Upward Bound 2004

UW-Marathon County

From the Teachers' Perspective

Excitement about Teaching (and Working with Candy)
 

What Teachers Think about Teaching in Upward Bound

MR. DUWE: One night at a math faculty Christmas party, a man asked me of my interest to teach a summer course called Upward Bound.  Not really knowing what it was I agreed to accept the challenge.  The weeks that proceeded the 6 week summer course  were filled with developing and planning.  I can truly say I was not sure what to expect.  Now after seeing the whole picture I would not trade the experience for anything.  The students were eager to learn and the faculty was great to work with.  I thoroughly enjoyed teaching math from a philosophical perspective.  Upward Bound is awesome because it gives freedom and flexibility to material that is being taught in the classroom.  I can honestly say math class was not a typical math class which I can be happy about.

DR. HASSEL: When Vickie Richmond-Hawkins invited me to participate in Upward Bound, I had little idea of what to expect but was excited to work with a group of students with whom I don't normally work. Over the course of the last five weeks, I have learned so much about learning--how I can stretch my abilities and reshape them to match different types of students, how much I love language and seeing students develop an appreciation for it, and how the students came best to understand difficult concepts of nature writing. I appreciated the diligence and creativity with which they approached challenging texts and sometimes ambiguous assignments. The five weeks I spent teaching the students in Upward Bound have helped me become a better, more patient, more reflective teacher. Thanks, students!

Reading challenging literature...(note the students and Dr. Hassel laboring over Barry Lopez's paean to nature)

Acting out relationships with nature...doing a presentation on Barry Lopez's essay "A Literature of Place" meant role-playing as trees and flowers!