Over the last several years, I have gained considerable teaching experience at three separate institutions: the University of Massachusetts at Lowell; and the University of New Hampshire, at both its main campus in Durham, and its satellite campus in Manchester. Although the demographics at each school varied significantly, and although I have grown accustomed to developing teaching strategies that suit the needs of different groups of students, several principles guide the design of all of my courses.

First, I try to create a classroom atmosphere in which students feel comfortable participating in discussions of the material. Although lectures have been an integral part of all of my non-seminar courses, class discussion of common readings is essential to the success of each course. My goal is to foster an environment in which students practice independent, analytical thinking, and learn not only from me but from one another. Usually, class attendance and participation count for at least one-fifth of a student's grade in my courses. In the end, it is not surprising that, with few exceptions, students who are active participants in class absorb the material better than those who do not take part in discussion.

Second, I seek to make the historical experience of ordinary Americans accessible to students. To do this, I often assign novels, memoirs, and primary source documents in both the surveys and the upper level courses. In addition, whenever possible, I design one paper assignment as an oral history exercise in which students interview a family member or friend about an historical event through which they lived. By and large, students find this to be an enjoyable assignment, one that helps them "find history" in their own families.

Third, consistent with the use of primary sources and oral history, my teaching is rooted in a mission to recover lost histories from the kind of "memory hole" described by George Orwell in 1984: a void into which all but the "official," traditional, or celebratory history disappeared. In the classroom this means I balance the presentation of standard political history with an emphasis on the diverse experiences of frequently neglected groups of Americans of different identities - ethnic, racial, gender, religious, geographic, etc. The use of novels, memoirs, and primary sources facilitates this approach and lays the groundwork for an understanding of the day-to-day struggles for power that have defined the lives of the vast majority of Americans throughout the nation's history. The oral history interview that I ask each student to conduct thus serves as a capstone assignment, designed to reinforce this sense that ordinary people - including their parents, grandparents, and themselves - make history.

Fourth, in every course I seek to prepare students to be more complete citizens. Consequently, I emphasize critical thinking and solid writing. My experience outside academia taught me that only those who possess such skills are successful in contributing to the discourse that matters most to them, whether it is in their communities or at work. This dovetails well with each course's emphasis on the role that common people have played in shaping American history. I hope every student learns that lesson before he or she leaves one of my courses.

Finally, because I believe that being an effective teacher is an ongoing learning process, I like to experiment as much as possible with reading and writing assignments, course content, music, film, and new media. Ultimately, I try to be as imaginative as possible. This keeps me from growing complacent, and also challenges students to think about the American past differently. Sometimes these experiments work, and sometimes they do not, but, just like every new class of students, they inevitably teach me something new about teaching.