Teaching

Why Do I Teach?  "A life is not important except in the impact that it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson

The Jackie Robinson quote above summarizes why I teach.  Indeed, I am extremely passionate about teaching because I feel that it is the best way for me to use my passion for mathematics in a way that directly impacts people.  

Teaching Philosophy

The key tenets of my teaching philosophy are as follows:

Mentoring

I served as a peer mentor under Dr. Sean Yee through the peer mentorship program in the mathematics department at the University of South Carolina (USC) for the 2022-2023 academic year, and I am excited to be mentoring again in spring 2024.  This was a super rewarding experience from which I grew tremendously!  See some of my reflection on the experience here.

Importantly, being a mentor does not mean forcing my beliefs or practices onto my mentees.  Rather, it means learning about my mentees' goals and experiences so that I can use my own experiences and knowledge to help them achieve their goals!

More Professional Development

In January 2023, I completed the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) professional development program through the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) at USC.  I plan to further complete the Preparing Future Faculty with Distinction in Teaching (PFF Plus) program before graduation.

In February 2023, I took and completed an asynchronous online course taught by Dr. Gloria Washington titled Teaching Online for Graduate Students through the CTE at USC.

I have earned Certificates of Completion in the following areas through the CTE by attending a series of workshops in each category.  The "training record" for each provides a list of the specific workshops I participated in.

Teaching Portfolio

Here is a teaching portfolio containing three semesters of student evaluations, a sample syllabus (more syllabi can be found on this page below), a sample notes packet that I used during class, a sample formative assessment that I used during class, a sample summative assessment (an exam) that I used, and feedback from a class observation by Ms. Ronda Sanders.  There are also some brief reflections on several of these artifacts.

Courses Taught

Below is a list of the courses that I've taught, along with links to their syllabi/descriptions.  Please feel free to contact me if you'd like to see/use any of my resources (LaTeX files and/or PDF's).

As an Instructor of Record at University of South Carolina

As a Teaching Assistant at University of South Carolina

As a Peer Learning Associate at Gettysburg College