Teaching Experience

I gained teaching experience both in the classroom and in the outdoors through the Environmental Leadership Program at UO. During this program, my cohort and I, spent our first term together developing an environmental ed focused curriculum guided by the Learning In Places teaching frame works. I was a part of the 'Wild Wanderers' 1st grade team, and during our second and final term working together we put that curriculum to the test. We partnered with local elementary schools, organizing for each first grade classroom to receive three classroom visit lessons and one field trip to Mt. Pisgah Arboretum.

Our students had the chance to be prepped on environmental concepts such as natural life cycles, animal adaptations and signs of seasonal changes before going into the field to experience them first hand. This gave me the opportunity to teach young learners in a variety of settings, which helped me develop as an educator and facilitator. 

Teaching Evaluations

Working in the field this term alongside my teammates has brought me many opportunities to give and receive feedback, leading to personal development as a teacher and facilitator. I am grateful for these lessons that have come from peers, professors, experienced educators and the students themselves. My biggest area of growth has been learning how to be confident in my own knowledge and judgement when situations call for adaptability. There are so many uncontrollable external factors in teaching, especially in the outdoors. I learned how to be prepared for change and to adapt as new situations occurred. This required building relationships with my students as well as the places we were learning in. The knowledge I gained in those areas along with a comprehensive knowledge of my own curriculum and it's guiding standards/frameworks allowed me to make decisions when met with challenges, adapting along the way. I mastered flexibility while maintaining the spirit of our curriculum.

The improvement of these skills occured overtime as I remained open and accepting to feedback from my team and mentors. My Proffessor Dr. Katie Lynch, impressed upon my team and I, that engaging our students with the true 'spirit' of our lessons was more important than any deliverable or behavioral expectation. Early on her feedback for me reiterated the importance of this type of informed flexibility, and subsequently it was my largest area of growth.