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Colin Charlton, PhD

Associate Professor and Coordinator of First Year Writing Programs

Department of English

UT Pan American

As an art and a way of going through the world, teaching keeps me interested.

As a teacher, I consciously try to do three things. I try to listen, really listen, to people in class. That means I'm always asking questions to see how I'm doing. I also try to create an environment for every class meeting where learning can happen—the classroom as event. And I immerse myself in what students are making. As long those three goals drive my work, people in class are engaging each other. We're collaborating, we're learning and discovering what it means to learn, and we're even getting comfortable with the discomfort of change while connecting ideas in unexpected ways.