As a teaching assistant, I taught first-year composition to a class of 24 students. Being able to meet with other teaching assistants and the composition director each week to discuss teaching strategies, university policies and common classroom issues enabled me to be a better instructor. The support and direction were invaluable.

 

At the end of practicum, after completing a semester of teaching, I designed and published a digital teaching portfolio. On the website are examples of the syllabus, assignments and a grading rubric as well as a statement of my teaching philosophy based on composition and teaching theory.

 

A year after completing this portfolio I reviewed the teaching philosophy and made updates and formatting changes. To the philosophy, I added information about teaching students to write for a specific audience and helping students understand that outstanding academic writing is important across all of their coursework. The portfolio shows a knowledge of discourse community conventions, document design, and an ability to articulate the relationships between theory, composition research and the application of both.