College, in Latin, describes individuals who are organized around a common goal, an intellectual partnership, which forms the bedrock of my pedagogy—the teacher and student engaged in the pursuit of truth. Learning is a reciprocal process, as each learns from the other. Social learning educational theory informs my pedagogy, as right behavior allows students to learn about knowledge, truth, and the self. Often, I use a group structure, supplying each group with information which must be used to solve a problem and construct a solution, whether through role playing, peer teaching, or interactive group presentations. Through our college, the students and I discover knowledge based upon established truths through collaborative, student-centered learning processes, working through methodologies unique to the English discipline as we explore new areas of knowledge.

To construct a college environment, I focus on the most important learning principle—emotion. Students’ sentiments are the first stage in the learning process; emotions link with affective elements in a learning environment. A high affective filter yields increased anxiety, emotions detrimental to learning. I lower the emotional affective filter by building a safe and nurturing intellectual community founded upon mutual respect and strong positive rapport amongst everyone in the class. My central objective for students is for them to “learn how to learn.” I teach students how to learn by sharing with them not only writing and research techniques, but also study, organizational, and time management tips applicable to all areas of life.

By working with groups and individual students, we determine unique academic and/or personal learning goals. My “learning how to learn” objective targets the holistic emotional student; if a student can learn his or her best learning style, anxiety decreases and active academic engagement flows. I believe emotions hold an integral link with learning, so the emotional aspect of learning blends into my teaching conceptualization.

Tæcan is the Old English verb meaning to show or to point out and morphed into our modern English word “to teach.” Showing something does not necessarily correlate with meaning. We can show something without fully understanding what we see. For me, tæcan represents facilitation; I supply students with opportunities for academic growth, but the task of discovering meaning is placed upon the students. For example, I utilize jigsaw activities, pre-planning which information each group is responsible for. Groups work together, figuring out how their content will be presented in engaging ways. The students become the teachers, while I merely guide the learning process. Students’ autonomy increases their self-image, reinforcing positive emotions within the classroom.

I tæcan the way, walking the academic path with students. But the path will yield different experiences for me and for the individual student. As the teacher, I am willing to release prior assumptions, as students tæcan me as much as I tæcan them, which is why I structure peer teaching and student-lead discussions in my classes, so we can all traverse the learning path together. I might utilize concept maps for an activity, but the pedagogical tool is open enough to allow for unique educational pathways for students, as they discover knowledge individually and in groups. We return to the Latin word college—an active, mutually reciprocal intellectual odyssey. The only difference between the teacher and student is time and experience. I am not smarter than my students; I just have more experience teaching and have been exposed to more academic knowledge. Other students have other experiences, which is why we tæcan each other.

I converse with students about their interests, values, and beliefs, building a shared vision of our academic goals. We make an academic social contract wherein I de-emphasize consequences or rewards, rather asking the students, “How do you want to proceed?” For instance, I allow individual students to personally grade their final projects. They must meet with me and, after having an honest discussion about their effort on a project, they tell me what they think they earned. During these meetings, if the student thinks he or she earned higher than I scored the project, I take an average of the two scores, reinforcing student voice and autonomy in the grading process, balanced with my professional assessment.

The physical structure of my class reflects the classroom’s low affective filter, another effort to build trusting rapport. Whenever possible, I distribute physical space in the classroom, arranging the room into an oval shape with the desks. Distributing space equalizes positionality amongst students, as physical space affects relationships within a learning environment. Should this oval structure not be possible, students always sit with their team members, a group which is formed at the beginning of each semester. With their team, they must complete assignments, which can only be done through interdependence upon each other.