Welcome to my teaching portfolio! Here, you can find materials from various aspects of my teaching experience, which includes leading courses in creative writing, college composition, and the humanities. Check out the links above for a statement of my teaching philosophy, sample teaching materials, student evaluations of my teaching, and more. Syllabi from courses I’ve taught, as well as example lesson plans and assignments, can be found in my sample course materials.
Craft Temperaments in Creative Writing | Summer 2025
Anna, I think you lead this class very well, you gracefully handled self-conscious writers and moments of hesitation. Your strength is definitely in leading discussion and analysing text to teach what to look for in your own writing. You are very strong on teaching writing theory, we did a lot of text analysis and discussion. Yes! [I now have a better understanding of my strongest craft temperaments.] I would have liked to spend more time on my weaknesses. I enjoyed the workshops most.
I definitely found my stronger temperaments and also found some confidence in them. We've laid the groundwork for working out the ones we're weaker at. I liked the [discussions] most where we analyzed our own prompt writings. The first one, where we discusssed why we write stood out to me. [This course] sparked interest in prose and adapting lyrical language into my prose writing. Generally, blending literary genres. I enjoyed the prompts the most, and maybe it would be possible to give their discussion a little bit more time. Thank you so much, I learned a great deal!
Anna did a great job pointing out both my strengths and weaknesses, addressing how I can improve them. [In terms of discussions I liked the most,] probably the one for Mrs Dalloway or the Ali Smith one. I generally enjoyed the workshops more. [Best writing prompts were] either the vignette or the animal interaction!
I have a clear understanding of what I need to improve and where to take my writing from here. [My favorite readings on craft were] Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, as well as Gregory Orr's essay, which helped me approach the basics of the craft in new and interesting ways. [The discussion I liked the most was] the one on Mrs Dalloway, where we had to defend a specific character. [The best writing prompts were] all of them, but I probably enjoyed the dead letter the most. My other favorites were the ones I based my workshop pieces on. I will try to experiment more with genres and prompts and get out of my comfort zone to develop the temperaments that I do not yet possess. I discovered many writers that I did not yet know during this course. I enjoyed every seminar, and especially how helpful and welcoming everyone was. Thank you so much!
Yes I do [have a better understanding of my strongest craft temperaments]. My strongest is story and I could use work in music and structure. I think I learned the most from Gregory Orr, Mrs. Dalloway, and Thirsty Animals. All three covered a wide array of literary craft that I felt I could apply to my everyday life. Our discussion/ debate about Mrs. Dalloway was super fun and also informative about character creation. Our first writing prompt about the object or animal was fun because it was different than anything I had done before. I really enjoyed the free writes we did do! Overall this course has been incredibly eye opening and inspiring. My incredibly talented peers have been my main motivators and I'm excited to see their names in bookstores someday!
My own perceptions of my strengths and weaknesses regarding the temperaments hasn't changed much, but I've found that others sometimes perceive different strengths in my writing than I do. I also realized that I may be doing better with the story temperament than I initially thought. My favorite literary texts to read and discuss were "Text for the Day" by Ali Smith, "Blackberrying" by Silvia Plath and the excerpt from Jackie Kay's "Trumpet." I enjoyed the text analysis in pairs/ groups and discussing everyone's writing practice. I also enjoyed the workshops. I liked the rapid fire simile and tenor/ vehicle prompts. They help with practicing to convey a larger concept through smaller objects, as well as to show rather than tell. [Regarding the topics this course has sparked my interest in,] I would like to experiement with musciality more in my poetry and prose. Imagination is also something I'd like to develop in my prose, ideally in a way that still feels comfortable with my focus on story and character.
Poetic Temperaments: Story, Music, Structure, Imagination | Spring 2024
I learned a lot from this course (about poetry in general and how to improve my own) and really enjoyed it. If I’m honest, I enjoyed the discussions & many of the poems, but reading the essays made me feel a bit cynical about academic analysis of poetry. I think I learned the most from the discussion on meter. Writing a ghazal was fun (if unsuccessful) & both of the first two prompts got me back into writing after a long pause. It was great being surrounded by so many people who were engaged with poetry but not too intimidating. Thanks for running this class. It has been one of my most enjoyable during my time at uni and I’ve learned a lot. Please keep it running in future semesters if you can!
My impression is that there were a lot of interesting discussions. I enjoyed the discussion of Late Air. I had read some Elizabeth Bishop previously but for the most part not in great depth, so I appreciated the opportunity to look closely at something that wasn’t completely unfamiliar but which I didn’t know well. I appreciated that we were given prompts and wish I had made use of them but I didn’t feel like I had the time to regularly engage with the prompts during the semester. I thought the workshops were well moderated. I enjoyed, generally speaking, that sections of poems I felt worked were challenged within the workshop. It became increasingly clear to me through the workshops that I had a habit of thinking something worked because I was pleased with myself for having noticed it.
Teaching Philosophy
Sample Course Materials
Discipline Specific Items