Teaching Reflection When I look back on my years as a college student, I can pinpoint two transformative moments in my learning process.

The first came when I was a junior undergraduate student at Oklahoma Christian University. I was entering my junior year feeling frustrated at my progress as a singer. I thought at that time that what I wanted to do more than anything was be a professional actress in musical theatre. I knew I was talented in this area, but after two years of private voice training, I still felt lost when it came to singing technique. Because of changes in the music department, I was to begin study with a new private voice teacher that year. I can remember my very first voice lesson with Laura Coale. I did no singing during that lesson. Instead, she had me sit down to take a personality test. At first, I could not understand what this had to do with the study of voice, but it turned out to be the key to my learning process. Once Laura had the results of this test, she altered her teaching method, vocabulary, and repertoire to fit my learning style. No teacher had ever done that for me. In fact, no teacher had ever cared about my personality enough to want to understand my thought process. I thought I was supposed to adjust to theirs. Now that I teach voice myself, I understand how important it is for a teacher to speak the language of the student. To neglect to do so creates a sense of dependence and guilt in the student that I believe to be counterproductive to the goal of the teacher to produce students who can take ownership of their learning beyond the classroom. The other transformative moment came during my career as a graduate student in the Theatre Pedagogy program at Virginia Commonwealth University. In the fall of my second year I was enrolled in a Theatre History course taught by Dr. Noreen Barnes. I entered the class expecting to spend a lot of time listening to dry lectures, reading facts and dates, and then regurgitating information on tests and in research papers. However, once the class was underway I realized that my notions about the course were not valid. Noreen spent her time sitting in a circle with us giggling about various periods of history that she found to be delightful and inviting us to share our learning with her. I learned more in that class than I expected to I learned that I love theatre history. I found this love simply because I was introduced to the serious study of history by someone who reveled in it. The course was intriguing, irreverent, solemn, joyful, creative, and always academically challenging in a way that left me thirsting for more. Now that I have entered the Academy, it is my joy to be in a place where I get to pass on the love I have for two completely different fields of study to my students. I never thought I would be in a place that would allow me to teach both private voice and theatre history. Its just not in a usual job description. I come to work everyday with a sense of wonder that God called me to love this work, and then provided an opportunity for me to do it. I strive each day to create a transformative environment for my students. I dont think I am always successful, but I am grateful for those moments when it becomes apparent that a students eyes have been opened to see the possibility of transformation.

While I teach a variety of classes, I have chosen to focus on my work in my private voice studio and in the theatre history classroom. When I first came to ACU, I came with the knowledge that I would have the fantastic opportunity to be mentored by Jeannette Lipford, an icon in the history of ACUs Theatre and Music departments. During my first year here I worked closely with Jeannette in her final year before retirement. I observed her teaching in the private studio, and assisted her as a Vocal Director for the Homecoming production of All Shook Up. I witnessed firsthand the rapport Jeannette had with her students, and was impressed not only by her knowledge of technique, but by her passion for the students spiritual development. Jeannette prayed continually for her students, both in and out of the classroom. She continues to pray daily for the students in this department, and I feel her prayers over me as well. After Jeannettes retirement, I took over the full-time teaching of the private voice studio. This meant I was not only prepping for my usual classes, but teaching eighteen students in individual thirty-minute sessions each week. Looking back to that first year, I realize that I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to fill Jeannettes shoes. This is apparent in the syllabus I used virtually unchanged from the model Jeannette used and it is apparent in comments found in my student evaluations from that year. Many of the student comments were positive, expressing their appreciation for my passion for the subject and for their success. However, one comment from an upperclassman stuck with me: The only thing I would say would be to stop worrying about filling Jeannettes shoes. Youve more than done that. We trust you, so just let go and trust yourself. What an eye-opening and humbling comment. Since then, I have been working to make the studio my own. I have done extensive study of both the scientific and pedagogical aspects of vocal production through a series of professional development courses offered by the New York Singing Teachers Association. I have also worked to develop the syllabus requirements for my studio in an attempt to raise the standard of expectation I have for my students. One specific change I have made is to require the students to assess themselves at the beginning and end of every semester using a standardized rubric. My goal with this addition is to put more objective measures in place for grading student progress, and to teach students to evaluate their growth objectively, giving them ownership of their instrument and technique that will last beyond their college career. I would also like to add a personality test to my curriculum to aid me in teaching each student effectively. The theatre history class is a year-long course that I teach every other year. This is usually a large class of about twenty-eight students. The biggest challenge I have found in teaching this class is the creation of an academically challenging class that also engages the students as real-world practitioners. Im interested in producing students who can look at history and see the underlying issues behind the events. I want them to be able to answer the question why do I care in a way that connects to their field of study. In order to do this, each student is required to write their own Manifesto during the semester. This is a persuasive argument that uses theories of art to explain what they think theatre is and should be. We study several important manifestos written by theatre practitioners throughout history and the way these manifestos have impacted culture, including political movements,

economics, and class distinctions. I want my students to realize that they are a part of theatre history, and that their choices will impact the world. While I dont feel that many of them truly understand this as they write this essay, I do see it changing their perspective, which is a step in the right direction. Now that I have taught one full year of this course and am beginning to teach another, I have learned that some assignments are more successful than others. My goal is to teach the course material in a way that allows the students to discover a joy for the subject. I do not want them to leave this class thinking it was about memorizing facts and regurgitating them. I have learned that some of the assignments I had included in the previous syllabus produced the wrong kind of learning. For example, the group teaching exercise, which I had hoped would create an opportunity for students to collaborate and be creative did not work the way I had hoped. Instead of producing collaboration, it produced busywork, and instead of inspiring creative learning, it set students up to memorize and regurgitate. I have taken that assignment out of the current syllabus, and am working to come up with a better way to achieve my goal. The last time I taught Theatre History was a bit different than usual, because I took some time out for maternity leave in the middle of the year. I loved the fact that my students were exposed to different teaching styles from the three guest instructors that taught while I was away, but I did feel that I had to sacrifice the underlying continuity of the year. This was reflected in several of the comments from teaching evaluations from that year. I am looking forward to trying again next time. I love teaching this course because I have an opportunity to inspire the joy, irreverence, and intrigue that I have experienced from my mentors. I always learn something from my students when I teach this class, and I hope that never changes.