Ashly N. Romero

The classroom is one of the few places where inherent curiosity and interest in learning still prevail, or at least they can with the right teacher. One of my favorite aspects of teaching is connecting with students over a passion for learning. Granted, the goals for teaching are for students to learn, identify, and apply knowledge, but these goals don’t preclude students from taking a genuine interest in the material.

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Using Vygotsky's scaffolding approach, I like to teach highly structured courses, create assignments with purpose, and use a variety of instructional methods to enhance retention via Kolb's experiential learning. But further, I believe there is always room for improvement. I gather anonymous midterm and end term feedback from students asking if there is anything they would like me to stop doing, keep doing, or start doing to enhance their learning. This helps students feel valued and helps me gauge the effectiveness of my teaching strategies.

Finally, I truly believe that connecting with students is one of the best ways to build an interactive and safe learning environment and enhance student learning. Most students will not invest in a course or the material presented to them as heavily unless they feel connected with their instructor in some way. This could be something as simple as learning student’s names or remembering a few details from conversations you’ve had with them. They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.