TEACHING

Experience

Teaching Assistant

• Phonetics (Fall 2024)
• Language Acquisition (Spring 2024)
• Introductory Linguistics (Fall 2023 & Spring 2025)

Instructor

• Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program (2021, 2022)

My Philosophy

“Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!” These are the immortal words of Ms. Frizzle, the main character of the beloved science-themed children’s series, “The Magic School Bus”, and this is exactly the attitude I aim to cultivate in my students. I strive to build their resilience and self-compassion, preparing them for success in the language classroom and beyond. Practically, this means prioritizing positivity and joy in the act of learning.

In college, studying theories like the Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective, extrinsic/intrinsic motivation, and Mary Kalantzis’ multiliteracies framework enabled me to develop and articulate my teaching philosophy. No matter the subject, Paolo Freire’s approach to restorative justice in the classroom remains a cornerstone to my approach. I find this is pereneally important in cultivating postcolonial instruction of linguistics, a field which converts a deeply human invention into an object of scientific study.

For me, 21st century teaching means the instructor’s primary purpose is to serve as a learning facilitator. In today’s world, with pocket-sized access to almost all human knowledge, an effective teacher helps her students learn and practice relevant skills like critical thinking, research, and extrapolation so they can make effective use of the resources at their disposal. She leverages the classroom context to help bring students to new information using what they already know, and places students at the center of their learning experiences. Above all, she models the qualities she expects to see in her students: bravery, vulnerability, resilience, integrity, and compassion for others as well as herself.