Awards and Recognition
Graduate Teaching Assistant Awards
2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003
2006-2007 GTA Winners
Teaching Philosphies
Sean Cunningham
January 2007
I believe that the best teachers inspire, communicate, and facilitate personal and intellectual growth both in and out of the classroom. Great teaching can lead to challenging pursuits, social contributions, and changed lives, but requires a desire to see students come to their own understanding of how they, as individuals, fit into a community and how that community affects the way they live. Above all else, great teaching is a learning process that demands patience. I have learned from many great teachers, none of whom was ever satisfied with the status quo. Put another way, great teaching does not just happen. Being a great teacher means having a disciplined and passionate commitment to the lifelong pursuit of knowledge and a willingness to challenge yourself and your students in the pursuit of that knowledge. I am not yet a great teacher of American History, but I love the process, I embrace the challenge, I cherish the knowledge, and I care for my students – and it is this passion that drives me to fresh and rewarding experiences each time I enter the classroom.
My goal in teaching American History is to provide an environment in which students can discover more about themselves, their roles in society, and their opportunities to affect change. I believe that each student is unique and that an effective teacher embraces that diversity. In order to respect both the diversity of learning styles in my classroom, as well as foster critical thinking and thoughtful analysis of historical trends and problems, my pedagogy incorporates lecture, discussion, multimedia sources, and a variety of topical thrusts – all of which is collectively designed to expose each student to multiple learning experiences. My students are given opportunities to discover their individual uniqueness by taking degrees of ownership over their own experience. With certain assignments, for instance, my students are allowed to choose the books they read and explore the specific topics that interest them. I have extended similar choices for the issues we discuss in class as well as the questions they respond to on exams. Seeing a student improve his or her writing, master a particular concept, or ask an informed question is always rewarding, but is never as fulfilling as seeing a student come to a deeper understanding of their own history, their own ability, their own relationship to the past, and their own opportunities to change the future. I expect my students to contextualize the specifics of history, but also to conceive the past broadly in order to understand the wider landscape.
Lastly, I believe it important for teachers to understand that their responsibility to students extends beyond the classroom walls. I encourage interaction with students by phone, email, and in person – both during office hours and by appointment. If I truly desire to facilitate the learning process, then I have to embrace the fact that my time is not solely my own. To teach is to serve students, society, your academic discipline, and yourself – for in the end, I hope that my teaching inspires self-discovery for all those who participate.
