2014 Outstanding University Graduate Student Teaching Award Winner- Doctoral I

Sarah E. Hercula, M.A.

• M.A. in English, Western Michigan University (2011)
• Instructional Assistant Professor, School of Teaching and Learning

Teaching philosophy

All teaching should be critical, promoting among both students and teachers an examination of ideologies and commonplace assumptions, with unlearning and relearning as important steps towards growth as scholars, thinkers, and humans.

Best compliment from a student

“I’m in. I want to join your movement.”

Three most valuable approaches that I bring to my teaching practice

1. All students are unique individuals with different life experiences and passions, so I am always prepared to employ flexibility with my students in order to foster each student’s best possible individualized learning experience in each course I teach.
2. I try to encourage my students to bring their cultural and linguistic backgrounds to bear in their thinking, learning, and writing as they engage with the material in my courses; we all learn through the lenses of our previous experiences.
3. With each new class I teach, I remind myself to be patient and understanding.

Teaching technique to recommend

Identify what your pet peeves are when it comes to teacher-student interactions, and tell your students about them.

Proudest teaching moment

I am proudest of my development of the introductory linguistics pedagogy that I have designed. The curriculum has been so successful in impacting my students’ language attitudes, and almost every student whom I taught both semesters that I enacted the pedagogy told me that the class was one of the most important and interesting that they took throughout their college careers.