While organizing the Appalachian Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (APIEL) at the University of Tennessee College of Law, I stumbled upon an opportunity. I learned about a program called Environmental Law Teaching (EL-T) that allows selected senior law students to become instructors of an environmental law course for undergraduate students. To participate, there would be many hoops to jump through, but something in my heart told me that it would work out. Even before I realized my fire and passion for the environment, I knew that one day I wanted to teach.

Now, I get the chance to teach maybe the most important subject I could imagine, and I get to do so much sooner than I ever hoped. This blog serves several purposes: it documents my work for the program in a dynamic way, it gives me space to reflect on the experience of teaching that I will treasure for years to come, and if I ever get to teach again, the blog becomes my own personal roadmap for the path ahead.

Within this record, I will include my teaching philosophy and how it changes through experience, and a post for each lesson I have learned through developing and teaching a course with my co-teacher Jared Shelton.