Experience Summary
I entered Brown University with a desire to become a teacher; the ancient world drew me into pursuing a degree in Ancient Philosophy, during which I studied Ancient Greek. After graduating, I spent two years in the Peace Corps in West Africa, where I taught villagers how to improve their nutrition and crop raising techniques. Upon returning, I decided to return to my original love for teaching, and entered the Master's program at CU in Teaching Latin. During my first year of learning Latin, I became a tutor to an undergraduate during a Teaching Methods course, and have since given long-term private instruction to 2 middle school students, 2 high school students, 3 undergraduates, and 2 adults. I also became a substitute teacher for the Boulder Valley School District, and taught in the Latin classrooms of two high schools. Last spring, I taught the final semester of the beginning year of Latin at a local university, and will teach the entire course this upcoming academic year.
Teaching Style
I enjoy making the ancient world come alive to students, whether they are in elementary school or adults. Because learning Latin is a challenging endeavor, it provides ample opportunity to help the learner develop better study skills and therefore more confidence in themselves as a learner, which I believe is helpful to students as they make their way in life no matter where it takes them. I enjoy taking a complex grammatical point, and breaking it down so that the student fully understands it and it is no longer a mysterious or illogical fact of language. I approach teaching Latin with the belief that we are all learners, and that Latin is continually revealing its secrets to both me as a teacher and the student as a learner; often I find new ways to understand an aspect of the language or the culture through finding ways to explain it to the student, and in doing so the student helps to teach me and become a better teacher. My goal is to make a difficult topic approachable, fascinating, and an entry point into a life-long love of learning.