I am driven by a desire to share scientific discovery with students, peers, and the public. In classrooms with undergraduates, I have learned to engage students in thinking about complex scientific concepts through accessible analogies that touch their everyday experience and simple physical demonstrations that allow students to interact directly with the concept. As an instructor of new instructors, I’ve taught first-time teachers to focus on group work that is modeled after our collaborative scientific process and encourages each student to engage with the material and gain ownership of their knowledge through discussions with her or his peers. Above all, I believe science teaching should engage students’ natural curiosity and help them reach that brilliant moment of personal discovery.

I have several semesters of teaching experience under my belt, including:

1. ‣Instructor, Discipline Cluster Workshop for Physical Sciences, GSI Teaching & Resource Center Workshop, Fall 2011
   

2. ‣Co-Instructor, Instructional Techniques in Astronomy with Aaron Lee, Fall 2010
   

3. ‣Co-Instructor, Compass Summer Program: Conceptual Physics with Josiah Schwab, Summer 2010
   

4. ‣Co-Instructor, Compass Summer Program: Metacognitive Techniques with Badr Albanna, Summer 2010
   

5. ‣Instructor, Instructional Techniques in Astronomy, Fall 2009
   

6. ‣Head Graduate Student Instructor, Introductory Astronomy with Alex Filippenko, Fall 2008
   

7. ‣Graduate Student Instructor, Introductory Astronomy with Alex Filippenko, Fall 2007
   

To borrow a quote from my friend Louis Desroches’ webpage (and the pen of Aaron Sorkin):

“Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes, we need gigantic, monumental changes. Schools should be palaces. The competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be making 6 figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge to its citizens, just like national defense.

That's my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.”

    — Sam Seaborn, “The West Wing”