Classes & Teaching

Teaching Portfolio

Writing & Reporting for Online Media

During the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 semesters I will teach this senior-level course designed to familiarize students with using new media in newspaper newsrooms. Students attend two lectures and one lab each week. During lab, students work with multimedia tools, including audio and video recording and editing software, blogs, social media, and slide shows. Students select a beat to cover at the beginning of the semester and follow stories on the beat throughout the semester, producing materials suitable for portfolios and publication.

Class Website

Class Syllabus

Writing for Mass Communication

During the Summer of 2009, I will taught the lecture and lab portion of this course, consisting of about 50 students. Students were introduced to AP style, hard news, and news-feature writing during this transition from English composition writing to writing for newspapers. I taught students basic multimedia skills, including reverse publishing (writing for the Web), how to create a slide show, and working with content management systems. Students also learn basic journalism and public relations concepts to prepare them for future study.

Lecture Class Blog

From Fall 2008 to Spring 2010, I taught two lab sections, totalling 40 students per semester. I also assisted the instructor (Dr. Julie Dodd) each semester, lecturing to more than 200 students about Web writing. After this lecture, students were asked to complete a reverse publishing assignment during which they write a Web hit and separate news story.

Lab Syllabus

Lecture Syllabus

Seminar in Mass Communication Teaching

I instructed two classes consisting of graduate students, on a variety of teaching techniques, including the Montessori method and how to teach through class discussions.

I also created a proposal for a new course, Convergence Journalism, geared toward teaching undergraduate students new media skills.

Convergence Course Proposal

Guest Lectures

JOU 4930: Creating New Media

I lectured to students about multimedia use in print journalism newsrooms and facilitated class discussion on the future of print/online journalism.

RTV 4931: Ethics/Problems in Telecommunication

I presented research on differences in attitudes about ethics between print and online newsrooms.

RTV 3305: Investigative Reporting

I presented two lectures for Dr. Johanna Cleary’s class: “Computer-Assisted Reporting” and “Working in a Multiplatform Newsroom.” I designed in-class activities for students to help them practice computer-assisted reporting and showed examples of different multiplatform newsroom operations and explained how the convergence of mediums will impact their media careers.

Society of Professional Journalists

I spoke to about 45 journalism students about the changes occurring in the news industry and preparations they should make before entering converged newsrooms.

ENG 1001: Modes of Inquiry

The class is geared toward minority and otherwise disadvantaged students entering the University of Florida. I lectured about conducting research and writing appropriate survey questions for students' first-ever attempt at a research paper.

Coursework

Electronic Publishing

This course teaches students basic HTML and CSS skills needed for building Web sites.

Dr. David Carlson's Web site

Content Analysis

Students are required to complete a conference-quality paper utilizing the content analysis research method. Our group completed a study analyzing the attire of female evening television news anchors.

Survey Research Method

Students are required to complete a conference-quality paper collecting and processing surveys. For my study, I revisited Janowitz's (et al.) theories regarding a correlation between newspaper readership and community involvement. My study discovered a similar correlation among college students who read the school newspaper online and are involved on campus.

Advanced Seminar in Social Cognition

Throughout this course, students learn a variety of theories regarding social psychology.

Syllabus

Mass Communication Perspectives

Students produce a conference-quality paper geared toward advancing mass communication theory. My paper identified multiple definitions of convergence and its benefactors when applied at a newspaper.