December 7, 2012

Dear Dr. Coxwell-Teague,

Over the course of the semester, I have watched Heather Lang create a strong community within her classroom. Her teaching focuses upon community and engagement with space, which permeates the way she interacts with her students, friends and colleagues. Initially she expressed concerns about connecting her past experiences with her new endeavors here at Florida State University. Similar to my first semester here, she followed a strand closely, which worried her at times because she struggled to locate her teaching within the assignments. However, as the semester continued, she began taking more liberties within the classroom to manipulate the strand into her own style. Even with this initial struggle, her classroom definitely (though she was unsure) felt like a learning community when I observed. She is so honest with her students that they feel comfortable with conversations and questions. She truly puts herself into her class, and I think her students respond well to this honesty. Heather has a very laid-back approach to teaching that makes the community feel like it is sharing knowledge instead of her imparting knowledge to her students; it is a space of interaction.I really liked the way she has students perform the role of “class blogger,” which furthers the space of community into the digital realm that also builds a bridge between the face-to-face class and digital interaction. She was discussing “Writing with Style”, and her students were not keen on the step of “keeping it simple”. My favorite moment here was when she claimed, “Well if one could have a favorite astrophysicist” to illustrate the importance of simplicity (this particular person communicates extremely complex ideas in “simple language” that the public can understand. It was clear that she makes claims like this often, and her students enjoyed the seemingly random allusion that connected to the composition classroom. She also did a neat activity with the article after discussion. She had her students free-write (on the computers), then copy/paste the passage to edit according to “Writing with Style.” This created a hands on understanding of the article. They also composed on their blog which allowed for students to interact with each other’s understanding. While students worked, she circulated around the room to see how they worked and answered questions on an individual basis. Heather also frequently uses music to add to her classroom community.I also appreciated her ability to delegate time without appearing to enforce it, which is a challenging task in a 50 minute window of time. Heather has been interested to learn more about the way FYC works at FSU, and she is creating a class for 1102 that delves into concepts of space and locations for the spring. Through conversation and her observance of my class, I have gained a sense of her strong commitment to her students, which shows her commitment to her pedagogy.I think her students will respond well to this approach, and she is excited to explore these ideas with them through research and a “field trip” to the museum housed in Dodd. Through our mentor meetings, Heather showed her investment in teaching by asking questions, discussing her successful (and not-so) moments as we worked to create a collective of approaches for everyone to work with in their own classroom. After having been her mentor for the semester, I believe that Heather’s honesty drives her teaching; this has built a strong sense of community in her classroom, which was her ultimate goal.

Sincerely,

Molly E. Daniel