Teaching

I do not employ a single teaching approach to all of my classes. Instead I have a few principles which guide me as I approach any class:

• Good content, diligently prepared and clearly communicated, matters more than stylistic flourish in the classroom. I keep this in mind because I delight in flourish! I work hard to help my students grasp the material and to illustrate the importance of the ideas therein. Those tasks accomplished, I hope that my own enthusiasm is icing on the cake.

• If my students aren't engaged and curious, I'm probably not communicating clearly.

• I try to have a firm plan but take a flexible approach to the semester. (These are complementary, not opposed.) A clear plan at the start of a semester allows me the greatest degree of flexibility to expand on concepts that prove more challenging than I anticipated and cut lessons that are less crucial to the main goals of the course. The same is true of an individual class session.

• Grades ought to accurately reflect mastery of the material. I pose challenging questions to my students that require them to use the concepts that we've covered in ways we haven't already examined. This often means that even very good students earn lower grades than they are accustomed to. I acknowledge that this style is outside the norm for typical grading, and so I often offer numerous opportunities for extra credit in my courses. I hope that these additional assignments provide ample opportunity to develop greater mastery of the material.

ECON 200 - Introductory Macroeconomics

Introductory Macroeconomics is one of the general education core classes at James Madison University. I have taught at least one section this course every semester since Fall 2016.

Syllabus

ECON 201 - Introductory Microeconomics

Introductory Microeconomics is a required course for all JMU College of Business students. I have taught this course numerous times since Fall 2016.

History of Economic Thought is an upper level elective for Economics majors and minors only. I taught this course in Spring 2017 and Spring 2018. The class was primarily lecture based, but contained a healthy dose of group discussion. In my opinion, the best sessions were those in which I talked the least. Here is a sample of the type of discussion guide I tried to provide before class. Here is the syllabus.

Economics and Ethics is a special topics elective for Economics majors and minors only. I taught this course in Fall 2017 and am teaching it again in Fall 2019.

Here is the syllabus.

Political Economy is an upper level elective for Economics majors and minors only. I am teaching this class in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019. The class is primarily discussion based and I try to keep my lecturing to a minimum.

Here is the syllabus.