PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING

When I began my career as an educator, my intention was to be a middle school teacher. However, as I spent more time at the university level, I realized that my interests and professional goals fit better in higher education. Nevertheless, much of what I learned in my foundational education and pedagogy courses has shaped my values and beliefs as an educator at the university level. My classroom environment is centered on the principle of creating a learning community which is founded on the ethics from the Six Pillars of Character from the Character Counts program: respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, trustworthiness, and citizenship. Although this program was designed with K-12 students in mind, I believe that these principles are values that students of any age group should strive to integrate into their lives and can enhance students’ experiences in my classroom.

My teaching goals and objectives align with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) standards, such as teaching effective interpersonal communication skills, cultural competence, the ability to make interdisciplinary connections, and the practice of reflective lifelong learning. By establishing an atmosphere of sincere communication, we create a learning environment where students have agency in their learning experiences. My instruction is differentiated and dynamic with the goal of creating an active and engaging learning environment. Whether my students are learning the subjunctive, discussing one of Gabriela Mistral’s poems, or analyzing a complex case study, I help my students nurture a sense of intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for engaging with the text. I challenge them, teach them to challenge one another, and help them overcome obstacles with a spirit of persistence. I want my students to leave my classroom with an ethos that will allow them to become culturally-competent, well-rounded, global citizens.

My lessons are student-centered and discussion-based, which helps foster an environment of mutual respect. Learning in my classroom frequently occurs within cooperative and collaborative group work which promotes the growth of interpersonal relationships. Our discussions vary between pairs, small groups, or a whole class discussion. Students also collaborate in their writing. In one of my recent courses, Introduction to Hispanic Literatures and Cultures, my students submitted a final essay through Google Docs that underwent a multiple-draft revision process, both through peer-review in collaboration with their classmates, as well as with my own feedback throughout the semester. The quality and substance of their writing was drastically strengthened since I implemented this process as a requirement for the assignment. The peer-review component teaches my students to work together, to trust one another, and to be respectful and responsible while learning the skills of academic writing in their second language. Later in the semester, my class will also worked in groups to perform a dramatic reading of Federico García Lorca’s acclaimed play, La casa de Bernarda Alba, which has become a favorite assignment in my course. Students work together in small groups to prepare a creative interpretation of an act from the script. The assignment has been wonderfully successful in the past, and my students have enjoyed bringing the text to life in their own imaginative ways. Following the performances, students submit individual reflections on their teamwork and leadership experiences in the group project, which helps ensure the equitable distribution of labor and accountability for all members. They also reflect on their own strengths and shortcomings so they can improve upon these skills in future collaborative projects.

Integrating technology in my courses has helped meet my teaching goals, and teaching 21^st century skills has been an important process in keeping current with best practices and my own professional development. With the exception of a textbook in a few cases, my classes are now paperless. I currently utilize Sakai and the Google suite to enable my students to have unlimited access to all course materials and to receive up-to-date feedback on all of their work in real time. Last year, I added a collaborative class notes component to my syllabus: a running Google Doc that all students participate in independently to synthesize their reading experiences. My students and I propose questions and provide responses to substantiate the discussion for the day in conversation with one another through the document. Since integrating this component, there has been much improvement in the depth and content of the discussions during class, and we have been able to utilize class time to have richer conversations about the more profound issues of each text. The notes are projected on the screen during class, and my students and I collaborate in adding content to the document each day. This process not only helps students recall information and scaffold their learning, but also enables them to make intertextual connections across the entire course. This model also gives my students ownership of their learning by steering the discussion and utilizing our time in class to best meet their needs. Furthermore, having previously integrated such technology into my courses since 2018, there was little interruption to my courses and minimal adjustments necessary with the abrupt move to remote instruction across the country in Spring 2020 during the Covid-19 outbreak. By adding further professional development in best practices for remote instruction to my repertoire, I am confident in my ability to conduct classes online synchronously, asynchronously, or using hybrid models involving dual-mode instruction with a mixed in-person/online class.

I am especially committed to helping students with disabilities, from marginalized groups, and with difficult life circumstances because I recognize the need for educators to adapt to the needs of a diverse student population. During my teaching experience at Notre Dame, I have attended workshops for helping students in distress to better address the needs of students with mental health concerns and have familiarized myself with resources available at the University Counseling Center. I have worked closely with the Sara Bea Center for Students with Disabilities to better support my students with physical or learning disabilities. I have also advocated for the needs of pregnant and parenting students through the Gender Studies Program, the Gender Relations Center, the Graduate Student Union, and the University Committee on Women Faculty and Students to help secure more resources and information for students with children to succeed both academically and as parents at Notre Dame.

The strategies that I implement and modify in my courses, advocacy work, and continuing professional development are a result of my reflective teaching and commitment to lifelong learning. I am continuously preparing myself professionally by attending workshops to strengthen my pedagogical skills. I earned the Striving for Excellence in Teaching certificate from the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning at Notre Dame, and I am pursuing the certificates in Teaching Well Using Technology and Advanced Teaching Scholar. I lead my students by example by continuing my own education and professional development to be the best educator and scholar I can be.

I frequently collaborate with my colleagues: sharing assignments, lesson plans, and discussing ways of modifying and updating our courses for future semesters. I also benefited intellectually as a graduate student by participating in interdisciplinary and interuniversity seminars, and these are areas that I would like to explore further and implement in my own future courses. I see great value in co-teaching or collaborating through interdisciplinary courses with colleagues from other fields, or other universities, as a way of enriching the offerings we can provide to our students. In this way, we are better able to share our knowledge and experience to the advantage of our students, and we ourselves become better scholars by broadening our own learning.