Experience Summary
I have just earned my doctorate in Italian from Columbia University. I feel strongly my teaching of college Italian at Pace University is helping to open doors for my students, not only in terms of encountering Italian culture but also in terms of improving their English grammar and vocabulary. Outside the college classroom, I have been tutoring students in Italian, and I have helped students with application essays, as well. My tutorees have been admitted to graduate programs at Harvard, Columbia, Berkeley and Hopkins.
Teaching Style
My teaching philosophy is that learning is most effective when it is also enjoyable. I bring in diverse art forms -- painting, music, architecture and film -- as mnemonics in illustrating points of grammar. For example, in teaching adjectives, I ask the students to describe Renaissance portraits, and in this way I help my students to retain the lesson. I tell my students that language acquisition is all about repitition and persistence, and our knowledge of a foreign language grows bit by bit like a coral reef. I think that patience and good humor are important qualities in every learning environment.