As my dean, Dr. Grieco has observed my classroom teaching methods since my arrival at Montco in the fall of 2007.  His letter of recommendation draws upon his observation reports, noting a consistent record of excellence on my part and a willingness to address his observations to further improve my teaching.  The most significant observation Dr. Grieco made is that my reading checks sometimes leave students with nothing to do while I am checking the works of others.  To address that, I have added an informal writing task at the start of the course that provides students with a question about the readings.  Students take notes and record page numbers of meaningful passages that address the question, giving even the shiest student a starting point for class discussion.  This solution allowed me to continue to perform reading checks—which I deem essential to the course—while turning idle time for waiting students into a class enhancement.

            It is worth noting that in my final evaluation I received perfect scored for each category of assessment.