"Paths and Passions" responses -- Dusty Neibauer
Why I love teaching:
I love teaching because I like to talk about literature with a captive audience! I like it when students hotly-debate the possible answers to an AP-style exam; I find it quite rewarding when they start to understand how authors operate to convey truths to their readers; I love the look in their eyes when they feel a sense of accomplishment and knowledge within themselves, especially when thinking about how they view the world. I like it when students invest in their own lives and perspectives, and believe that they can judge for themselves, through critical examination and thinking, what they find to be right, just, and moral through the world. And I love that teaching literature, writing, and thinking affords me the opportunity to be there when students start to view the world in that way.
Action Research interest areas:
I want to develop further the way that I approach the teaching of writing, through multiple styles - expository, persuasive, critical, etc. - especially with regard to peer- and self-editing, using technology for more expedient and helpful feedback, and helping students understand what the research process means (and how to avoid the ever-growing plagiarism problems our educational system faces).
Area of Developing Expertise
It's always good to practice teaching students of English exactly how they should go about reading literature, essays, poetry, et. al. critically. Teaching them what to look for, and, basically, "how authors mean," is something that can get dicey. Finding the right words to get them to recognize about what I'm speaking about what the author is writing...well, it can get lost in translation. I'd like to work out a more formal approach to this skill.
