I believe that education opportunities should be plentiful, accessible, and inclusive for anyone who wants to learn. I also believe that learning is best achieved through community, where diverse perspectives can be shared. My teaching philosophy is centered around honesty, compassion, curiosity, and authenticity. This is embodied in my teaching practices with the goal of fostering self-confidence, critical thinking, radical optimism, and enjoyment of learning within my students.
In the pursuit of achieving my goals as an educator, I have direct conversations with my
students at the beginning of the semester about what I expect from them in the course. I also give them an opportunity to define and discuss their expectations for me; these can be adjusted as needed throughout the course. I intentionally structure my courses with numerous opportunities for students to ask questions, openly express their thoughts and opinions, practice with relevant math problems, review at the end of each unit, and correct mistakes on assessments. Making mistakes, facing challenges, and experiencing discomfort are expected. Figuring out how to correct those mistakes, navigate through challenges, and sit with discomfort are crucial for learning and growth; it is important to me to create and maintain a safe and welcoming environment in each course, where these things can happen without judgment or shame.
Furthermore, I regularly dedicate about 8 hours per week outside of teaching courses to tutoring hours and individual meeting times for students. This is to demonstrate through action that I am here to listen and help, I value their input. When students address problems they are having (either individually or as a class), I start with curiosity to understand their perspective. I follow this up with offering some potential solutions, giving them a chance to consider, and letting them choose the path forward. My proposed solutions can all work within the scope of the course/college, and the variety of options gives students agency over the choice; working collectively through this process fosters a sense of community. In one of my recent face-to-face College Algebra courses, for instance, students presented an issue to me during tutoring hours after Test 1: they did not like the way that the Test 1 review session was structured, in which I gave a general overview of the main concepts and left open time for students to ask questions; they were hoping for more interactive practice problems. After discussing further with the class, I made some changes. For the remaining unit tests and the Final Exam, I wrote practice problems around the classroom on the whiteboards, broke students up into pre-assigned groups, and left them to work together. Once each group was complete, they shared their results to the class. We would rinse and repeat with new problems until all the main concepts were addressed. They responded to this method more favorably, and they expressed feeling more prepared than for Test 1.
In addition, I bring my authentic personality into my courses. For instance, I am openly queer, I am open about struggles that I face now (and have faced in the past), and I am open about how I believe the world can be more just and equitable for everyone. Life can feel immensely overwhelming, especially in the face of systemic inequity, rising authoritarianism, money for war in place of funding for human needs and community enrichment (housing, healthcare, education, food access,…), etc. Rather than dwelling permanently in the overwhelm, I make space to acknowledge and validate difficult feelings alongside making time to visualize and conceptualize the changes that I want to see in the world. All of this is foster a deeper connection with my students and colleagues: there is grace to be messy and human in pursuit of our goals, we are capable of persevering through strenuous circumstances, we can lean on each other for support, and we all have valuable contributions to make.
Through the methods and ideas described above, I hope to meet and exceed students’ expectations as their instructor. Overall, I plan to keep my mind open to modify these methods as needed and to employ new methods to foster student success and personal growth. I am a passionate educator, and I will continue to channel that into my courses and into my community.