teaching
I have experience teaching a range of college-level courses in human geography and Geographic Information Systems, with additional experience teaching coding and web mapping in community technology settings to learners ranging in age from middle schoolers to elders. At UW Tacoma, I teach primarily in the School of Urban Studies' M.S. in Geospatial Technology program. Our program is a 12-month, in-person, small cohort Masters of Science program. While some of our graduates go on to PhD studies, the majority embark on applied geospatial careers in government, industry, and non-profit sectors. Students come from around the Puget Sound region and around the world. If you are interested in applying, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
I am committed to ensuring that my classroom is an accessible space for learners with disabilities, that it is a safe space for vulnerable and marginalized learners, and that it is a space of growth and potential transformation for all learners. I have pedagogical training in traditional methods of classroom facilitation as well as more innovative methods such as 4Mat Pedagogy and Popular Education (through the People in Education Project) that make me highly effective with diverse learners. The values that guide my teaching include trust in students and respect for their autonomy, a commitment to practicing and fostering frequent self-reflection, and a desire to secure students' investment in the learning process by designing coursework that is relevant and applicable to their lives outside the classroom.
Students approach learning with diverse goals. Some are looking for knowledge of a topic area, some an employable set of skills, while others seek a new way of understanding the world and their place in it. I therefore design learning environments that can be productive spaces for all students. Through years of graduate training and scholarly work, I have become an expert not only in academic geography, but also in the craft of learning. I therefore view teaching as an opportunity to share both of these sets of expertise: I teach students to develop core geographical competencies and to become better learners more generally; then, I create the conditions of possibility for a more transformative experience.
Below are a some examples of the assignments and exercises I've used over the past few years, as well as a sample syllabus for a course on digital geographies. Kudos to the fantastic educators I've worked with in developing these. Attribution and additional context for the assignments is included in the linked docs.