My motivation to pursue my career as an educator is both personal and professional. My passion for education runs deep within my framework as a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN), first as a practitioner in the field of dietetics and now with my background teaching at the university level, to empower students, opening the door to nutrition as a lifelong learning course and/or a career track.

Like many others, I once sat in shoes, as a community college liberal studies student, with no real passion. I will never forget the class that changed my life forever: Speech 25 – Argument and Debate. Our class was exploring impromptu speaking and I drew a topic out of hat, to debate with a fellow classmate – our topic: Fast Food. I had no idea what would happen next. A community college instructor would take interest in my fire and passion on the topic, and suggest I look into it as a career in nutrition and the rest is now history. I have come full circle, and I am in the shoes of an instructor, recognizing students and believing in their worth, focus and passion(s). There is a true natural high that I get, when I can see students in the passionate pursuit of learning.

Learning Goals

My teaching style is much like how I feel about life in general as well –Laugh, Relax, and Learn. I believe a learning environment should be fun (and/or funny), provide a safe space for students to relax the barriers around them, which in turn enhances the student’s ability to permeate the learning process and how to critically think within their souls. In my office, I have a self-written post-it note, to remind myself, it reads “the teachable moment vs. the learnable moment”. To learn is so much more powerful to me than be taught, and I strive to provide the learning moment(s) to all of my students.

As I anticipate, the virtual experience of learning ahead, it will be a different learning space for both students and teachers, one that I will embrace wholeheartedly. It is my goal to provide a positive, jovial, inclusive, respectful, and a comfortable environment to learn. I know that both student and instructor have lots of things evolving in our lives. I will try my hardest to provide an instructor presence or engagement in my course and an empathic ear, should a student need to reach out. I am also, “almost an early adopter”, so I want to embrace technology and use it whenever it fits and provide that experiential and simulation learning to students as well.

Assessment of Student Learning

Please understand, that with each assignment chosen, it was chosen with an outcome that should prove useful in learning about nutrition. I try hard to include the concepts of the four learning styles: Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Reading/writing into each of my courses. I believe in the use of Formative Assessment, with a goal to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to improve their teaching and by students to improve their learning. Example of this include discussion postings, digital storytelling, and surveys. I also include summative assessment with the goal to evaluate student learning at the end of an instructional unit by comparing it against a standard or benchmark. Examples of this include, quizzing, exams, a project, or a paper. I try to weigh these areas with a points value that is fair and equitable.

Assessment of Teaching

I feel I learn more from my students than I teach them. Some of the most important assessments come from my students. For example, in addition to reviewing the university evaluations, I do view “rate my professor” every so often to see what the students are reporting, so I can internalize all avenues of evaluation. Another example of this, is that I also review exam scores, and if I notice that majority of the class got a question wrong – I review the question, and in cases, may actually throw out the test questions because perhaps I did not do a good job of teaching and/or covering the topic – I will take onus in that. Each semester I also invite a colleague and/or peer to come to evaluate my class. I actually look forward to evaluation because there is always something more that I should strive for.

In closing, it is my duty to provide students with the best possible learning experience. It is my hope that each student matriculate from my course with a tool bag of nutrition knowledge and that both the student and instructor at the very least, continue a curiosity of evidence based nutrition and lifelong learning.