"My most recent academic position is Adjunct Professor at Notre Dame College in Cleveland, Ohio. Previously, I was at Union County College in New Jersey, and at Salt Lake Community College in Utah, teaching for both the Math and Physics departments. I also tutor high school through graduate school, both in students’ homes and ONLINE. This experience has taught me the patience, communication skills, and knowledge to connect with students on an individual basis and teach effectively. More importantly, I am also quite willing and eager to develop my skills further to improve my performance.

My reason for teaching is simply that I have the necessary skills and ability, so it is a contribution and a trade, while I pursue my own varied interests. I feel strongly that I have good insight into the challenges facing students and the artificial limitations placed on their success by demographics and prevailing attitudes about education. I am dedicated to the goal of instruction, which is to inspire students to engage their lives in a meaningful way. I also acknowledge that it is an avenue for economic mobility. On the most basic level, I feel satisfaction when I am able to facilitate understanding and to successfully motivate students to ask and pursue their own questions, and I am also very interested in figuring out how to reach every student in my classes.

I feel very strongly that some of the primary obstacles students face are the fears, anxieties, and experiences of exclusion that, for example, can come with being a minority — whether by race or by class. Students often misinterpret temporary setbacks as a permanent indication of the potential for success and belonging. As early as possible, students need to internalize the feeling that they belong and the idea that hard work and study improve intelligence. When at later times they feel self-doubt, such feelings and beliefs will allow them to handle the doubt and persevere.

In the classroom, I prefer to emphasize the importance of discussion and collaboration" less...