Teaching Experience

English Language Arts Teacher - Thompson Valley High School

August 2021 - Present
I have taught several classes in my time at Thompson Valley High school, including 9th grade English, 11th grade English, Mythology and Science Fiction, and concurrent enrollment College Composition courses through Front Range Community College. I also design and facilitate two Enrichment Learning Opportunity (ELO) courses that are each a quarter long, though some carry over. The ELO courses I have designed and taught include a Dungeons & Dragons club, Analyzing Comics, and Analyzing Film. In the past, I also taught a concurrent enrollment Introduction to Literature course.
Evaluator: Tia Rew

Language Arts Teacher - Fort Morgan High School

August 2017 - May 2021
English Department Chair, August 2018 - May 2021
I taught 10th, 11th, and 12th grade language arts, concurrent enrollment College Composition courses, Pop Culture Literacy & Writing (a course I created) and a capstone pilot program for our school. As part of teaching concurrent enrollment, I was a part-time adjunct instructor at Morgan Community College. My work involved collaborating with my colleagues and creating my own curricula that align with both Colorado State Standards and WIDA English Language Development Standards, as Fort Morgan has a high population of English language learners. During the COVID-19 outbreak, I conducted remote instruction using a variety of online tools. I was also a mentor for new English teachers.
Evaluators: Clint Anderson and Jaylyn Holzworth

Pre-Collegiate Program Instructor, University of Colorado

Summer 2018
I taught a two-week College Composition course as part of CU's rural outreach program, which involved first-generation students attending college for two weeks (including taking a full load of classes and staying in the dorms).

Long-Term Substitute Teacher at Weld Central Middle School, Weld RE3J School District

March 2017 to May 2017
I taught 6 sections of language arts (6th-8th grade) and one section of 6th grade leadership. This long-term position involved taking over all teaching responsibilities, including planning and assessment.

Graduate Teaching Assistant - Colorado State University

I was the teacher of record for 6 sections of CO 150: College Composition at CSU. While I was provided with a general curriculum, I was in charge of adapting provided lesson plans for the first half of the semester, and then I developed my own lesson plans to suit department-designated weekly objectives. This position gave me experience in assessment, evaluation, providing effective feedback to students, various forms of instruction (lecture, group work, and individual instruction), and classroom management.
Supervising faculty: Sarah Sloane and Lisa Langstraat (former Directors of Composition)

Library Graduate teaching Assistant - Colorado State University

I taught 17 library research sessions instructing students from undergraduate composition courses how to utilize the library resources and databases. These include class-wide and one-on-one instruction.
Supervising faculty: Brian Erb and Mary Seaman

Writing Center Consultant - Colorado State University

I served as a writing consultant in CSU's Writing Center. This work involved collaborative sessions to help workshop clients' writing and help to build more effective writing practices. The majority of these 30-minute consultations were with English language learners at CSU, and about a third of the sessions were conducted online.
Supervising faculty: Tobi Jacobi (former Writing Center Director) and Megan Lemming (Graduate Writing Center Director)

Student Teaching Experience

Student Teacher - Thompson Valley High School

I team taught two sections of English 9, two sections of 11th grade American Literature, and one sections of RISE (advisory class): a total of 148 students. I created a 9th grade unit on ecocriticism applied to a young adult novel to support evidence collection and analysis skills. I conducted formative and summative assessments, and assisted in the transition to Competency-Based Education (i.e. Standards-Based Grading), and the development of Literacy Design Collaborative rubrics.
Through the course of my 9th grade unit, students' writing scores moved from an average of a 1.62 to a 2.44 (Δ = +0.82), as assessed by an LDC competency-based scoring rubric.
Cooperating Teachers: Christy Goldberg and Loris Osier

Student Teacher - Bill Reed Middle School

I was student teacher at Bill Reed Middle School in Loveland, Colorado for two months. I taught four sections of 6th Grade Literacy. Those four sections included one impacted class and one gifted and talented class. I also participated in the Common Assignment Study, which is led by the Colorado Education Initiative and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In my time at Bill Reed, I began building relationships with students, which helped me facilitate more effective and individualized instruction.

Other Field Experience

Taught Composition at CU Boulder Pre-Collegiate Summer Program (Summer 2018)
Worked as a both a daily and long-term substitute teacher throughout northern Colorado (2016-2017)
Private tutor for a high school student enrolled in College Composition (Fall 2016)
Rocky Mountain High School (teaching assistant - Fall 2015 and Summer 2014)
Blevins Middle School (teaching assistant and AVID tutor - Fall 2013 and Fall 2015)
Boys and Girls Club of Larimer County (reading partner - Summer 2014
Conducted research studying students' interests at a STEM-focused middle school

Student Feedback Highlights

Below are highlights from my my seniors final reflections for my English IV course at Fort Morgan High School

2017-2018 School Year
"Thank you for going your best to help your class learn. I specifically learned a lot from your class, whether it was vocab or parts of speech, I still learned. It’s good to have a teacher who teaches in different ways, helps whenever they can, and can joke, and you matched that teacher."

"I would like to thank you for being an amazing teacher. You really grew on this class Mr. Binkley. At first, we did not like you, but then you became one of our favorite teachers, and I hope you plan on continuing to teach at Fort Morgan High School."

"I just wanted to say think you for everything. I know I’m not the best student, but you still helped me with my anxiety and grades, and I really appreciate that Binkley. I have mad respect for you."

Below are highlights from student feedback provided through Colorado State University’s end-of-the-semester course evaluations. I chose 1-2 quotes from each section of CO 150: College Composition, for which I was the teacher of record as part of a Graduate Teaching Assistantship.

Fall 2013
“I thought [Paul] did really well most of the time. There were times that I didn’t fully understand the assignment, but if I ever asked about what [Paul] meant [he] always answered and made it clear on what I was supposed to do.” (CO 150.084)

“Paul Binkley was an amazing instructor! He cares about the students, he is usually always available to meet outside of class, and if not he tries to get you in the next day. Mr. Binkley wrote each student a page after each major assignment. This really helped me improve my writing. Also, he responded to my e-mails thoroughly and quickly. Outstanding instructor!” (CO 150.086)

Spring 2014
“I enjoyed the writing assignments and I thought the class was taught well. I would definitely take a class with [Paul] as an instructor again.” (CO 150.061)

“Great teacher. All of [his] comments on the paper and the little end note thingy were super helpful. They really helped in the future projects. Maybe try more partner and group stuff in the beginning to get people to talk more. Other than that AWESOME.” (CO 150.061)

Fall 2014
“I thought this class would be a joke. Paul is good at getting students involved through his enthusiasm and dry humor. I learned a lot more than I expected. I hope after he graduates you consider hiring him full time.” (CO 150.024)

“At first I thought I was going to hate this class, but as time went on [Paul] definitely made it so I was actually learning and improving. I would say it was a challenging course, but it is what made me improve. [Paul] really cared about his students and would go to great lengths to make sure they understood him, and would always be available to help (email, office hours). He knew a lot about the class and taught it effectively.” (CO 150.033)

Spring 2015
“Paul was an excellent instructor. The amount of effort he has put in is impressive. He’s all in. Always there for you, he goes the extra mile and then some. He is always willing to help, over e-mail or meeting even not during his office hours.” (CO 150.070)

“I really enjoyed this class and Paul is one of the best instructors I’ve had at CSU. I can really tell that he cares about his students and tries to make class entertaining while informative.” (CO 150.070)