After over 5 years of intensive and extensive experiences in the practices of teaching at the University of Illinois, I take great pride in seeing myself becoming a confident and experienced educator.
Some of these courses are held in moderately sized classes (~50 students), but I have also taught and found myself enjoying smaller classes (~25 students), where discussions can go deeper, students are more willing to be more engaged, and I am able to cultivate a sense of community and camaraderie through more dynamic interactions and active learning exercises.
<aside> 📌 See here for a complete list and detailed descriptions of the courses that I have taught.
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In Spring 2020, University of Illinois made the difficult decision of suspending face-to-face instruction and transitioning to online forms of teaching, amid an escalating global pandemic and national emergency. Teaching Intro Psych at the time, I quickly made adjustments to adapt to the new teaching format:
"I wanted to let you know that I loved [your videos]. You have a passion for teaching, depth of knowledge, and impressive technical skills that make your lectures as engaging as they are informative. Those are things that are important to me as well, but you eclipse me in every way. " —— A fellow instructor told me about my videos
I was glad that I might have played a small role in there making sure my students were receiving high-quality education as promised, and was extremely encouraged when I learned that my students and my teaching advisor shared the sentiment, for which I was nominated and won a departmental teaching award.