LEAH LANGDONTeaching Por tfol io

2016

Team activity slide shown from guest lecture in a Soc 100 class "Education and Health Outcomes" November 2016

2Leah Langdon

Teaching Philosophy

Studying Sociology involves both instructors and students in interactive constructive conversations about the shared construction of society while considering historical, social, geographical, and socioeconomically situation. What needs to be evaluated is both the action and inaction that allows for the shared understanding of the construction of social situations in the course of their daily lives. My role as a teacher is to enable students to develop a sociological lens through which they can understand the way social situations are constructed, maintained, and reproduced. I encourage students to critically evaluate and assess the significance of these constructions as they analyze the particular elements of society themselves. More importantly, I want my students to understand, intellectually and emotionally, that their present lives are the direct result of these social structures and situations on both micro and macro levels, created by, maintained, and reproduced or restructured by all of us.

Teaching Pedagogy

I strive for all of my students to understand that their present situations are the consequence of those social constructions so that they are better prepared to interact with others that may not share the same culture, values, and morals as them. This prepares them to act as conscious constructors and reproducers of society themselves. My goal is to show that the study of Sociology is a creative process based upon the critical analysis of peer reviewed data, statistics, and facts which result in conversation between the sociologist and social actors in the context of academia. In my classrooms I strive to create situations in which active, team based learning will aid in a deep understanding of the material. I often do this by making my students the expert. For instance, upon critically analyzing social phenomenon of disparities in health outcomes for social minorities in economically depressed areas, students are situated in groups as ?city council members? tasked with improving the health outcomes of those living in their community such as Flint Michigan and Cancer Alley in Louisiana.

"I WANT MY STUDENTS TO UNDERSTAND, INTELLECTUALLY AND EMOTIONALLY, THAT THEIR PRESENT LIVES ARE A DIRECT RESULT OF THESE SOCIAL STRUCTURES..."

3Leah Langdon

I have been trained as a teaching intern and have subsequently developed a hunger for the scholarship of teaching and learning. Through this internship I have been responsible for teaching duties including the organization and management of the Introduction to Sociology class as a team with other interns under the direction of Dr. Epplen in the graduate teaching program. Throughout this internship I have focused on identifying my own teaching pedagogy and fostering a sense of ease and expertise in the classroom. One of the things that I love most is finding creative ways to use both team based learning and active learning to create opportunities for a deep understanding of the material covered. For me, nothing beats the feeling of students using concepts, theories, and vocabulary from material previously covered to grasp new ideas presented in class. I never expected to have such a passion for teaching others what I already know, and I could never have imagined being so invested in others deep learning. These experiences and others are what inspires me to grow as a teacher.

I choose to make the content I include for course material to be data, statistic, and fact heavy. For this reason, students have to confront the beliefs and values that they come into class with. Using data rich content that has been throughly vetted and replicated aids in this process.

"I NEVER EXPECTED TO HAVE SUCH A PASSION FOR TEACHING... I COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED BEING SO INVESTED IN OTHERS DEEP

LEARNING."

Team Act ivit y Il lust rat ing Healt h Out com e Dispar it ies

To get my students cr i tical ly thinking about agents of social ization, I asked them to consider a speci f ic agent of social ization, and the messages they have gotten from that agent of social ization in r elation to sex. In their small teams the students discussed the norms, values, and expectations from their par ticular agent of social ization r egarding sex. As a team they unpacked how they were shaped and inf luenced in r elation to sex from their assigned agent of social ization. To ease this conversation as a large class discussion, I asked the teams to create a bumper sticker or slogan for what their agent of social ization would say about sex.

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In Class Exercises

Team Based Lear n ing

Many of the teams had ver y creative r esponses for what their assigned agents of social ization would have as a slogan about sex. For one team, their agent of social ization was family adn their bumper sticker slogan was "Safe Sex is the Best Sex". Upon fur ther discussion as a large group, the class concluded that this drastical ly di f fered from the team that was assigned rel igion as their agent of social ization, and whose slogan read "God is Watching You!". This propelled students to consider the messages sent through media, peers, spor ts, and school as well . With this team activi ty, students were able to r ef lect and examine their ow n exper iences and social ization processes. This also lead to discussion on r esocial ization and anticipator y social ization. I used my personal exper iences w ith the mi l i tar y and thier tr ansient posi tion as new college students to i l lustr ate and connect their social posi tion to the mater ial.

