List of Courses Taught by Dr. Melisa (Misha) Cahnmann-Taylor
FYOS 1001 Theatre for Embodied Social and Personal Change
Based on Misha’s 2021 book, this seminar “enlivens” instruction immersing first year UGA students in improvisational theatre games and embodied approaches to creative, conflict resolution. We rehearse personal and social change in our FYOS classroom and we bring this change to the public. In partnership with the local agencies, we conclude this course with an interactive improv event with community players of all ages. Here’s a video of one outdoor performance at the State Botanical Gardens, Theatre in the Woods.
LLED 7710/7710e Writing Cultures: A Poetry Workshop for Creative Educators
A 15 week course designed for Masters and Ph.D. students to acquire basic understanding of poetic craft in English and apply to educational practice with first and second language learners of all ages and linguistic backgrounds. Our group had a virtual poetry reading at the end of Spring 2020, featured here.
LLED 8710/8710e Advanced Poetry for Interdisciplinary Understanding
A course designed for Masters and Ph.D. students during short summer and/or 15 week semesters to engage in conversations about poetic craft, making new poems, studying contemporary poetry activity and applying creative writing metaphors to social science scholarship in education and related fields. See feature article about this course in the UGA Winter 2015 Graduate School Magazine.
LLED 6631e Bilingualism and Bilingual Education
An asynchronous online course designed for Masters and Ph.D. students to understand bilingual education history, policy and practice in the U.S. and around the world. Student’s work in small groups as well as individually with an optional synchronous meet up once during the semester. Here’s a sample video module I created for this course.
LLED 7504 Theatre for Reflective Practice in the Language, Literacy, and TESOL Classroom
A course designed for Masters and Ph.D. students to understand the basics of improv and drama as applied to TESOL and World Language Education. Rehearsing as a classroom ensemble, we acquire the courageous to apply theory to practice for classrooms that cultivate agency, activism, and acting up with language. Based on Misha’s 2021 book, this seminar builds a collection of practices that we have recorded online to help us remember how to play the games, why, and to what end: joyful and rigorous language education.
LLED 5040e/7040e Language and Culture in TESOL
An asynchronous online course designed for Undergraduate and Masters students seeking an ESOL teaching endorsement with the State of Georgia. This course focuses on the theoretical foundations and praxis (theory informed practice) of education that embraces all learners’ bilingual and translingual potential. An example video module from this course can be found here: Introduction to Module 2
LLED or QUAL 8590/8590e Arts-Based Inquiry in Diverse Learning Communities
Doctoral students in this course will acquire a solid understanding of what arts-based research is, isn’t, and how it fits into the wider scope of qualitative research methods. Students become “fluent” in the methods choices and debates; the rich history of inquiry, build community, and practice the choices scholartists make regarding “data”–how to define and analyze data sets and represent findings or lost things with creativity and courage. Many students in this course and alum have participated in and won the annual 4’33 spotlight on the arts and research competition.
Teaching Honors & Awards
2024 Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Award. Video.
2020 Jenny Penny Oliver Diversity Award, UGA College of Education
2016-2019 UGA Career Services Award for Significant Student Impact (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019)
2018 US State Department English Teaching Award, Embassy Tel Aviv
2018 First Year Odyssey Teaching Award
2017 Induction to UGA Teaching Academy, Lifetime membership.
2016-17 Center for Teaching and Learning Fellow Award.
2016 Ira Aaron Teaching Excellence & Collegiality Award
2015 Beckman Award Winner for “Professors Who Inspire”
2014 Foreign Language Association of Georgia [FLAG] Leadership Award
2013 Fulbright TEFL Scholar Award, Nine Month Fellowship Oaxaca, Mexico
2005 Keith Osborn Award for Teaching Excellence, UGA
2005 Hadassah Myrtle Wreath Award for Contributions to Literature.
Additional courses I’ve taught at UGA
LLED 7506 Teaching Literature in Spanish for the K-12 Foreign Language Classroom
LLED 8650 Translingual Memoir
Workshop: Spanish for Non-Spanish Speakers, What Every Educator Should Know
LLED 5550 Reflective Teaching in the LOTE(Languages Other Than English Classroom)
LLED 5540 Creating Community in the LOTE Classroom
LLED 7600 Reading and Writing in a Non-Native Language