. These organizations
provide a strong network of educators to whom I can turn for ideas and best
practices from other institutions. In fact, I was just named to the ILSADE board as
Northern Illinois Regional Liaison. These connections allow me to bring new
information to Highland so we can update our courses to reflect current practices.
Part 3: Overall reflections
I have grown as an educator during my time at Highland. Part of that growth has
been realizing how much more I have to learn about education and good teaching. I
will continue to seek opportunities for improvement, whether they are directly
related to my classrooms, related to institutional improvement, or related to my
individual professional development.