I'm Johnny! Nice to meet you. I graduated with my undergrad from Jacksonville State University (magna cum laude) with a major focus in Creative Writing and a minor focus in Literature, and then I followed that up at JSU with my MA in English and my completed college teaching microcredential. I worked as a consultant in the JSU Writing Center working directly with first-year English Composition students (largely freshmen) and assisting them one-on-one as well as in group classroom settings....
I'm Johnny! Nice to meet you. I graduated with my undergrad from Jacksonville State University (magna cum laude) with a major focus in Creative Writing and a minor focus in Literature, and then I followed that up at JSU with my MA in English and my completed college teaching microcredential. I worked as a consultant in the JSU Writing Center working directly with first-year English Composition students (largely freshmen) and assisting them one-on-one as well as in group classroom settings. These consisted of classrooms of approximately twenty students (most recent high school graduates) in both 30-minute individual sessions and entire class 1-hour group sessions. I have also tutored informally lifelong learners of all ages throughout the years. Every day is a school day if you're willing to learn.
Over these formative years I have developed a holistic teaching methodology that considers more than teaching to a grade; I want to encourage students to be better thinkers, better at reflecting and examining the world around them while engaging with them authentically and empathetically; I always take efforts to find ways to relate with my students and get them thinking in ways they might have not expected, using gamification, peer review, and experiential learning to shake things up--including using genres often overlooked by canonical texts such as speculative fiction and especially horror. Taking notes from Freire, Shor, Lynn, Giroux, and Wink, I have helped developing writers gain the courage to examine the world with a critical eye and helped foster an engagement with knowledge that they did not know they had.
Sharing knowledge and helping others discover that they too can love to learn is one of my favorite aspects of being a teacher, and I look forward to fostering this joy for many future classrooms to come!