Leah Langdon

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Team activi ty sl ide form guest lecture on "Social ization" for Introduction to Sociology 100, September 2016.

From my final teaching demonstration forms for a fellowship application, the fellowship committee all responded that "Intern used active learning techniques effectively" was a strength while in the class room. One professor review comments expanded that "Students were excited and engaged... Seemed to energize the students." All responding fellowship committee members also corroborated that "Intern appeared comfortable, professional, and knowledgeable" was a strength as well. One committee member commented "Great demeanor, calm, very professional, great classroom leadership". One thing that I intend to improve on is effectively explaining complex concepts and enthusiam about the subject. All fellowship committee members agreed that I was on the right track, but need to improve on this area of my teaching. My goal is to incorporate more opportunities during my fellowship teaching Social Problems (SOC 150) in the spring 2017, to improve on my explanation of complex concepts. I will also strive to choose aspects of the material I am covering that I can relate to more to ensure that I am more enthusiastic about what I am teaching. One thing that i would like to continue to do well is engaging students in discussion. Upon evaluation, reviewers from the fellowship committee agreed that a strength of mine in the class room was engaging students in discussion as well as handling their questions and comments well. In reference to handling students questions and comments one reviewer commented "Very comfortable and confident! Nicely done. Very good job of paraphrasing and expanding on what students contribute. Quite natural with this".

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Members of the Fellowship committee consisted of: Dr. Emily Boyd, Dr. Donald Ebel, Dr. Sarah Epplen, Dr. Vicki Hunter, Dr. Dennis Waskul. The guest lecture they observed was "Education and Health Outcomes" November 2016. The fellowship for Spring 2017 was awarded November 2016.

"VERY COMFORTABLE, ARTICULATE, AND CONNECTED WITH

STUDENTS. "

Leah Langdon

Professional Evaluat ions

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Intern teaching evaluations were optional to students and offered upon the completion of the guest lectures. Of 285 students 114 responded.

Student Teaching Evaluat ions

Above is a visual representation of all of the possible responses students had to evaluate teaching interns on. These evaluations have proved useful in assessing my abilities from the students perspective. These have aided in the expansion of my goals on where I would like to be as a teacher.

Based off of the student teaching evaluations I have added many goals to my list of things I would like to improve upon as I continue teaching. Though 89.47 percent of students either "Strongly Agreed or Agreed" that as a teaching intern I was approachable, there were quite a few comments in the "teaching interns' weaknesses" section that stated that I was also intimidating. I plan to adjust my teaching style, to include the language I use, to be more approachable to all students. I would also hope to better deliver material and represent sociology in a manner that would inspire students to take more sociology courses as well as getting students to think about things in a different way outside of the classroom. I understand that not all students in an introductory course may not appreciate classes that achieve goal areas for them, but I will also strive to have more than 80 percent of respondents agree that I develop engaging team activities which teams will enjoy. "She is enthusiastic and up-beat. Easy to understand and relate to. Class with her is interesting even when the material she is teaching is not" stated one student. However, another student stated "Sometime she would talk about a subject too much and it just wasn't interesting anymore." I may need to evaluate the time I spend on a subject, possibly by adding examples that will further illustrate my point or continuing to make the students the expert to keep them involved and invested in the material we are covering. I look forward to having the opportunity to focus on these improvements and implement them as I teach Social Problems in the spring. I am lucky to have the opportunity to continue to hone my skills in the scholarship of teaching. The feedback I have from these students and professionals will undoubtedly shape how I progress throughout this coming semester.

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"Love that she uses her past experiences to describe and shape the way she teaches ."

Leah Langdon

"She is a very personable teacher to talk to. Her power points were easy to take notes off of. Always felt like I could ask questions, and not feel dumb about asking them."

St udent Teaching Evaluat ions

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Though student teaching evaluations were optional, I feel that there are enough respondents from both sections of the Introduction to Sociology courses to generalize to all of the students that were enrolled in the course.

LEAH LANGDON2016

leah.langdon@mnsu.edu

952-452-4661

Leah C. Langdon

P.O. Box 149

Mapleton, MN 56065