1) The professor begins each semester by surprising students and establishing teaching goals of curiosity and critical thinking through an icebreaker activity instead of discussing policies. This sets the background for the semester. 2) During the middle of the semester, the professor uses various teaching methods like rearranging desks into a circle and preparing multiple lesson plans to further develop critical thinking skills and keep students engaged. 3) Near the end of the semester, the professor analyzes the results of the semester through reflection activities to understand what worked and what didn't so they can improve future classes and prevent repeating mistakes.

1. MARQUETTE HALL 115 P.O. BOX 1881 MILWAUKEE, WI 53201-1881 TELEPHONE (414) 288-7179 FAX (414) 288-5433
Painting a Semester in 3 Paragraphs -
Or, a Philosophy of Teaching by Matthew Henningsen
“Teaching is not like inducing a chemical reaction, but more like creating a painting…”
- James Marran, Teacher and Author
I. The First Day – Background Teaching Goals
I always find myself looking forward to the first day of class, mainly because I embrace it as an
opportunity to establish my teaching goals by surprising my students. I walk in and say: “Today, we’re
not starting our time together with a policy guide. We’ll save that for next class.” The smiles and sighs of
relief that rise up from these first words I consider the first broad brushstrokes of the painting my students
and I slowly create over the course of our semester together. These opening words more specifically swab
in a background that begins to revealmy commitment to surprise. I always want to surprise my students. I
want my students to walk into class and wonder: “How’s he going to teach today’s material? Is he going
to lecture? Use group work? A film? A photo? An ad…” This wondering both sustains my “surprise!”
teaching goal, and plants the delicate seed that grows into the critical thinking mind - students wonder,
and, by wondering, critically think out how they might teach the material. My “persona game,” the class
activity that replaces the tedium of first day policy guiding, also helps grow the critical thinking mind,
and adds more teaching goals to the background of our budding class painting project. To get this game
going, I tell my students: “Jot down 5 ‘facts’ about yourself. 4 of which are true, and 1 that’s false.” Each
student then shares their “facts,” and the class as a whole tries to pull out the falsehood. Laughter,
students relaxing away from rigid postures, and a nascent feeling of comradery and openness settle across
the classroom. Then, once I explain persona, and how it scratches away the line separating fact from
fiction, mental light bulbs flash on, and I see students thinking: “Maybe my false fact is the truest? And
who would know if someone just made up their facts in the first place?” With these thoughts in the air, the
background of our class painting is complete. Without dragging students through a policy guide (that can
wait until day two), my teaching goals of instilling “surprise!” and wonder, and of growing curious,
confident critical minds in a classroom made inclusive by laughter, openness, and comradery are up and
painted, and ready for further development and refining in the days, weeks,and months ahead.
II. Mid-Semester Days – Middle Ground Teaching Methods
During the classes that stretch away from our opening day, I patiently detail in a middle ground of
teaching methods that preserve the broad brushstrokes of our first day background building. These new
brushstrokes take the form of everyday classroom practices and activities. Basic classroom arrangement
and organization create perhaps the simplest form in the middle ground of our classroom painting. I create
this form on the last day of the first week by deliberately shaking up the class. I stand up and say:
“Arrange the desksin a giant classcircle, and organize yourself into a group of 5 people you don’t
know.” Desks scrape across the floor, the ice continues to break between students, and the class as a
whole morphs into a new, more inclusive shape. We all face each other,and look at each other; and, by
inserting myself into this class circle (rather than reigning alone, in the middle of it), my teaching goals of
comradery and openness rise up from the page in our classroom. The intangible, abstract teaching goal
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

2. takes on a tangible shape. I actually call this classroom design, “the round table,” since, like the mythic
table, its circular shape equalizes by bringing in and including every student. At the same time, “the round
table” allows for individual viewpoints because the table as a whole only holds together when all
perspectives are heard and appreciated. After painting in this “round table” design, I add to the growing
middle ground by focusing on teaching methods that flesh-out my teaching goal of nurturing curious and
confident critical minds. I go about fleshing-out this teaching goal by keeping a finger on the pulse, and
overall mood and feeling, of the class. Unforeseen,uncontrollable events inevitably arise each semester,
seep into my ideal teaching world described above, and manifest themselves as the daily moods,
emotions, and overall levels of engagement of my students. Always aware of this teaching fact,I prep 3
versions of a day’s teaching plan – a lecture version, a class discussion version, and a group discussion
version. I then feel out the day’s pulse after the first few minutes of class, and, exemplifying my teaching
goal of “surprise!” and wonder, apply what I consider the best version for a day’s specific mood. My
students never exactly know what to expect,and this uncertainty keeps them curious, and in turn well-
primed to apply their curiosity to a day’s activities. For example, I might apply student curiosity to my
teaching goal of growing confident critical minds by deciding that a day’s specific mood calls for small
groups to grapple with the prompt: “Name a school, and design its curriculum, whose mission is to
combat propaganda.” Experience shows that creative,critical ideas result from this prompt… as well as a
good amount of laughter (especially about possible names for such a school).
III. The Final Days – Foregrounding Teaching Results
The rest of a typical semester continues to engage with my teaching goals by forming them into tangible
teaching practices that vary day-by-day. Our class painting continues to grow and expand as well. Its
middle ground fills in with specific group projects, class discussions, and lectures, until, by the last month
or so of class, the foreground also fills out, and the painting as a whole moves towards completion. Our
nearly finished class painting must therefore at last be scrutinized, analyzed, and critiqued. Does it show
background teaching goals creating specific teaching methods that ultimately lead to successfulstudent
learning? Or, simply put, has good work, bad work, or so-so, mediocre work been produced? I go about
answering these questions in a variety of ways. For example, at least once every 3 weeks (usually on the
day a paper is due), I hold what I call a “Pause and Reflect” class discussion. Creating 2 columns on the
board, one labeled, “Enjoyed/Understood,” and the other, “Didn’t Enjoy/Understand,” we patiently fill-in
these columns for about 10 minutes. I end this simple “Pause and Reflect” discussion with the promise
that, before the next paper’s due date,we’ll confront and solve the issues in the “Didn’t
Enjoy/Understand” column to ensure that problems are corrected,rather than repeated. This simple
activity weeds out student concerns before they can grow and spread, and ultimately infest and tarnish our
class painting as a whole. Since I’ve discovered that this “Pause and Reflect” discussion, when regularly
used, yields positive results (i.e., it keeps my teaching goals intact and teaching methods effective), I end
my class with a similar activity. I call this activity a, “Letter of Reflection.” Handed in on the last day of
class, this ungraded letter, addressed to me, gives each student the opportunity to discuss their unfiltered
assessment of the course. I learn about the readings and activities they enjoyed, and pay close attention to
their critiques. What wasn’t effective? What just didn’t work? My answers to these questions, while
helping assess the teaching results of one class, ultimately aid another group of students. By preventing
mistakes from being repeated, that is, they allow me and my future students to fashion the best possible
painting over the course of our time together.