Teaching Certificate (PDF)
Philosophy
I believe that every student learns differently, at different speeds, and brings different experiences to the table. Students’ unique qualities are honored rather than conformed to my personal experiences. At the same time, I believe in the value of failure, making uncertainty safe, and encouraging students to learn from their mistakes without penalty. In my Physics and Astronomy classroom, I make it possible for all of my students to succeed regardless of their personal, educational, or socioeconomic background.
There are several different kinds of teaching, work, and assessments that I employ to allow all different kinds of learners to be successful. First and foremost, I aim for my students to develop a strong foundation in mathematics, units, and measurements, as these are important concepts in every scientific field. I also aim for my students to learn introductory concepts of the solar system, stellar processes, galaxy formation, and cosmology. Hereafter, I describe my philosophy on teaching these topics.
My classes have different components that encourage students to come prepared to class and to be active learners. I believe that class is only valuable if students are getting out of it something they couldn’t get just by reading or watching a lecture online. By encouraging students to prepare for class, they will be able to get the most out of any lecturing or group work that occurs during our session. It will also help them feel more confident in their ability to learn what’s going on in class. I believe both in the value of lecturing and interactive class time. As a result, I spend time in my classes speaking and allowing students to speak with each other and work in groups. This will keep students engaged and allowing kinesthetic learners to keep up with the material during class as well as aiding the aural and visual learners.
Persistence and patience is a cornerstone of my teaching. I often assign many rigorous homework assignments. This helps my students understand the material they’re studying well and challenge them to understand things they haven’t understood before— no matter what their level is coming into the class. Students have multiple opportunities to test their skills working independently and in groups. I implement this method with the intent to instill a value of hard work in my students as well as the importance and necessity of working together to solve problems.
I find it important to test students’ recall abilities with traditional tools like exams, but I also acknowledge that this cannot be the sole assessment of one’s knowledge. I keep some traditional classroom assessments, but I accentuate my belief that every student is worth more than a test score. I believe this will make my classroom a positive and safe place to be that prioritizes learning and progress over a GPA.
Finally, I give my students the freedom to apply their knowledge in my classroom to something they enjoy. This is done in the form of final projects where students create their own program, review of a discovery paper, or write an astronomy blog post. The overall goal is to emphasize that the student’s learning is about them and must include what they want to know. This pushes students to learn material out of their own intrinsic appreciation.
My teaching philosophy emphasizes different styles of learning and different life experiences that I encounter in my classroom. At the same time, this does not confiscate the rigor of the class. Students should leave my classroom having solidified their mathematical skills as well as developing a basic understanding of astronomy and astrophysics foundations. My overarching goal is to ensure that my course sets students up for success in their future classes/career/research, that they find the class useful (even if they decide astronomy is not for them), and that every student — especially those who have felt pushed away from science and the academia— gain confidence in their ability to learn challenging topics and be successful.
