I love teaching. I love the possibility, the learning, and the opportunities.
I've spent the past 20 years developing training materials to support adult learners,
and teaching adults about strategies for structuring information. For 10 years, I've
brought my professional-world teaching to university juniors and seniors, who are just
discovering the differences between academic and professional writing.
Learning and Coaching
As a teacher, I get to learn. And I love to learn! Not only do I get to explore subject matter,
but I also get to travel through students' stories and learn through their perspectives.
As a teacher--especially as a writing teacher--I also get to coach.
I work with writers, to help them overcome obstacles and difficulties. I help them combat
their "personal editors" (like the 8th grade English teachers who live inside their heads
and scream, "Now don't you dare go putting down one more sentence until you go back and
change that split infinitive!"). "Tell 'em to come back later," I advise my students. "Tell those editors they have a six
o'clock appointment, and that the writer is busy until then."
Students leave my classes feeling excited about the opportunities good writing affords them.
Opportunities
Have you noticed that a great deal of the writing produced by workers in this
country fails to meet readers' needs?
We underestimate the power of language, and our opportunity to use language in ways
that help others. We have the opportunity to craft information so people can look at
an electronic page, a document, a paragraph, or even a sentence, and find what they want.
People need to be able to use information.
My work as a teacher is to help people:
- See structure in information;
- Understand why this structure matters; and
- Craft products that "work."
As a teacher, I help students discover the possibilities in language, expression,
and narrative. I help them take ideas and make them real. It's fun.
If you are passionate about your own possibilities, I'd love to work with you and your organization. Drop me a note.
