TEACHING IN ACTION
The classroom experience is essential, but learning outside the classroom is equally critical to student engagement and skill application. I consider myself honored and privileged to have mentored, traveled with, and co-authored with so many students. My classroom and my undergraduate research experiences follow the same "work hard/play hard" motto, and there are numerous coming-of-age experiences for my students.
3 GENERATIONS
This is one of my favorite photos. At the time of the photo, I had been teaching for 25 years. Leigh Ann, a student from the first leg of my teaching career, had been teaching for seven years. Megan, a student who helped me mold undergraduate research experiences, was finishing graduate school. (She obtained her first full-time teaching job in 2020.)
Here we are riding bicycles in Louisville at the end of a long conferencing day. This photo sums up so much of my career - mentoring intelligent women as they continue to be role models for their students.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH TEAM (ART) VIDEOS & PHOTOS
Come back soon; a new video is in production!
Teacher-Student Relationships
I met Bernie in 1986; he was my high school sociology teacher. That relationship remained intact until his passing in 2022. He was a friend, mentor, and confidant, and I reflect on the lasting relationships with my students - some of them spanning well over twenty years. The human connection we can make is so unlike other professions. I wanted to share this in loving memory, hoping that some of my students will feel the same in the coming years.
"Teachers who put their relationships first don't just have students for one year. They have students who view them as 'their' teacher for life."
~~ Justin Tarte, Educator