My Teaching
I feel that I was born to be a teacher and identify most strongly with that facet of my professional life. Having the opportunity to inspire students to learn and even enjoy a notoriously difficult subject like Organic Chemistry is incredibly rewarding and the ability to really be myself in the classroom definitely enhances that experience for me. I think of my classroom as an environment where learning is socially constructed and I invite students to participate in both the learning and the teaching that occurs there. Over the years, it has become apparent that I learn as much from my students as they take away from my lectures and other interactive experiences in my course.
To facilitate this reciprocity in the classroom I practice a type of collaborative learning activity that I refer to as Performance Enhanced Interactive Learning (PEIL). The fundamental feature of PEIL is that students perform the role of the instructor during weekly problem solving workshops and group presentation exercises. Small group discussions precede the performance phase of the activity in which students explain the rationale behind their problem solving strategies to the rest of the class. Students who actively engage in the process develop fluency in the language and symbolism of Organic Chemistry at a remarkable rate and seem to retain the information for a very long time. This fluency is also encouraged by focusing lectures on the understanding of chemical behavior and reaction mechanisms rather than rote memorization.
A roster of successful former students, acting as volunteer Workshop Leaders, have contributed to the success of this learning environment and help to empower and inspire those currently enrolled by providing guidance during the PEIL workshop sessions and by holding their own office hours. Every time I step into the classroom, I am still blown away by the beautifully supportive culture that developed over the years and that persists long after students leave my classes.
