Teaching Statement

My best teaching experiences are when students are excited to come to class. This can occur in diverse ways, and I consider it my task as an instructor to encourage and channel that excitement towards the course material. For instance, I like to begin the first day of class with a modified game of Bingo, in which the tiles are a curated mix of get-to-know-you questions, course-relevant philosophical claims, and basic logic. We walk around filling in the tiles with our classmates’ names just in case they satisfy the personal statement, agree with the philosophical claim, or can explain the logic concept. I find this gets students moving, thinking, and prepared to openly converse – arguably the most crucial and uncomfortable skill students learn in undergraduate philosophy. 

I have diverse teaching experience. I hold a minor in Education from Stanford University, where I was a tutor, volunteer-taught reading at a local library, and worked for several educational non-profits. Before that, I taught chess, soccer, and worked as an assistant for my local middle school. I hold a certificate in University-Level Teaching from a semester-long course completed in Fall 2025. Upon conferral of my PhD, I will have been a teaching assistant six times, for twelve sections, across five distinct courses, including Bioethics, Introduction to Philosophy of Mind, Introduction to the History of Chinese Philosophy, and Philosophical Problems. 

These experiences have left me with a wide range of teaching skills and tools, and strengthened my commitment to uplifting students of all backgrounds. For example, I recently created and implemented a Philosophy Jeopardy game to prepare my students for an in-class exam. Small groups of students equipped with portable whiteboards responded with important definitions, distinctions, and argument reconstructions in response to such difficult questions as, “What ‘lesson’ does Putnam take the example of polio to teach us about the relationship between causes and effects?” (Answer: Causes are not logical constructions out of their effects. Mind words, like disease words, pick out the causes of certain typical behaviors, not the behaviors themselves.) The game was a hit and I plan on iterating further. You can find the game here: jeopardylabs.com/play/phil-mind-exam-1.  

In other classes I have used small and large group discussions, diagrams, timelines, debates, dramatic readings, and written responses to probe and improve student understanding. Variation is itself a crucial ingredient to my teaching. One of the most difficult aspects of teaching (especially, teaching philosophy) is that you often don’t know what the student doesn’t know or simply takes themselves to know by dint of unarticulated assumptions. We all face this problem concerning our own beliefs. My strategy is to get students involved in various contexts. I have used this strategy effectively in sections and in large lecture halls, where a well-timed break to write down guided thoughts and share them with a neighbor, or even the whole class, refocuses and re-energizes the room. Furthermore, by varying the kinds of activities we do in class, and the kinds of demands we place on students, we increase the chances of meeting students at their strengths and challenging their weaknesses. The variation functions both to keep students excited and encourage diverse modes of engagement.  

Finally, I recognize the importance of establishing and actively maintaining good class habits. Variation is of course most effective against a backdrop of stability. I expect my students to show up to class on time and be prepared. In turn, my students know what to expect from class. Typically, my classes begin with a handout that includes quotes and questions from the reading, to which students respond in writing then discuss with their neighbor (good old “think-pair-share”). I work on the same handout concurrently, and have prepared further quotes from the reading in anticipation of certain responses. Moreover, my students can expect me to end class on time, and for me to be the last person to leave the room after class ends. I do my best to promptly answer questions over email, in person, at office hours, or by appointment, and will happily give written feedback on multiple drafts. In these ways I hope to show to my students that I am dedicated to them, to the course, and to teaching philosophy.