1. What is your educational
background and what positions have you held?
I graduated from Slippery Rock University in
May 2016 with my bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education English (7-12).
During my time at Slippery Rock, I was a member of the Track & Field Team
and various organizations affiliated with the English Department, such as Sigma
Tau Delta. Following graduation, I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, where I
received my Master’s Degree in English. While working on my degree, I held a
position as a Teaching Assistant and had the opportunity to independently teach
Composition courses in the English Department. In addition, I worked at the
University Writing Center as a Writing Consultant where I assisted both
undergraduate and graduate students with their course writing assignments. I
recently finished my MA this past spring semester, May 2018, and now work in
the Office of Academic Advising as an Academic Advising Fellow at Elon
University in NC. In my current position, I have an individual caseload of
first-year student advisees as well as assist in answering any general
university advising inquiries from all university students. I also am teaching
a section of Elon 101, the university’s first-year seminar course, and I
supervise and train all undergraduate Elon 101 Teaching Assistants affiliated
with the Elon 101 Program.
2. What is the most rewarding aspect of
your job?
The greatest part of my job is that I am
constantly given the opportunity to be introspective and grow both personally
and intellectually through the relationships that I create with my students and
colleagues. I can confidently state that I do not feel that I am the exact
person that I was even when I graduated from SRU, and that is a good thing, or
else I wouldn’t be trying my hardest, I wouldn’t be putting in effort or being
intentional in the way that I conduct myself as an educator and as a human. My
experiences inside and outside of the classroom have humbled me in a way to
approach education as a form of questioning and curiosity that I can then model
to my students. Likewise, I am constantly finding new and innovative ways to
improve my craft and stretch my mindset in a way that makes me accessible to my
students by not only recognizing their perspective but also allowing their
experiences to challenge my own understanding of the world and the small, yet
important, moments that create it. I love meeting students where they are and
experiencing with them and I am intentional in trying to bridge the gap between
student and teacher in a way that allows for us to learn together by learning
from one another.
3. What advice would you give to
current students who are enrolled in the teacher preparation program, and to
SRU students generally?
I am a
planner. If you would have asked me the question, “What’s your plan?” during my
time as an undergraduate at SRU, I would have explained to you (in great
detail) the plans I thought would be my next 5 years. That’s my point though,
what I thought. The College of
Education at SRU doesn’t leave room to mess around--but that is why we produce
the teachers that we do. We are good teachers, and people know and respect
Slippery Rock’s Department of Education, even all the way down here in NC. I am
proud of that confidence in my ability to be a successful and educated teacher.
It makes the practice of teaching rewarding.
With
that said though, be patient. Be intentional in slowing down and noticing the
present moment, and be thankful for where you are in that moment. Be OK with
being flexible and allowing the opportunities that are presented to you to
shape you rather than you always shaping them. Be happy in the spaces that you
create for yourself--and take care of those spaces.
4. Name an SRU experience or faculty
that had a positive influence on you and explain why.
There
are so many wonderful experiences and relationships that I had with both SRU
faculty and staff that still rest with me and I think of and on often. However,
I do think of one faculty member, Rachela Permenter, and I have to give her so
much credit, here. She knows the impact that she had on me. Her courses always
challenged me not only academically, but also personally, in a way that showed
me what my interests were because they aligned with a way of seeing and being
and moving in the world that made sense to me.
Dr. Permenter made herself accessible to me as an undergraduate student
trying to find my way and make sense of my experiences and interests, and
always portrayed a strength in understanding her purpose by living that
purpose. She lives what she teaches, and I will always be grateful to her for
that.
5. What makes a great teacher?
As I
have somewhat insinuated, I believe a great teacher lives their craft--and as a
student, you learn their craft through their living of it. They are what they
speak and likewise, what they teach. To me, a great teacher does not become
great by seeking greatness, rather, they are humble in their craft and take
care of it. In this way, a great teacher makes art by turning their discipline
into a way of living, seeing, and being, and creates opportunities for their
students to live, see, and be in this way, even if it is only for that course.
While any good teacher can create perspective, I believe a great teacher
unknowingly has the ability to not only create perspective, but be an active
agent that also shifts this perspective.
