I am a strong believer that all good teachers are never fully satisfied with their past practice and are constantly looking for new and better ways to engage, inspire and serve their students.
Associate Professor
I love science, I love children and I love teaching. As nearly all teachers – at any level and in any subject – will tell you, it’s the occasional moments of exhilaration when “the light goes on” in your students’ minds that keep a teacher going amidst the more routine and uninspiring tasks that come with the territory in any profession.
In my profession, everything interests me about my field. Scientific knowledge, concepts and practices are constantly evolving and being refined, as is our repertoire of approaches to teaching students about it.
To me, the most important guiding principle for science teacher education courses, across all levels and delivery modes, is to provide a combination of a practical professional learning experience with an intellectually stimulating academic one. I believe that both are essential for the class experience to be of both continuing interest and lasting value.
Apart from fully online courses for certified teachers, I’ve collaborated on a hybrid approach, combining face-to-face evening sessions with asynchronous online work, to the core courses in our Secondary Science Teacher Certification program in order to accommodate current full-time teachers at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.