School name:

 Texas A&M-Central Texas

School locale: Texas, United States

Is your role mostly in-person, hybrid, online (synchronous or asynchronous)? Mostly online synchronous and asynchronous, as well as a few in-person and hybrid courses

How many years have you taught psychology? 4 years

Classes you teach: Cognitive Psychology, Psychology of Learning, Animal Behavior, Writing in Psychology, Program Evaluation Fundamentals, Psychology Major Seminar

Specialization: Comparative Cognition and Behavior

What size classes do you teach? 20-30 students

What is a book, article, research, or author/researcher that you would recommend that new teachers check out? 

As someone with a special interest in Cognitive Psychology, I have to choose Roediger. So much of his research on the testing effect and retrieval practice has direct implications for classroom assignments, as well as helping students fully understand the benefits of studying and conducting multiple study sessions. I do a classroom activity in my memory chapters that fully involves retrieval practice, and students consistently give feedback that they wish they had been taught from a much younger age research-based strategies for HOW to study.

What do you know now about teaching that you wish you knew when you were starting?

Not to be scared of feedback. No one is ever going to get to a point in their teaching career where they can’t grow and learn more, and one of the main ways we experience this growth is by receiving and implementing feedback. I used to fear supervision or evaluation processes because it was all about getting the highest score possible. Now, I seek out opportunities to get feedback or input from both my colleagues and my supervisors. Even if I have confidence in how to implement an assignment or how to frame a certain concept, other faculty have different past experiences and have fresh perspectives to offer that can only help me improve what I’m doing. Feedback is one of the most valuable tools in our job.

Briefly tell us about your favorite lecture topic or course to teach.

My favorite course to teach is Animal Behavior. It’s one of those courses where, although it’s heavily theory-based, the concepts are easy to apply to real-world  situations. The activities and assignments that I use in this course are so much fun and allot a number of opportunities for students to take agency of their work and creatively explore a topic they’re particularly interested in and motivated to investigate.  

Briefly describe a favorite assignment or in-class activity.  

For my online classes, I love doing a priming question at the beginning of class related to the topic for that day, but I try to incorporate a camera-on aspect to the activity. For instance, in a Careers class, if we talk about professionalism, then the opening activity could be a competition to see who can set the most professional background from the stock photos on Teams or Zoom. Another example would be in Psychology of Learning, if we’re discussing metacognitive strategies, I’ll list each strategy one by one and tell students to turn their cameras on if they do that strategy. Not only does it give them an opportunity to get their opinions in the room early in class so they’re sharing with others, I find that those classes tend to result in more discussion overall.

What is your teaching philosophy in 8 words or fewer?

Lead by example and work alongside your students

What’s your workspace like? 

It’s a little bit of a contradiction, but it illustrates so many different facets of my personality very well. There’s really no overarching theme other than me: I enjoy all of the things that decorate my workspace. I have spooky little trinkets, such as pumpkins and skeletons, colorful and unique art prints of brains and synapses hanging on my wall, brain bookends, and dolphin and whale paperweights and memorabilia. And, of course, I have reminders from my children, including pictures and scribblings they’ve left me on my desk.

Tell us about a teaching “win” you’ve had and the context in which it happened.

At the beginning of the semester, one of my students was so shy and withdrawn that she refused to record herself, rarely spoke, and consistently submitted assignments late or not at all. I decided to reach out to her directly through a personal email expressing concern, offering flexibility, and inviting her to attend office hours so we could discuss how I could better support her. To my surprise, she responded with gratitude and scheduled a meeting. During that conversation, she shared that social anxiety made it difficult for her to participate in class or ask questions, but she was deeply interested in the material. She also told me that a past professor would sign his emails off with “In frustration,” which created a major block in her willingness to reach out herself when she was struggling, as she didn’t want to feel as though she were a burden. After much reassurance, I worked with her to build a plan that included alternative participation options and regular check-ins with me. She began attending office hours consistently, started turning in high-quality work, and eventually began contributing to class discussions. Not only was she ultimately successful in the course, she was even offering to help peers understand challenging concepts. This experience reminded me of the power of personalized outreach and the importance of creating a safe, supportive environment for students who may not initially feel comfortable engaging.

What is something your students would be surprised to learn about you?

Many of my students come to me seeking advice about how to overcome stage fright and social anxiety when giving class presentations. What they don’t know is I still get pretty nervous before every single lecture or research talk. I’ve just gotten much better over the years at masking these anxieties and successfully have created a façade of composure and confidence. They are always shocked when they learn this about me.

What are you currently reading for pleasure?
Right now I’m reading The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz with my neighborhood book club and Shark Heart by Emily Habeck on my own

What tech tool could you not live without?

My Google calendar app! Between meetings, university events, my kids’ extracurriculars, and my own social outings, I would *never* be able to keep track of it all without my calendar always at my fingertips.