Current Students
If you are here looking for information on current classes, head over to Moodle where all course content is located.
My Thoughts on Teaching
Teaching is one of my life’s true passions. I believe that helping others learn (and learning how to learn!) is one of the unique joys in life. This page lists my thoughts on teaching.
My teaching philosophy is based on the principle of an active partnership between instructors and students. I see the educator as being responsible for explaining/demonstrating new skills for multiple learning modalities, giving students opportunities to develop those skills for themselves, and allowing students to appropriately gauge their level of understanding to know when to seek out further assistance. Similarly, I see the student as needing to be receptive to new information, willing to work diligently to acquire new skills, and empowered to ask for help when needed. None of us are these things all the time, but my personal goal in teaching is to always inspire students to greater success by owning their own personal responsibility in the learning process. For more detailed information, see the page here on my teaching philosophy.
I’m extremely supportive of one-on-one math tutoring. I feel that it’s the next natural step in my partnership principle of teaching. I not only have worked extensively within a math tutoring setting (with the HSU Math Tutoring Lab and the INRSEP program), but I was a founding member (and the first supervisor) for the The Math Center at the University of California in Merced, started in 2016. My experience at UC Merced was especially fulfilling, as it allowed me the opportunity to both work directly with students seeking tutoring services and be able to mentor undergraduate tutors. I was also able to make large contributions to the tutor training curriculum and the daily workings of the tutoring center. For more details about my contribution to the Math Center, see my page on Math Tutoring.
I’ve also had the privilege of mentoring advanced undergraduates in several research projects, mainly with the DESCARTES program at UC Merced, but also with the multiple REUs.