Teaching Philosophy

The first time I realized that my learning needs were severely different from my peers’ was when I quite literally didn’t understand anything my teacher was saying. I was a 10-year-old refugee who had been in the United States a couple of weeks and I was brought into a fourth-grade classroom and shown to my seat. I will never forget taking out my pencil and notebook to copy down what the teacher was writing on the blackboard despite not having any idea what the words meant. My first month of school in the United States mostly consisted of mimicry—I would observe what my classmates were doing and try to do the same with few clues to the context of the materials being taught. However, despite this rough transition, I was lucky enough to find that education would open doors to opportunities that I could never have imagined. Now that I am at a point at which I have spent over a decade teaching my students in the language I once was unable to understand, I always seek to understand and meet my students’ learning needs.

Thus, my core teaching belief is we must meet students where they are, rather than expecting them to meet any imagined criteria of what a student “should be.” This belief has influenced every aspect of my teaching, from curriculum development to the creation of accessible online lectures and beyond. Each learning environment requires different approaches which are guided by one goal—to ensure that the needs of students are met regardless of students’ circumstances. I am keenly aware of the fact that the curriculum I create needs to serve a diverse body of students while acclimating them to emerging concepts and information tools. This goal requires a strong commitment. Not just a commitment to teach the curriculum to the best of my abilities every semester, but to reach out to each student and find solutions that will help them succeed.

I have long known the importance of learning in an environment that meets one’s needs. As an educator, I am fully committed to creating such an environment for my students. I know that every setting, especially an online classroom, can be one in which diverse student needs are met through individual attention, a scaffolded-project-based curriculum, and varied instructional materials.

Courses

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS, DENTON, TEXAS

Assistant Professor, August 2022-Present

  • INFO 5371: Archives & Manuscripts

  • INFO 5295: Preservation

  • INFO 5290: Special Collections and Archives

Teaching Fellow, January 2019-June 2020

  • INFO 5741: Digital Humanities

  • INFO 5960: Information Sciences Seminar 

Teaching Assistant, August 2016-June 2020

  • INFO 5740: Introduction to Digital Libraries

  • INFO 5841: Digital Curation Fundamentals

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA 

Assistant Professor of Professional Practice, June 2020-August 2022

  • LIS 7004: Management of Information Organizations

  • LIS 7009: Understanding Research

  • LIS 7011: Information Behavior

  • LIS 7408: Introduction to Archival Theory, Principles & Practice 

  • LIS 7505: Introduction to Digital Curation

  • LIS 7704: Archival Arrangement and Description

  • LIS 7703: Advanced Seminar in Archival Studies

Adjunct Instructor, August 2019-May 2020

  • LIS 7505: Introduction to Digital Curation

  • LIS 7808: Special Topics in Information Science