Mark​​​​ Canada, Ph.D.​

The cornerstone of my teaching philosophy is personal engagement.  I seek to know my students as individual human beings—each with his or her own set of values, strengths, and aspirations—and to provide them with personalized learning experiences that inspire and engage them.  For starters, I make a point of learning every one of my students’ names on the first day of class.  I joke with them that now I can call on them—and I do.  Indeed, conversation is a hallmark of my teaching.  Whether they are critiquing a classmate’s argument during peer review or studying symbolism in an online discussion, my students grow accustomed to my questions: “Why do you think that?”  “What evidence suggests that reading to you?”  “That’s a great observation.  What do you make of that?”

These conversations, which begin on the first day of class, continue throughout the semester.  In a typical week, my students might read an argument or a novel, explore its context in my online lessons, respond to it in a “Think Fast” quiz, discuss it with classmates and me, and reflect on it in a “Think Again” post on the Web.  I also meet with students in conferences, where our focus is always on their work, their skills, their questions.  Finally, I respond to their work in progress reports, where I provide detailed guidance tailored to their own abilities and performance.

On several occasions, I have taken education beyond the campus.  Over the past 15 years, I have participated in a study abroad trip to Spain and led trips to Philadelphia, Boston, New Orleans, Colonial Williamsburg, and St. Louis.  Undergraduate and graduate students have joined me on research trips to explore manuscripts at Houghton Library on the Harvard University campus and at the Ransom Center in Austin, Texas.  Two of these students have collaborated with me on publications: Out of the West, a transcription of Thomas Wolfe’s notes in the West (forthcoming from the Thomas Wolfe Society) and Thomas Wolfe Remembered (under review by University of Alabama Press).

I wish I could say that every student I have taught has gone away a changed person.  I can’t.  Like all teachers, I have had my moments of frustration, but I also have had moments of another cast.  Once, in a senior seminar, I asked a question about research, and a student came up with the perfect answer; he was the same student I had taught in composition years ago.  He got it.  I also have seen a student who did not pass composition with me one semester return and, through hard work and determination, pass the class.  She got it.  Each is a little closer to his or her potential.  I hope they found some satisfaction in those accomplishments.  I know I have.