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Professor Terry Phelps Finds Passion for Life at OCU
OCU Professor Terry Phelps with wife, OCU Professor Claudia Carroll-Phelps
By Leslie Berger
E
nglish Professor Terry Phelps began teaching at Oklahoma City University in 1983, but he has never ended his role as a student and he probably never will. Lifelong learning is a philosophy to which Phelps has subscribed for…well…all of his life. The classes he teaches range from composition and legal writing to advanced grammar and usage and writing for the stage and screen while the classes he has taken at OCU during the past 27 years range from ethnobotany, world religions and urban police to art, pop culture and music. Phelps even met his wife, OCU adjunct professor Claudia Carroll-Phelps, when he enrolled in her piano class. One of his favorite OCU memories is their 2002 wedding on the quad lawn in front of the iconic Gold Star Building. Another is serving as an assistant marshal at OCU commencement which enabled him to sit next to his daughter, Lauren, when she received her BA and MLA degrees, and hood her for the master’s degree. Other favorites include singing on stage two years during the American Spirit Dance Company’s Spring Show, watching his wife perform Stravinsky’s “Les Noces,” volunteering with OneGive and the time he taught his writing for stage and screen class in Donald Duck’s voice. A master of many cartoon voices, Phelps realized his Donald Duck impression didn’t involve the vocal chords and it was a perfect solution when he caught a cold and lost his voice. “The first few minutes were the toughest because the class kept cracking up,” Phelps said, “but after that it worked fine.” Phelps said teaching is his passion, so much so that he looks forward to Monday mornings. 16
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“The most effective teaching, I believe, is interactive—not lecturing,” Phelps said. “I believe we learn best by figuring things out for ourselves, and teachers are facilitators for that process.” Phelps directs the Learning Enhancement Center, recruiting, training and supervising student tutors who work with more than 300 OCU students each year. He is serving his third term as chair of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. He is president of the governing board of the OCU Galaxy Club and chairs OCU’s Special Accommodations Committee. He sponsors Sigma Tau Delta, the national English honor society, and its anthology of student writing and art, “The Scarab,” as well as “Stellar,” OCU’s undergraduate research journal. He also taught tennis at OCU for many years. Phelps enjoys coordinating writing retreats and workshops for Oklahoma public school teachers and will be attending the National Writing Project’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., this spring. He has published several scholarly articles in the English Journal, Journal of Teaching Writing, Scholastic Coach, Voice and others. Phelps, known by colleagues and students by nicknames such as Grammar Guru and Conan the Grammarian, has written a grammar book, “Grammar for Good,” which teaches grammar “upside-down,” as he says, with analysis of examples leading to rules and definitions. He uses the book in his grammar class and in training tutors. Those are just a sampling of Phelps’ academic undertakings, and his work outside the classroom is just as active. He sings and plays guitar weekly at The Grateful Bean and at Kamp’s Deli. During warm seasons, he rides his bicycle roughly 175 miles per