Teaching Experience and Philosophy
“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
EXPERIENCE/EDUCATION
I graduated with my bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Arizona in December 2012. During my undergraduate studies, I was nominated to precept for a general studies anthropology course, "Race, Ethnicity, and the American Dream." I led extra credit after-class discussions where I learned how to facilitate hard but important conversations.
In the fall of 2014, I started my MFA at San Diego State University (SDSU) in Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry. I chose to continue my education because I believe that a good teacher continues growing and learning from and alongside their students.
During my first semester at SDSU, I volunteered with Poetic Youth, helping facilitate creative writing workshops at Hoover High School. The students were learning to find their voice, experiment with writing and technique, and talk about and share their writing. The workshops helped them gain more confidence in their writing and encouraged them to continue with it; writing workshops help give students the confidence to acknowledge themselves as writers.
In the spring of 2015, I volunteered with the San Diego Art Institute's Page to Canvas to Stage program as a teaching artist for fourth graders and special needs students at San Miguel Elementary. The program focused on creative writing, visual arts, dance, and collaboration between these disciplines.
In the fall of 2015, I was hired as a Teaching Associate for the Rhetoric and Writing Studies Department at San Diego State University, teaching rhetoric and academic writing to freshman students. To view my RWS 100 course documents, you may access the class wiki at http://www.jspencer.pbworks.com. For my spring 2016 RWS 200 course, visit http://www.rws200jspencer.pbworks.com.
In the spring of 2016, I volunteered again with Poetic Youth to help facilitate a poetry workshop at Monarch School, teaching poetry to students impacted by homelessness. In the summer of 2016, I taught poetry workshops to PreK-3 elementary students during summer school at Children's Paradise in Vista, CA. The lesson plans are available here.
In the fall of 2016 I taught an Introduction to Creative Writing, English 280 course at San Diego State University. I was hired a second time to teach English 280 in the Spring of 2017, which is a competitive, coveted position.
I taught Writing 101S, 101, 102, 205, and 207 at Pima Community College from 2018-2020. Today, I teach high school English at an alternative school in Tucson, Arizona.
PHILOSOPHY
My teaching style is heavily discussion- and technology-based. I like to encourage my students to think for themselves, outside of the box, to push their thinking and their writing, to practice writing regularly, and to discover their creativity, freedom, and voice within the writing classroom and beyond.
I believe strongly in the arts (writing, visual arts, as well as dance and theater) and arts education as a way of communicating, discovering, and acknowledging our creative potentials as a means of expression and therapy. I believe that engaging with literature in the forms of reading and writing is an opportunity to know ourselves in a new way, empathize with others, and discover our full potentials. I hope that as a teacher I may have a positive impact in the lives and educational future of my students, encouraging further pursuits in their studies and writing, and to help them towards achieving their aspirations. I wouldn't be where I am without the help of good teachers past and present, in and outside of the classroom, and I hope to emulate those who inspired my own growth.
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
EXPERIENCE/EDUCATION
I graduated with my bachelor's degree in English Literature from the University of Arizona in December 2012. During my undergraduate studies, I was nominated to precept for a general studies anthropology course, "Race, Ethnicity, and the American Dream." I led extra credit after-class discussions where I learned how to facilitate hard but important conversations.
In the fall of 2014, I started my MFA at San Diego State University (SDSU) in Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry. I chose to continue my education because I believe that a good teacher continues growing and learning from and alongside their students.
During my first semester at SDSU, I volunteered with Poetic Youth, helping facilitate creative writing workshops at Hoover High School. The students were learning to find their voice, experiment with writing and technique, and talk about and share their writing. The workshops helped them gain more confidence in their writing and encouraged them to continue with it; writing workshops help give students the confidence to acknowledge themselves as writers.
In the spring of 2015, I volunteered with the San Diego Art Institute's Page to Canvas to Stage program as a teaching artist for fourth graders and special needs students at San Miguel Elementary. The program focused on creative writing, visual arts, dance, and collaboration between these disciplines.
In the fall of 2015, I was hired as a Teaching Associate for the Rhetoric and Writing Studies Department at San Diego State University, teaching rhetoric and academic writing to freshman students. To view my RWS 100 course documents, you may access the class wiki at http://www.jspencer.pbworks.com. For my spring 2016 RWS 200 course, visit http://www.rws200jspencer.pbworks.com.
In the spring of 2016, I volunteered again with Poetic Youth to help facilitate a poetry workshop at Monarch School, teaching poetry to students impacted by homelessness. In the summer of 2016, I taught poetry workshops to PreK-3 elementary students during summer school at Children's Paradise in Vista, CA. The lesson plans are available here.
In the fall of 2016 I taught an Introduction to Creative Writing, English 280 course at San Diego State University. I was hired a second time to teach English 280 in the Spring of 2017, which is a competitive, coveted position.
I taught Writing 101S, 101, 102, 205, and 207 at Pima Community College from 2018-2020. Today, I teach high school English at an alternative school in Tucson, Arizona.
PHILOSOPHY
My teaching style is heavily discussion- and technology-based. I like to encourage my students to think for themselves, outside of the box, to push their thinking and their writing, to practice writing regularly, and to discover their creativity, freedom, and voice within the writing classroom and beyond.
I believe strongly in the arts (writing, visual arts, as well as dance and theater) and arts education as a way of communicating, discovering, and acknowledging our creative potentials as a means of expression and therapy. I believe that engaging with literature in the forms of reading and writing is an opportunity to know ourselves in a new way, empathize with others, and discover our full potentials. I hope that as a teacher I may have a positive impact in the lives and educational future of my students, encouraging further pursuits in their studies and writing, and to help them towards achieving their aspirations. I wouldn't be where I am without the help of good teachers past and present, in and outside of the classroom, and I hope to emulate those who inspired my own growth.