Teaching philosophy

I strive to create goal-oriented courses using backward design, but I also recognize that each student enters the classroom with their own goals. In a language class, some students want to achieve fluency, others will use it in the workplace, and some want basic communication skills. Within my translation course, I create space for students to work with texts and genres that best suit their academic and career goals. I believe it is important to guide students within their chosen learning path, allowing them freedom to achieve their own goals and those of the course.

 

As an educator, I am responsible for ensuring that my virtual or in-person classroom space is welcoming. Through surveys, I ask students to share with me: their name and pronouns, reasons for taking the course, what they hope to learn, and concerns about the semester. After students communicate their needs, I modify the course and my interactions with them accordingly. In a fall 2020 end-of-semester survey, 100 percent of students agreed that their contributions in the class were valued by their professor and classmates. One student commented: “You were able to create a very comfortable environment where the class was able to share their thoughts freely.” In a translation course, debate and disagreements are common and can be very fruitful. Together we discussed and decided on norms to promote productive and inclusive group conversations. By engaging with diverse perspectives, at the end of the semester, all students agreed that the course changed the way they think about and/or relate to cultures in the world.

 

I have cultivated equitable courses in which all students could reach equal opportunities for success. I often provided additional resources for some of my students to ensure that they had the tools to achieve the same outcome as their classmates. For example, I worked to meet the needs of heritage speakers of Spanish and of students who were working multiple jobs to cover their expenses by curating specific resources or providing extensions on assignments as needed. I provide structure in the classroom through clear goals and group expectations, but I also maintain a degree of flexibility to meet specific student needs. Varied teaching methods and learning activities throughout the semester have ensured that all learners are able to effectively engage with the course material and make progress toward course goals. Through my course design and interaction with students, I aim to make every classroom as diverse, equitable, and inclusive as possible. I plan to continue my pedagogical work because just as language acquisition is a process, so is learning to become the best possible instructor for my students.

​

My dedication to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion is evident through the workshops and programming I have developed. At UVA, alongside Assistant Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning Dr. Adriana Streifer, I co-created and facilitated the “Understanding and Implementing Equitable Teaching Practices” workshop, during which we differentiated and defined diversity, equity, and inclusion and shared ways of implementing them at the classroom-level. In 2019, I took a graduate course on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Ed” at the campus-level. I also designed and led a webinar titled “Exploring the Intersections of Virtual Exchange and Social Justice Pedagogies” on June 1, 2021. Part of creating a welcoming classroom is providing feedback that encourages rather than discourages or embarrasses students. I am passionate about the teacher-student classroom interactions that can foster involvement and agency in foreign language courses given that language learning can provoke anxiety for many students. To that end, I also co-designed and facilitated a webinar titled “Feedback in the Foreign Language Classroom.” I appreciate the occasions to collaborate with faculty in order to provide better learning experiences for all students.