I take my responsibilities to students very seriously.  Given that I demand a great deal of my students, I believe that I owe them the same level of investment in return.  I set high expectations for student performance as I have found that most students will meet the expectations set for them.

I have four criteria for any course that I teach:

1. My classroom is a community of learners in which all students actively participate.  I encourage students to engage in discussion with each other to deconstruct difficult ideas, and provide assistance and guidance as needed.
2. I utilize discussion-based learning to allow students to master course content.  I rarely, if ever, lecture.
3. I operate on the assumption that all students need to improve their writing, speaking, and listening skills.  By way of extensive feedback and interactions, I provide students with many comments on each paper to help them to continue to develop as scholars and writers.
4. I am a student-centered instructor; I provide prompt feedback to students, both in office hours and via e-mail.  I also respect students as adults and honor their concerns to ensure that the course is a valuable learning experience.