As I come to the end of the semester, I look fondly upon the teaching opportunities that the CUTF and Tolkien class have given me. Coming into the semester, I wanted to use the CUTF as an opportunity to figure out if teaching is something I that want to pursue. While I had an inkling that I would enjoy it, I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did! I did not teach every day, but I always looked forward to any day where I would be teaching. As I said in my last post, the most fulfilling part of teaching is helping students express their own ideas and come to their own conclusions. These last few weeks have not changed my mind in this regard.

One thing that I did find surprising about my time teaching this semester is that it gave me a new perspective on the tools at teachers’ disposal. I already talked about the purpose of discussion leading assignments in my last post, but another thing I’ve learned the importance of is empowering students to lead class discussions. A teacher is expected to give some degree of guidance in class discussions, but that guidance cannot become overpowering. As a teacher, you are endowed with a lot of authority from the perspective of students. Even if students can and should challenge a teacher in class discussion, students can feel very discouraged from talking if the teacher runs roughshod over a class by simply spouting their own views. While there is a time and place for a teacher to voice their opinion, the goal of class discussion should be to help students develop their own intellectual voice first and foremost.

For the sake of promoting class discussion, I’ve learned a couple simple tricks. The easiest trick I’ve learned is approaching class discussion with a specific reading passage in mind. If you give students a reading passage and simply ask them what they think the literary devices in the passage do, you give them an ample amount of time and space to voice their own ideas with minimal input from you as a teacher. This reading-first approach also helps to make sure that the students do not know what you believe as a teacher, which gives them further room to develop their own ideas instead of agreeing with yours.

The second trick I’ve learned is summarizing a discussion. This requires a lot of attention on the part of the teacher (attention you should already be giving!) but giving a summary of the class discussion helps students connect the different points that everyone has made during class. Without a summary, students can often lose sight of the points their fellow classmates make; the goal is of class discussion is not only to help students find their own voice, but also to help them learn how to incorporate the ideas of others in an honest and respectful manner.

I have learned all these tricks and more from the CUTF, but just as Frodo had to go into the West, so too must I. The end of the CUTF also heralds the end of my time at Pitt. I will be graduating this semester and I will be at UChicago come September as part of their philosophy PhD program. I am sad to leave Pitt, but I am happy I do so with fond memories of the CUTF. And if nothing else, I am happy to have read The Lord of the Rings again!