Term-time employment, University of California, Los Angeles, 2021
As a graduate student, I am a teaching assistant for general education astronomy classes. I lead discussion sections and exam review sessions to help students deeply engage with the material. I have received excellent student evaluations and a Distinguished Teaching Award from the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Mentoring, Harvard Ed Portal, 2018
As an Ed Portal Mentor, I sought to provide innovative and engaging lessons to elementary and middle school students in the Allston area. Mentors were asked not to provide homework help, but instead to help students develop their curiosity on topics not covered in conventional schooling. For example, while working with a third-grade girl who was interested in space, we did various hands-on activities to help her learn about the size and scale of the solar system.
Summer Program, Yleana Leadership Academy, 2018
The Yleana Leadership Academy (YLA) is a summer program for students from high-need schools in major East coast cities where students live in a residential program and receive intensive SAT preparatory classes, as well as education about the real-world issues of justice and inequality. As a teacher for the YLA, I received extensive training on teaching test-taking strategies by building students’ critical thinking skills. Teaching at Yleana taught me to teach using the socratic method, to manage a classroom of students even during conflict, and to understand how students’ backgrounds impact their learning.
Middle School Coaching, Jenison High School, 2013
As a Science Olympiad coach, I taught basic astronomy, electromagnetism, optics, experimental design, scientific writing, and epidemiology to middle school students. The responsibilities of this role included lesson planning, test writing, curriculum design, and classroom management.