Experience Summary
My first formal teaching position was as an undergraduate teaching assistant for the chemistry laboratory for non-chemistry majors. I received my BS from MIT in 1988 and went on to the University of Pittsburgh where I taught two of the six years I was there. I spent the rest of my time as a research assistant, but was often chosen to teach lab skills to others. At Wesleyan university I taught both undergraduate and graduate courses in chemistry for six years. Today I teach Basic Chemistry at a local Community College where individual tutoring remains a large part of my role as a teacher.
Teaching Style
I strive to give my students both the fundamentals of the subject we are studying and a sense of esteem about their ability to achieve in that subject. I am successful at this because I am extremely patient, listen carefully to the student and let them contribute to the lesson, and have a thorough knowledge of the subject matter and can relate questions that seem unrelated to the topic at hand, but leads into a topic that would be examined later in a student's educational experience. This helps to create confidence and foster an environment in which he or she can feel free to think creatively about subjects from and early age. I