My goal as a teacher is to facilitate student development, help students realize and cultivate their own potential, and to be a model for learning. My adviser in graduate school used to say, “You will learn only what you teach yourself.” I work to instill this sense of responsibility for learning in students while also demonstrating that I am a resource and facilitator in this process. I also work to convey my genuine investment in their learning and success. Transparency, openness, and cooperation are the words that describe my teaching philosophy the most. Teaching, like learning, is not magic. There is no muse that comes to visit in the middle of the night that fills the brain with perfect words or makes the perfect assignment simply emerge effortlessly from the tip of a pen. Most of the success an educator has in the classroom, in writing effective assignments, or in leading others through those processes is the product of hard work, critical thinking, and planning ahead. We may not necessarily cognize these things, making them feel like magic, but when we step back to critically examine why a particular lesson plan worked so well or why a writing assignment failed so miserably, we often find that there are specific steps, specific components or structures, that made up the process. By interrogating the process more and being mindful of the choices we make in the classroom, we can uncover these underlying structures and understand more clearly the relationship between what we do in the classroom and student success. This process is about clearly articulating goals and then planning lessons that are designed to realize those goals. Likewise, as a member of a department the process also includes clearly communicating the goals to colleagues and facilitating a discussion on different strategies they might employ to reach the goals.