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Matthew Decker

Assistant Professor of English
Montgomery College
High School (16 to 18 years old), Adults, Post-Secondary
Teacher/Educator
Language Arts And English :

Every classroom carries the potential to be equal parts instructive, innovative, and enjoyable. As a professor interested in technology and visual literacy, I have made that ideal classroom my goal for every course and class period. Engaging PowerPoint presentations, sleek and comprehensible supplemental handouts, and appealing open-ended assignments are my specialty, and I use these resources in every learning opportunity my classroom and tutoring sessions present.

I began my academic career at St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2005. Learning from the incredibly passionate professors at SMCM inspired me to pursue my own career in higher education, which led to a graduate program at American University. After receiving my Master of Arts in Literature in 2011, I began teaching as a part-time English instructor at Montgomery College, Germantown. In the two years I devoted to the Germantown campus, I taught developmental English, freshman composition courses, and literature. I also pursued multiple leadership opportunities as the part-time representative for the Center of Teaching and Learning at Germantown, a member of MC Pride, and a tutor at the Writing Center. My love of teaching and Montgomery College brought me to the Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus in 2013 where I have had the opportunity to teach nearly all developmental and credit composition courses, to study distance learning instruction, to design a Film and Literature course focused on Dystopian fiction, to support MC's E-Learning, Innovation, and Teaching Excellence professional development organization, and to explore innovative pedagogy, like Digital Storytelling with the Smithsonian Learning Lab

Matthew Decker's collections

 

Cultivating Learning: Digital Storytelling to Foster Student Engagement

<p dir="ltr">This collection was created to function as a supplemental resource for any "Cultivating Learning: Digital Storytelling to Foster Student Engagement" session attendee interested in creating digital story assignments for their students. We have divided the collection content into a few relevant topics areas, including "About the Process," "Quick Tech Tips," "Examples," "Assessment Tools," and "Resources for Further Study."</p> <p dir="ltr">After the "Examples" tile, you will discover a YouTube playlist that displays a collection of digital stories submitted as part of Montgomery College's Fall 2020 Digital Storytelling Internship End-of-Semester Showcase. The stories are produced by the Fall 2020 interns, and they have granted full permission for their stories and this playlist to be shared. </p> <p dir="ltr">#digitalstorytelling #MCteach #MCSmithStories</p>
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Discovering Pathways for Digital Storytelling in Your Instruction

<p>As part of an Academy for Teaching Transformation workshop series offered to Montgomery College faculty, I endeavored to create a short video that introduces teachers to experts in the field of digital storytelling. The resulting project was too rich for a 3-5-minute trailer, so, with the advice of Tony Sumner, I created this collection to house the interviews I conducted in Fall 2021. </p> <p>Through this collection and the workshop series, I hope to introduce interested parties to the vast and dynamic world of Digital Storytelling, an innovative pedagogy established by StoryCenter in California and later implemented by artists, activists, and educators across the globe. </p> <p><strong>For faculty members interested in designing a rewarding assignment for students that blends written communication, collaboration, and technology literacy, this collection leverages the expertise of digital storytelling pioneers, offers answers to frequently asked questions, recommends useful resources, and pinpoints the value of digital storytelling in higher education contexts. </strong></p>
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Identity Artifacts Gallery - ENGL 102.20652

<p>This collection showcases "identity artifacts" selected by students in Matthew Decker's evening ENGL 102: Critical Reading, Writing, and Research course at Montgomery College. </p>
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