Leah Flores Course Analysis: Dr. Marshall Saenz

Interviews Conducted by Leah Flores(Contributor)

Dr. Marshall Saenz (Voice Memo)
Dr. Marshall Saenz – Interview by Leah Flores
Course Analysis by Leah Flores: Interview with Dr. Marshall Saenz

During my experience, talking to Dr. Marshall Saenz, he was an amazing person to talk to and is super lively. He expressed to me that he didn’t want any simple classes when designing all his classes, and he wanted to explore different ideas and topics. he likes to add his interests and implement them into his classrooms. He also likes to make sure that his classroom is a place for students to speak their mind and be included to their communities. He has a wide range of students starting from highschoolers all the way to seniors and graduates.

English 1302- (Name Of The Class Itself), Monday & Wednesday

This is a class offered for the MAS program, typically intended for high schoolers taking college-level courses, though they are considered freshmen. Unfortunately, it is currently available specifically to high school students and a few freshmen. Dr. Marshall has dedicated a lot of time and effort to creating this class, spending around two months in preparation. The class structure involves regular discussions about the week's information, followed by applying that information to an assignment in the library on Wednesdays. While the context remains the same each semester, the main project changes. This semester, they are developing a program for the library to create a guide with different tabs for accessing information, and the students are responsible for generating the content.

For this assignment, students divide into sections, each working toward a common goal. They have access to resources for researching their questions and information, as well as opportunities to listen to experts from the library and various fields. Work is due at the end of each week, with Dr. Marshall conducting work check-ins to gauge students' progress. He was inspired to create this class to provide students with a more hands-on experience, fostering greater investment in their work. He emphasized the importance of applying what they're learning and actively participating in the research process. Overall, this class is ideal for anyone seeking to create something welcoming to the community and expand their ideas.

● Monday & Weekdays

● Get to use Library

● Help from experts

● Add something to the community

● Can be added to your resume

● Work is due end of the week

● Group Work

English 1302 - Online

This class is specifically only for high schoolers. It is more of a traditional idea where we have articles and books involved. This is because it's Dr. Marshall’s first time working with the ECISD students, and he didn't want something that was too explorative because this is first time working with them. Even so he still adds his explorative idea to this class. His assignment for this class is for his students to look at different discord communities that involves something that they are interested in. He wants them to understand the different communities that they can be a part of and to learn from their differences.

● Online

● Topic Freedom

● Explore their community

English 1302 - Monday & Wednesday

This class was about changing the way of using the traditional idea of PowerPoint or just looking at textbooks and articles. Dr. Marshall wanted to “flip the script’, using this idea in class was more about experimenting with the different types of media that can also be a use for learning.

An example of this is creating and distributing information without the use of text. He also spoke of a Spotify playlist that he has with music so people can learn about a specific topic through a creative outlet. Even though the purpose of this is to explore different media, that still doesn’t mean that he doesn’t use articles and texts so students can understand the basics. Although primarily he adds in some form of mini skits and videos that are all related to the class, so that students can use other resources to learn.

Resources provided examples,

● Lots of videos and movie skits

● Spotify music to listen to

● Explorative

● Maybe fun midterm

He does have an end goal, which is how different media can be used to learn in a class-based setting. Through an experience, Dr. Marshall explained that he recently had midterm but decided to rip up said midterm and instead play a game with his students. This game was to allow the students to use all the strategies and information they learnt throughout the class, then put it in a game setting where they had to find clues and see if they could rely on each other to succeed.

The inspiration that made him create this class was to really think outside of the norm or in his words “flip the script”. Dr. Marshall said it came to him over just looking at the books and thought to himself, “Why only books and articles?” He believed that since we are in a digital age, he wanted to explore and make himself get out of his comfort zone to get into the world of the students who grew up using media.

(Move below points to under the 2nd paragraph above, list with header as “Resources provided examples,”

English 3302

(Who is the professor here spoken about? I see no mention of a name, but provided with the earlier progress I will fill in some of the pronouns with Dr. Marshall’s name. )

For advanced students, Dr. Marshall offered a class that allowed you to explore the idea of what it means to create a business, and the opportunity to experience life as a business owner. You have to be able to create your own company, have a label, and handle all the other tasks involved in making a company. That means creating resumes, completing applications, and managing all the necessary information to understand what goes into creating a business.

All about the class,

● Advance

● Challenging

● Legos

● Make your own company

● Group work

With the setting being that you own a company, the professor provides some problems and challenges to see how you come up with ideas to improve or fix said challenges within your company. A standard specific thing that he implemented in this class is involving Legos and being tasked with creating instructions on how to build a Lego structure. Your instructions as the student need to be specific because they will be used to create tests to ensure clarity and specificity. This is a primary assignment that involves exchanging instructions with other companies and testing them to create the main Lego build. Though of course, if you fail to get the instructions right the first time with sensor Legos, you can simply rebuild and restart.

This is all designed to facilitate learning on a physical level. You are placed in the setting of a building and a business to understand what goes into it, and you're given the assignment of creating instructions for specific tasks. This way, you gain experience in creating connections and understanding what is necessary to succeed in this class. When he conceived this class, he aimed to challenge students without overwhelming them, making it a challenge that seems possible with effort.