University Teaching Experience*

*Last updated on March 2020

 

University of Colorado Boulder

 

Introduction to Developing Environmental Solutions, Teaching Assistant (Spring 2018)

Course Description and Learning Objectives:

This course is the second part of the undergraduate introductory series in the Environmental Studies Program. It will provide students (you!) interested in continuing in Environmental Studies with an introduction to the skill set they need and will develop in the major to address multi-dimensional environmental issues. We will do this through learning about four local environmental topics over the course of the semester that will provide context for learning quantitative approaches—from “back-of-the-envelope” calculations to converting word problems into equations to introductory statistics. Much of our “lecture” time will be spent doing activities in small groups to build these skills; recitation sections will go into more depth on a specific problem or challenge. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with the following:

• Using evidence as the basis for developing decisions about environmental issues

• Converting between units, and setting up unit conversion problems

• Approaching and completing word problems

• Making evidence-based claims

• Conducting exploratory data analysis and visualization

• Accessing and analyzing long-term data (third-party)

• Working effectively in small groups to evaluate an environmental issue

 

First Year Writing and Rhetoric, Instructor of Record (2015 – 2017)

Course Overview:

This course meets two sets of requirements on the CU-Boulder campus. 

 

The first involves those established by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) for all second-level “Communication General Education ‘Guaranteed Transfer’” (CO-2) courses in the state.  These CO-2 courses are designed to ensure that students “learn how to summarize, analyze, and synthesize the ideas of others” (par. 3) by emphasizing “rhetorical knowledge,” “writing processes,” “writing conventions,” and “comprehension of content knowledge at the intermediate level” (par. 6).

 

The second involves those established by the Program for Writing and Rhetoric (PWR), the home program for this course.  The PWR requires that you 

• develop rhetorical knowledge, analyzing and making informed choices about purposes, audiences, and context as you read and compose texts.

• analyze texts in a variety of genres, understanding how content, style, structure and format vary across a range of reading and writing situations.

• refine and reflect on your writing process, using multiple strategies to generate ideas, draft, revise, and edit your writing across a variety of genres.

• develop information literacy, making critical choices as you identify a specific research need, locate and evaluate information and sources, and draw connections among your own and others' ideas in your writing.

• construct effective and ethical arguments, using appropriate reasons and evidence to support your positions while responding to multiple points of view.

• understand and apply language conventions rhetorically, including grammar, spelling, punctuation and format.  (PWR First Year Committee)

 

In light of these requirements, our WRTG 1150 course this semester will ask you to           

1. develop rhetorical knowledge by reading and writing a range of Toulmin-style academic arguments.  These arguments will attend to a variety of rhetorical considerations (e.g., issues of context, audience, and purpose; appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos; attending to various genre conventions and considerations; etc.) while using effective evidence and providing appropriate analysis;

2. develop an intimate understanding of writing processes and information literacy by drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading your own work; by reading and commenting upon the work of others; and by engaging in a number of lengthy research projects using primary and secondary source materials; 

3. understand and employ the conventions of “standard academic English” and clear prose style in your writing while exploring the potential social benefits and social costs of doing so; and

4. ask questions and make arguments about educational goals and values, both yours and others’.

​

Introduction to Environmental Studies, Teaching Assistant (2014 – 2015)

Course Overview:

This course surveys the terrain of environmental studies, examining ecological, socioeconomic, political, cultural, aesthetic and technological factors that influence the quality of life on Earth.

​

University of Nevada Reno

​

Core Humanities (203), Teaching Assistant (Spring 2013)

Course Overview:

This course examines the development of the United States from precolonial times to the present, paying particular attention to the experiences and mythologies that have shaped our America over the past five hundred years.  While many approaches to this survey follow a linear narrative, starting from Christopher Columbus and working up to the present, this course will tell the story of America in a dramatically different fashion.  Studying a variety of texts—including novels, television shows, autobiographies, political manifestos, personal essays, films, and plays—we will explore a range of American experiences in relationship to their historical and cultural contexts.  Using the spatial metaphors of island, frontier, city, and home to organize the class, Core Humanities 203 will expose students to canonical and non-canonical materials which express the “American Experience.”  This course fulfills the U.S. Constitution and Nevada Constitution requirements. 

​

Core Humanities (201), Teaching Assistant (Fall 2012)

Course Description: 

This course, the first in the UNR Core Humanities sequence, deals with the origin and early development of some of the more important ideas and values that shape Euro-American culture. "Pre-disciplinary" in the broadest sense, CH 201 makes regular use of materials from art, literature, history, and philosophy, to mention only the more obvious, but it is not a course in any of these areas. It is rather a preliminary course designed to introduce you to the tradition of ideas, activities, and attitudes that distinguishes the culture that is both your inheritance and your environment, the tradition that has in a very real if often subtle way contributed to making you what you are.

​

First Year Composition II, Instructor of Record (Spring 2012)

Course Description

The course attempts to trace the trajectory of the development of environmental issues in various areas. The main focus would be contemporary environmental issues and an analysis of their impact on our lives. The course would utilize a broad perspective while studying the varied representations of environmental issues in the public sphere and help student writers analyze, understand, and communicate the complexity of grappling with these issues.

 

Course Outcomes

English 102 students will:

• Continue and improve the writing practices learned in 101: prewriting, composing, revising, responding, editing, attending to language and style, and writing with audience and purpose in mind;

• Engage in critical reading and interpretation of a wide range of texts;

• Be able to summarize, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and apply what they read—both orally and in writing;

• Use writing as a means of understanding, organizing, and communicating what they read;

• Frame complex research questions or problems;

• Demonstrate awareness of their own beliefs, concepts, and biases;

• Be able to produce a coherent, well-supported argument that shows critical thinking and careful consideration of alternative viewpoints;

• Recognize, evaluate, and use a variety of information sources: expert people, publications of information agencies, popular and specialized periodicals, professional journals, books, and electronic resources;

• Conduct research that shows evidence of the ability to synthesize, use fairly, and credit the ideas of others using the appropriate citation style;

• Write coherently, drawing from diverse sources, assimilating information and ideas and producing work that represents the student’s position on the material.

 

First Year Composition I, Instructor of Record (Fall 2011)

Course Description and Goals:

The course is an introduction to the rhetorical process, emphasizing audience, purpose, and occasion of writing. In this class, students will strive to develop a variety of critical writing and reading skills, using them to record, explore, organize, and communicate your unique ideas. Students will receive an extensive background in strategies of planning, drafting, and revising. This class uses a portfolio-approach that encourages students to polish final essays through a semester-long process of drafting, peer workshopping and editing, reflecting, and revising. Revision is a major emphasis in the course. Through this process, you will work towards achieving clarity, coherence, and unity in your writing. You will improve your control of language, form, and style, and will also gain familiarity with the basics of MLA format. This is a reading-intensive as well as a writing-intensive course. Be prepared to spend several hours per week reading (outside of class.)