Introduction to the writing process:

It’s hard for me to decide which I like better, being a student or a teacher. I love the challenges of the English language and humanities, whether learning new knowledge or learning about a new student’s culture. I like mastering the fundamentals, then learning to apply my knowledge to multiple representations of real-world problems. I am keen on the academic area and being around so many other smart professors. I try to model my own love of teaching to my students who are writing processes. I embrace the constructivist approach to learning and teaching. The concept of active learning and collaboration is central to my philosophy of education. There are few areas of my concentration in my teaching philosophy; attaching art to writing, the individual perceives matter, providing a smooth transition to a new community, learn as a fellow learner, and receiving feedback to improve.

In the past few years of my studying for both MA and Ph.D. at Old Dominion University, I have been fortunate to work in different departments (Humanities, Women’s Studies, and English Studies) as a Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, teaching experience for the classes of English for the beginners at Newport News for the newly arrived refugees and immigrants, including my current positions as a tutor at the writing center. My experience enlightens me that it is time to change the current teaching styles and create an environment full of joy and learning. In my perspective, the most important thing to teach in Comp is a strong foundation so first-year writer (FYW) students build their process of writing. My educational background pushes me to inform students to see writing as an art to be enjoyable. By thinking the whole process of writing like brainstorming, creating an outline, using rhetorical strategies, writing, and reviewing until the writer be satisfy with it and feel creative is an art. However, I personally found this passion recently which I wish I learned when I was a freshman. My ideas draw from various theories and pedagogies such as (Expressivist, Critical Race Theory, Critical Feminist, Process, Rhetorical Genre Studies, and Writing about Writing) to illuminate to students that writing is a process, not just a product and motivate them to have passion for writing so they find joy writing it. Students will be encouraged to keep journals and experience a new way of writing by having free writing in class. I believe freewriting is the best way to overcome the enormous time each writer is spending until they actually writing. Also, there will be peer review workshops after the student’s first draft. I will make sure that students feel free to ask or bring any type of critical thinking. Students should know this is the best time in their life to ask freely not thinking they might be rude to ask maybe because they are college students now.

Individual experience matter:

What I expect I will be best at is supporting each student as an individual learner especially students of second language writers. As Matsuda and Hammill stated that “in some cases, the number of L2 writers in each writing course may be small. But that does not mean the presence of one or two students can be ignored, if one student suffers, that is one too many” (page 266-267). In addition, my tutoring experience notifies me that the majority of students coming to the writing center are freshmen dealing with fear with their writing and feeling lost finding the smooth transition from high school to college.

Implementation to the diverse community:

I would like to acquaint new year college students to the university and create a sensation of encountering various communication situations. I think the composition class should include many strategies for students to have a smooth transition from high school to college. My plan comes from my experience as an English teacher to new adult refugees coming to Newport News. I understand the importance and the consequence of adopting a new environment and challenging many other matters surrounding it. In terms of familiarizing with academic writing, my goal is to do my best to provide some particular university’s assignment within a wide range of fields and professions, so they have this course as a foundation for the rest of the colleges, professions, and to be good citizens.

Learn as a fellow learner with students:

I see teaching as another chance for learning. For me, nothing better about seeing a classroom as a learning space for both students and instructors. My plan is to explain my aim for doing that on the first day of the class, so students feel inspired and trust their knowledge. Also, this strategy is a great way to motivate students to participate.  I am thrilled to listen to my students’ particular discovery for readings. I drew this idea from the theory of expressivist, expressivists suggest that the process of writing leads to discover not only for writing but also learn about themselves. I think creating this environment will provide a co respectful sphere in the class beyond the standard one which the majority assume that professors know everything.

Classroom opinion feedback to ensure improvement:

I would like to assess my performance to inform my teaching pedagogy. This point comes from my religious background, In Islam, teachers are responsible in terms of delivery. A teacher should fulfill the effort to make sure students understand the topic, not just lecture a class without any consideration. As a pious person, I will give the opportunity to the students, I ask them to write feedback (without giving their names) about content, delivery, style of presentation, group activity, etc. during the semester. Also, I request (a course reflection letter) at the end of the semester to provide this first-year writing course (FYWC) as useful as possible to achieve the best quality performance. For me, Teaching is another way of perceiving knowledge. Students can find many ways to obtain knowledge therefore, teaching must be unique to keep the pure meaning of teaching. Effective teaching enables the student to competence the core knowledge in the book, but the performance of the information is key to deep understanding. Consequently, the critical role of the teacher is fundamental to move or create new ideas and introduce students to the new world.