Teaching

I work hard to create a student-centered classroom environment, where the students are given more control of their own learning. Much of this philosophy has been shaped by the subject I teach: math. Math has a bad reputation, with many students having difficulty learning the subject, and claiming to dislike it and be bad at it. Part of why this is true for so many is because math is often taught as a subject to be memorized, and not understood. 

Teaching Experience

Missouri Western State University

As of Fall 2023, I am an Assistant Professor at Missouri Western, with all the typical responsibilities of that role.

Rockhurst University

I was the instructor of record for all courses, with coordination of standards and textbooks, but final say over all other course materials, including lectures, homework, and exams. In Fall 2022, I used the resources found with Active Calculus as the textbook for each class. Teaching materials for specific courses are available upon request.

Arizona State University

Unless otherwise specified, I was the instructor of record for each class. Fall and Spring classes were coordinated courses, while I was given complete control over any Summer classes I taught. Async classes involved Zoom lectures during the regularly scheduled class time.

California State University, Fresno

I was the instructor of record for the 2015-2016 academic year, and for the three summer programs. For more information about Summer Bridge, please see my Service and Equity page.

Professional Development

Project NExT

“Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching) is a professional development program for new or recent Ph.D.s in the mathematical sciences. It addresses all aspects of an academic career: improving the teaching and learning of mathematics, engaging in research and scholarship, finding exciting and interesting service opportunities, and participating in professional activities. It also provides the participants with a network of peers and mentors as they assume these responsibilities.” I am a part of the Red ’22 cohort of the program. Over the course of MathFest 2022, I attended a variety of workshops, including some on inquiry practices in the classroom, social justice practices in data science, and advising for math majors on non-academic careers. I will also be meeting with my teaching support group roughly once a month for the rest of the academic year.

New Faculty Development

Over the course of the academic year, we covered a variety of topics including teaching excellence and evaluations, designing classroom activities and student oriented syllabi, and methods of student learning assessment. I will continue with the next stage of the faculty development workshops over the course of the 2022-23 year.

Pathways to Calculus

The program was “designed to develop students’ conceptual knowledge, problem solving abilities and skills that are foundational for success in calculus.” They have been working for over two decades with other schools around the country on improving Precalculus curriculum through intensive study. I worked for five semesters as a Graduate TA with their program, which included a year of seminar meetings on student learning outcomes, and coordination of exams. 

My classroom has always involved active learning, but I have begun to use more principles of inquiry based learning (IBL). My classes now work through printed activities that I have designed to encourage group work, while I walk around the classroom answering questions and helping their discussions move along. This helps in several ways: the students must come to class prepared to actively engage with the material, they are forced to quickly notice which topics they do not understand and ask about them, which helps them become more comfortable asking me or their classmates for alternate explanations. This also helps them practice describing technical topics to each other.

This course structure allows me to observe my students working in groups, solving problems and overcoming issues on the day, and experimenting with technology in the class sessions. Their projects type assignments also give me a chance to see them give written explanations for technical problems.

For more information about my teaching philosophy, experience, and pedagogy, please see my full teaching statement.