ACADEMIC CLASSES

      ADOLESCENT PSYCHOLOGY             

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY        

 CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON DEVELOPMENT       

THEORIES OF PERSONALITY     

APPLIED BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS                

          INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY                       

ADVANCED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

 CHILD PSYCHOLOGY                      

 CHILD/ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT FOR EDUCATORS

Reflections upon Teaching

    When I think back to the earliest example of an inkling of teaching prowess, I remember my 6th grade teacher, Ms. Gattis, who required us to make a formal speech, a timed, ten-minute talk on a subject for which we would receive a major grade.  A detailed 100 point assessment scale was created with gifted students voting on a score for each of 10 category.  I received a perfect grade including the speech to end precisely at ten minutes.  Later that year while mowing the yard, I devised a story for a class assignment but only found time to finish it when having to read it aloud the next day.  Only a schoolmate nearby realized my paper was blank. 

    I admired my uncle who was a science teacher and considered that as a profession but college stimulated a fascination with psychology rather than a teaching certificate.  However, the fields interplay considerably in the broad sense of learning as human behavior and more precisely in teaching psychology.  Psychology analyzes the process of learning and then communicates that knowledge.  I first began teaching professionally as a substitute teacher.  It was fun...there were rarely any problems like some I'd seen before as a student, much to my complete delight.  They were good kids but so were the youngsters at the YMCA Day Care Center where I taught craft projects parttime one summer.  There are lots of places and ways to teach and learn.

    I began teaching psychology in the classroom during the late 70's.  Throughout my career I have taught in an adjunct capacity at several colleges, fulltime at others, and now find myself in a tenure track position making a contribution to education in a number of capacities.  I am also a student.  I study the most effective ways to teach and I teach others how to teach.  It's a tremendous responsibility because I have the opportunity to affect thousands of people in some small but perhaps significant fashion.  To not respond with a sense of purpose and emphatic relevance could result in missing the chance for grasping the possibilities life has to offer.  Teaching is the most important job in the world.