Doug Huff

Teaching Philosophy

Important skills I want to teach my students

I want students to develop their organizational, technical and creative skills; and to learn to express their points of view in collaboration with their classmates. I want students to be able to work together on a long-term project, work through the different steps and thought processes, and come up with a finished project.

Teaching methods to reach these goals

I like to assign broad, loosely defined projects. This encourages students to use their creativity as well as skills and knowledge to determine their own method for managing the process of completing the assignment, and leaves open for their consideration the best final solution toward which they should steer their efforts.

My favorite projects

My favorite project is the study of the U.S. Constitution, in which students utilize iMovie and Boinx TV software to produce newscasts on different aspects of the U.S. Constitution—such as free speech, federalism, right to bear arms, freedom of religion and other interesting topics. What I especially like about the project is the requirement that everyone participate in some way—whether as anchorpersons or writers, story editors or by managing graphics.

What I like best about teaching at Seven Hills

My favorite part about teaching at Seven Hills is having the ability to focus on topics that are real and relevant to the lives of the students. For example, when the Sandy Hook shooting occurred in Connecticut the students had to do research on gun control in America. We then held a class debate and the students created a political cartoon expressing their viewpoints on gun rights.