Teaching Philosophy

Though it took me most of my undergraduate career to fully realize it, I love teaching. I spent the summers between each year of high school excited for incoming first-year students to join my competitive math team so that I could teach and mentor them. Then, during my last year of undergrad, I realized my passion for teaching in a moment of self-reflection. The sheer joy I felt while hosting a conference on UT campus and being able to share my experiences and knowledge of student leadership with my peers made me finally consider teaching as a career. During my graduate career, I've continued to pursue teaching informally through coaching for UT's archery club. In retrospect, the idea that I should become a teacher seems obvious. My decision to join the UTeach program in my senior year of undergrad has led to some of the best experiences both as a teacher and student. 

As a math and engineering teacher, I strive for my classroom to be student-focused. Students often enter math classrooms assuming that they will never succeed in STEM since they have struggled with the subject before. As a woman in STEM, I hope to support all my students; encourage them to embrace their strengths as mathematicians, engineers, and scientists; and serve as a role model to those traditionally underrepresented in STEM. I aim to teach my students to have a growth mindset and wield the skills they learn in their STEM classes as tools for advocacy for themselves and their community.

I design my lesson plans so that students have an opportunity to explore a topic and collaborate to find solutions. My lessons regularly rely on group work and discussions so that students can build on each other's learning. Each student brings a unique perspective to the classroom based on their individual experiences and background. When students can collaborate, especially in STEM, they push each other to think deeply about a problem and develop unique solutions. When tutoring students in groups, I often ask a student who has already finished their work to help me teach the others. I encourage students to turn to each other for support, which mimics the collaborative nature of STEM fields. Working in partners or small groups also lessens the pressure on students to produce correct answers. I encourage students to view failure as a learning opportunity, but answering questions or presenting in front of the entire class can be intimidating. Collaboration and group work gives students ample space to try, fail, and rethink their approach. This group work helps teach students to think critically about not only what they are learning but also how they are learning. 

Similarly, I try to design assessments for my students as learning opportunities. I use various types of questioning, and different classes may need different levels of support. I typically use simple, straightforward questions with a singular correct answer to quickly check if a class understands or is confident in a specific topic. For cumulative assessments, I ask more open-ended questions or require students to show their work so I can follow a student's thought process. Many of these "how" or "what if" questions also translate into broader project ideas for larger, more long-term projects and help us learn more about the world around us. Seeing students' work is, in equal measure, an opportunity for me to give them feedback and guide their learning and an opportunity for me to receive feedback on the most effective ways to teach a topic and connect with students.