School name: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Type of school: Regional Public 4 year

School locale: Edwardsville, IL, USA

Is your role mostly in-person, hybrid, online (synchronous or asynchronous)?  I teach a mix of online and hybrid courses but mostly in-person.

How many years have you taught psychology? 10 years

Classes you teach:  At the undergraduate level I mostly teach Psychological Tests & Measures, Intro to School Psychology, Psychopathology, Research & Experiential Learning and many classes in our school psychology graduate program that relate to assessment and multicultural issues.

Specialization: school psychology

What size classes do you teach? My undergraduate courses range from 40-50 students depending on the course. My graduate classes range from 10-14 students.

What’s the best advice about teaching you’ve ever received?  Some of the best advice I have received about teaching is to have fun and don’t hide your passion about the topic. Students pick up on enthusiasm, and I work to bring my authentic self into the classroom. This allows me to genuinely connect with students. I also received good mentorship from my doctoral advisor, and she has inspired me to continue that approach. When students know you care, they care more about their own performance and growth.

Briefly tell us about your favorite lecture topic or course to teach.  My favorite course to teach is psychological test and measures. This class allows students to learn about the test development process, make real-world connections to statistics, and throughout the semester, students develop and evaluate a scale. It is a great experience to infuse my research interests into my teaching. My research looks at how to best identify students with academic difficulties via brief screening measures. This allows me to provide realistic scenarios in this course, and students do see the applicability of assessment. We also discuss key ethical, historical, and cultural influences on testing, and we have great discussions around these topics as well.

What are three words that best describe your teaching style?  Innovative, Supportive, Reflective

What is your teaching philosophy in 8 words or fewer? High standards, supportive mentorship, and continuous instructional improvement

What’s your workspace like?  My office is full of inspirational quotes, and my door is influenced by my school psychology background. I need my own reminders about growth mindset and feel like students benefit from these as well. I also have many pictures of my family and a Pete the Cat art print that say “No Worries” that I treasure.

Tell us about a teaching “win” you’ve had and the context in which it happened.

Part of my role is mentoring and supervising undergraduate and graduate student interventionists who support elementary students that have difficulties in mathematics in a before- and after-school program. When I get to see my students in action helping a younger child learn their math facts, that is a huge win for me! Also, getting to take students to professional conferences and share that experience with them is also another huge win for me.

What are you currently reading for pleasure?

I just finished reading Anxious People & The People We Keep. I will admit it was via audiobook but as a working mom sometimes that is how it goes.

What tech tool could you not live without? My phone mostly, but Microsoft teams is quickly becoming extremely necessary in my day-to-day functioning. It helps me keep a lot of things in one place, and I can easily communicate with students.