Faculty Profile: Tonya Wertz-Orbaugh
When one walks into Tonya Wertz-Orbaugh’s classroom, it’s likely that she will be found at a table with a group of students instead of standing behind a podium. Wertz-Orbaugh, who is a finalist in the UNC Charlotte Award for Teaching Excellence competition, values collaborative learning where students work in groups, spend time on low-stakes assignments, and develop projects based on personal interests and goals.
Her writing classes for first-year college students incorporate Thinking On Paper (TOP) assignments and the use of Day Books to track their thinking throughout the semester. To provide a support system for students beginning their college experience, students are assigned to permanent writing groups throughout the semester that become communities within the community of the classroom.
“My first and perhaps most important job is to remind them that they already are accomplished and experienced writers and to reassure them that they can succeed as academic writers at the University level,” Wertz-Orbaugh said. “I am confident that students leave my class with a heightened sense of how they work as writers, and I hope, with a measure of confidence that they know how to tackle any writing situation that comes their way.”
“I took my University Writing course with Dr. Wertz-O, and loved her teaching style so much that I took another course with her. She is such a positive influence on her students and shows every day that she truly cares for each and every one of them. If she had more classes, I would take them even if I didn’t need a credit. She truly is one of the best teachers that I have ever had,” former student Makayla Belcher.
She supports students’ curiosity through inquiry projects and facilitating public uses of their research and written texts. To encourage collaboration, she has invited students to present with her at conferences.
Department Chair Mark Hall said: “She has an abiding commitment to students’ well-being and agency. This is all the more impressive because she teaches a subject most students would rather opt out of. Nothing is more high-impact than the sort of engaged teaching, modeling, and mentoring Wertz-Orbaugh demonstrates consistently.”
Wertz-Orbaugh is an active member of the University Writing Program, where she mentors other faculty and graduate students. She also volunteered to mentor the English Department’s Graduate Teaching Assistants who teach First-Year Writing. She was worked with the National Writing for many years and has partnered with local middle- and high-school teachers. In addition, she plans and leads a week-long teacher education seminar each summer with TOLI -The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights. Wertz-Orbaugh is the recipient of two awards from University of South Carolina: the 2002 Irene D. Elliott Teaching Award and the 2002 Award for Outstanding Faculty Member, Towers Residence Halls.
Wertz-Orbaugh is one of three finalists in the UNC Charlotte Award for Teaching Excellence competition, which is open to full- or part-time non-tenure track faculty members who have at least five years of teaching service at UNC Charlotte (lecturers and adjunct faculty).