
Hello, my name is Paul. I am originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi. I have a significant and long-term interest in the craft of teaching, and a strong background in the areas of teaching and mentoring. I completed ten teaching assistant (TA) positions at Brown University. Moreover, I taught one semester at Tougaloo College, and fulfilled three teaching assignments at Mississippi State University. While at Mississippi State, I also took a course discussing how to teach sociology. Overall, this myriad of teaching experiences has allowed me to interact with a diverse student population with different needs, skills, experiences, and levels of preparation. These experiences have strengthened my research, teaching, and mentoring skills, and have given me ample opportunity to develop practical pedagogical experience. Consequently, I understand that students may be coming from a multitude of backgrounds, and cannot be treated in a uniform fashion. However, at the same time, I recognize that teaching is a work in progress, and that a practicing teacher always has more to learn, and more ways to improve their practice of the craft, regardless of level of experience.
From this experience, I have developed the perspective that material should be presented as clearly as possible, and in a number of ways, to make the material as accessible as can be to students. In my classroom experience, I have made use of the lecture as a technique to present cutting edge information quickly to students in a concise fashion. I communicate material in a way that challenges and excites the imagination through provocative and thought-provoking examples.
Students, please feel free to contact me. It would be my pleasure to meet you and to assist you with learning about history, reading, writing, and social science. These are vital subjects that have much to offer your development as a critical thinker and human being, and I would enjoy being a part of that process, and seeing what I can learn from you.
2001
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
History
2004
Brown University
Sociology
2016
Mississippi State University
Sociology
2001
Bachelors
2004
Masters
2016
Enrolled