Experience Summary
As a life-long student, I aspire to a life of teaching. While an undergraduate at St. Olaf College, I developed strong communication and interpersonal skills as a writing center tutor and ESL mentor. After graduating magna cum laude in 2005, I became a volunteer educator in Chicago and taught elementary and middle school math, reading, art and social studies. Today, as a graduate student and composition instructor at the University of Montana, I relish the opportunity to pursue literature and develop my classroom teaching expertise. Working with undergraduates straight out of high-school and non-traditional students with families or second careers, I encourage students to distinguish their writing voices and explore rhetorical choices by inventing and revising writing projects. I emphasize teaching literature as dialogue because I strongly believe that an individual’s self perception and beliefs about the world can be enhanced by encountering and responding to different literary voices.
Teaching Style
My teaching style is enthusiastic; I desire to help students encounter who they are and imagine what they can achieve through their education. As an educator, I am energetic, compassionate and flexible in my approach to student needs. I understand my role as an engaged fellow learner, rather than a reserved teacher-authority. Because I believe that learning is a dynamic, uneven process and this process is often different for every person, my teaching philosophy is student-centered. I strive to create a conversational, open space where students feel comfortable taking risks and making mistakes. I celebrate the significant, unique inquiry each student brings into the classroom. In one-on-one conferences, I encourage self-reflection, asking students to identify questions or difficulties we can explore together. I challenge students to be self-accountable, even as I hold students accountable to high standards of academic excellence. Thus, my teaching style emphasizes critical thinking through collaborative effort.