The classroom is like a band - it is the shared space you come to engage your fellow musicians (classmates). The course readings serve as your music sheets and course discussions are, in actuality, the music we collectively create while we engage in the study of the past. Within this context we try to invoke Ornette Coleman's concept of "Free Jazz" or as he puts it "the theme you play at the start of the number (i.e. what I as the instructor lays out for course discussion in our daily lessons) is the territory and what comes after (i.e. our collective exploration of thoughts and ideas) is the adventure." Throughout our adventure we will practice our craft in various ways - one day we will engage in the art of critical mind mapping, another day we may listen to jazz music of the 1920s or break off into small groups and analyze the words of Tecumseh. Regardless of the form our learning takes, I welcome students to think of our collective learning process as a shared adventure as we try to make sense of history.
My teaching style
