Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
One of the biggest things that I really try to emphasize in my classroom is active learning.
So, rather than the students being in lecture for two hours in physiology, as exciting as
that might be, we actually split it up where it's about 20 minutes of lecture and then
they're required to do something, be an active participant in the classroom. So, we do questions
where they might have to hypothesize what would happen with a patient or they might
solve a math problem. There's something to help reinforce that material that they just
saw. And we found that it really improves the students' scores and also improves their
attitude in the class. Once they become active participants, they really want to engage in
the material. Her teaching style put into pictures very, very hard concepts that were
hard to master and she made it seem easier, so a picture is worth a thousand words. And
with her teaching style, she really understands that. You can just, I can just close my eyes
during an exam and see the pictures that she's created and be able to answer very hard questions
that I'm confident that I'll be able to pass those questions on Boards now. I think educational
technology is a really important part of learning today. Our students are immersed in technology
throughout their lives from the moment they wake up to the time they go to bed and so
I like to incorporate that in my teaching as well. I think that's a natural consequence
of their daily life. So, I've actually created a lot of videos and animations that the students
can use. Many of them are on my YouTube channel. So, they can actually go to that and learn
physiology in a way that they tend to prefer and so they've actually really found that
they enjoy looking at physiology on their own time using those videos. Because of her
teaching style, she taught me a different learning style that I was never used to in
undergrad and I can now put that to use in other courses and have confidence that I'll
succeed. She's so relatable to students. She earns respect, just people love her. You can't
help but do that. And she's helped me find success here. I always call the classroom
my happy place because I just love being over there. The students are so engaged and happy
and they really want to learn and so for me, that's my happy place is being in the classroom.
Getting that feedback from students, that they're appreciating what you're doing, I
think is huge. So, it's clearly a huge honor to receive an award like this. But for me
personally, at the same time, it was almost just as big of an honor to be able to interact
with these students. You know, I care about them. They're going to be our future doctors
and our future dentists and I really want them to be prepared. So, just having that
opportunity to work with them is probably the biggest reward. But certainly hearing
this feedback that they appreciate the effort that I'm putting in really means a lot to
me and I appreciate that.