In my time as a lab instructor for RTV 2100, or ‘Writing for the Electronic Media,’ I was able to learn more about the structured experience of dealing with a classroom at large. In this lab, I was given the authority and responsibility of 15-20 students, their grades, and two hours of their time every week. At first, this felt like a daunting task. I had worked with students individually, I guest lectured for classrooms with isolated presentations, and worked with undergraduate students in much more condensed and focused spaces. Being in charge of 20 students over the course of several months felt much more arduous. Though, my philosophy of having meaningful interactions and working to make each individual student feel heard served me well - even in an environment that felt larger and less focused. After my first semester was over, I received excellent evaluations from my students, many of which were surprised to learn that it was my first time teaching a course. For instance, one student said: “If Ben Vollmer had not told the class at the end of the semester that it was his first semester as a grad teacher, I would have guessed it was his tenth.” This kind of review surprised me at first, but as I reflected back on my teaching career, all of it has been built upon a familiar foundation: Working with students to maximize their own strengths and skill sets is more important than me playing to my skill set. The classroom is about the students, not the teacher.

As a result of this experience, the University of Florida trusted me to lead my own classroom as a sole instructor for an advanced writing class. I was able to build my own syllabus, account for emerging media such as games, virtual reality, and augmented reality. A semester later, I’d been nominated (and later won) an award for graduate student teacher of the year across the entire university. I firmly believe this is because of my diverse encounters working with students, understanding that the key to finding success alongside them was to uncover things they were passionate about and where the crossover between my class and their passion was.

This realization allowed me to build upon something I already knew to be true: students are at their best when they are allowed to a) utilize skill sets they already have and b) develop skill sets they are passionate about improving. As a result of this realization, I took assignments that previously had more rigorous standards (such as political advertisements meant for viable political candidates) and allowed them to use the format to campaign for anything they’d like. Whether it was a cause they believed in, a product they were passionate about, or even themselves. The flexibility didn’t take away from the learning outcomes, it just drove them to treat the assignment with passion. One student noted that “He always encouraged us to write about topics that we were interested in which I believe helped to elevate the quality of the assignments completed.” As Einstein once remarked, it’s important to maximize the capabilities of a student’s strengths, rather than reinforce their weaknesses.

Ultimately, my teaching philosophy has been built upon my interactions with students. Learning from those experiences with a responsibility to remain flexible, approachable, and empathetic is what guides me as an instructor. Through strong evaluations from my students and supervisors, I know I am on the path toward being the teacher that my students deserve. But it will always be exactly that: a path. One that doesn’t end, but instead winds and diverges in ways that I cannot foresee or expect. My responsibility, to my students and myself, is to welcome those moments of the unforeseen and learn from them. It’s within those interactive moments of change that I will build upon and cherish.