Executive Overview
This is a teaching portfolio designed around one class, ECO336, “Women In the US Economy.” It is a course that, while it existed at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse prior to my appointment, I redesigned it in 2001 and became the primary instructor for the course through 2005. I am creating this portfolio at the end of my “tenure” as the primary instructor for the course in order to create a point of reference for my future self as well as other instructors teaching the course. Furthermore, I think the course is a good example of using alternative methods of teaching and is a good model for the development of critical thinking. The topics in the course are, by necessity, extremely timely. As a result, preparation is constantly being revised and updated. Lastly, it is a writing-intensive course and therefore, has unique dimensions that other courses do not present.
As I write this, it is the end of the fall semester of 2005 and I will not be teaching this course for at least one year. I would be dishonest if I did not admit that I am glad to be taking a break from the course. It has, as they say, a lot of baggage. Firstly, it is unique in that it is a women’s studies course in the College of Business Administration. I should say, THE women’s studies course in the CBA. I think that students often come to this course with particular expectations that they would not have in another course and as such, these expectations present challenges to the instructor. Secondly, the course is a 300 level general education course in the department of economics. Being a 300 level course, I have certain expectations about the amount of reading that I can expect students to do, and the quality of the writing that I expect students to be able to produce within the class not to mention their analytic capabilities. Often the students do not enter the class with the same expectations of themselves, and many times, the students are even first-semester freshmen who had been advised to take the course. Thirdly, the course is writing-intensive. This demands both formal and informal writing from the students as well as a healthy does of reading and critical analysis. Fourthly, because the course is an upper-level economics course but, ironically, requires no 100-level economics prerequisites, it is a challenge to simultaneously use economic concepts, challenge the students, and remain within the constraints of the prerequisites. Lastly, what makes the course particularly interesting is that because it essentially “kills three birds with one stone” for students in the College of Business, it attracts nearly fifty percent men (extremely unique for a women’s studies course). I have loved teaching it, but find that I need a break, at least for a while. When I’m ready, I’d like to refer to this document, and jump back into the fray.