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Formal Teaching Experience:
Graduate Assistant, University of Oklahoma, Department of Chemistry (8/2004-12/2005; 8/2006-5/2007)
For five semesters, I taught one section of General Chemistry (either first or second semester). I also helped administer the entire course. My teaching took place in a lab and in a discussion section, and my administrative duties varied quite a bit. I helped the professors grade scantrons, communicate with other TAs, generate grades, and schedule various aspects of one of these large courses. In addition, TAs in our department spend an hour a week tutoring students in a voluntary "help lab;" I found this to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my job.
This experience has made me more comfortable in front of students, and allowed me to try a variety of inquiry and problem based chemistry curricula in my teaching. It has also taught me the importance of comunicating with one's colleagues and making sure that all of the teachers working with a student are giving him or her a coherent experience.
Informal Teaching Experience:
Student Employee, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (5/2007-present.)
My job is to staff the Discovery Room, which is a room in the museum where children are encouraged to actively explore. It contains Oklahoma animals, a simulated dinosaur dig, and plenty of museum objects that children can touch (these range from fossils to a stuffed bobcat.) I make sure that the children are aware of everything that is in the room and try to take advantage of as many "teachable moments" as I can.
This experience has taught me to be flexible in my use of teaching strategies. The learners we have in the Discovery Room range in age from 6 months to adulthood, and I am learning to tailor my teaching to different individuals.
Leader, Princeton University Outdoor Action Program (8/2001-6/2004)
Outdoor Action is a multifaceted program, but it is most known for leading a weeklong backcountry trip for incoming freshmen at Princeton. This allows students to develop a diverse group of friends before they ever get on campus and get limited in who they meet by the rigors of their every day lives. Leaders are responsible for keeping the students safe and progressing through their assigned route, but more importantly, they pay special attention to group dynamics and making sure that the students are interacting with each other in a positive way. For the last year I was at Princeton, I was a leader trainer, meaning that I helped new leaders acquire both the "hard skills" of medicine and backpacking, and the "soft skills" of group dynamics.
This experience will be critical in helping groups in my classes interact in a positive way, so that the students in them can use each other as learning resources.
Graduate Assistant, University of Oklahoma, Department of Chemistry (8/2004-12/2005; 8/2006-5/2007)
For five semesters, I taught one section of General Chemistry (either first or second semester). I also helped administer the entire course. My teaching took place in a lab and in a discussion section, and my administrative duties varied quite a bit. I helped the professors grade scantrons, communicate with other TAs, generate grades, and schedule various aspects of one of these large courses. In addition, TAs in our department spend an hour a week tutoring students in a voluntary "help lab;" I found this to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my job.
This experience has made me more comfortable in front of students, and allowed me to try a variety of inquiry and problem based chemistry curricula in my teaching. It has also taught me the importance of comunicating with one's colleagues and making sure that all of the teachers working with a student are giving him or her a coherent experience.
Informal Teaching Experience:
Student Employee, Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (5/2007-present.)
My job is to staff the Discovery Room, which is a room in the museum where children are encouraged to actively explore. It contains Oklahoma animals, a simulated dinosaur dig, and plenty of museum objects that children can touch (these range from fossils to a stuffed bobcat.) I make sure that the children are aware of everything that is in the room and try to take advantage of as many "teachable moments" as I can.
This experience has taught me to be flexible in my use of teaching strategies. The learners we have in the Discovery Room range in age from 6 months to adulthood, and I am learning to tailor my teaching to different individuals.
Leader, Princeton University Outdoor Action Program (8/2001-6/2004)
Outdoor Action is a multifaceted program, but it is most known for leading a weeklong backcountry trip for incoming freshmen at Princeton. This allows students to develop a diverse group of friends before they ever get on campus and get limited in who they meet by the rigors of their every day lives. Leaders are responsible for keeping the students safe and progressing through their assigned route, but more importantly, they pay special attention to group dynamics and making sure that the students are interacting with each other in a positive way. For the last year I was at Princeton, I was a leader trainer, meaning that I helped new leaders acquire both the "hard skills" of medicine and backpacking, and the "soft skills" of group dynamics.
This experience will be critical in helping groups in my classes interact in a positive way, so that the students in them can use each other as learning resources.
Please feel free to email me with any questions!