Teaching Experience

Quotes from anonymous student evals

“This is the second time I have taken a class with Sam, and purposefully so. I have nothing but the utmost respect for her as a person and confidence in her ability as an instructor. Without a doubt, I am certain that I could blindly walk into a lecture, and within the hour Sam can give me a basic understanding of a concept being covered in class, whether through group or individual instruction. Her effectiveness as an instructor stems from her natural intelligence, her understanding of the concepts within our readings, her effective communication skills in breaking down concepts into nuts and bolts, and her ability to constantly use relevant, applicable real–life examples to explain a concept.”

“Most of the time I tend to view discussion sections as a waste of time. From my experience, most of them tend to be exactly that. However, this was the first time I truly felt as though discussion was useful…Sam truly is a wonderful TA. She worked to foster the perfect academic environment where people felt as though it was a place to learn, but not overly serious. But more importantly, she ensured that her students had a clear understanding of course topics by providing clarifying information… For many weeks I found myself anticipating discussion to clarify any misunderstandings from lectures. I wish that Sam was a TA for more classes!”

“Sam made it clear from the very first discussion that all were welcome, and fostered an environment of critical–thinking that allowed students to be able to enjoy the hard topics. Even though, some of the topics of the course were challenging Sam used analogies and even her own real–life examples to make us understand theories and how to actually apply them. She engaged the whole class with her vibrant and enthusiastic personality. I genuinely want to just thank Sam for always making the class (and especially me) fun and just always letting us know that she is here to help us.”

“Sam is a very approachable TA that does everything in her power to help her students understand the material and succeed the class. During discussion sessions, she bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm, which has a very positive effect on my learning experience. Furthermore, going to office hours to get feedback on papers is very helpful.”

“Sam always makes sure that all sides of a topic can be heard. This is especially important because of the nuanced and sometimes controversial topics in discussion. She lays out questions in a way that prompts us to answer nuanced questions from both perspectives, implicitly broadening our understanding of something we once could only see one specific way. It is a really interesting approach that I haven't seen before but is incredibly effective.”