About Me

My teaching philosophy is to create the best possible learning community by offering a variety of instructional approaches and foster the development of success skills for my classroom and beyond. Regardless of the course I want students to want to learn. This desire to learn is present in everyone but it needs to be activated. Anatomy & Physiology is a very challenging course but the subject is fascinating. It presents an opportunity to spark interest & interject humor. The rectal valve, for example, is important structure for everyone. It prevents that “you hope no one noticed” fart from being loaded. As you can imagine, it gets giggles but it captures attention, induces laughing and endorphin release. Happy brains want to learn. What also facilitates this “want to learn” is that I quickly establish an open dialogue with students. Involving the student in their own learning also lies at the root of my philosophy. I encourage students to participate in discussion and provide an environment where they feel like they can take risks. Even when students are wrong I always applaud them for their efforts (“Good try/Not quite/excellent idea”). Step in my classroom and you’ll probably find it rather noisy; reflecting learning is in progress. I believe it is important to present myself as a friendly and supportive instructor. I take time to get to know my students, their names, what their career goals are or what their interest is in the course. I also make time to chat with the students and it does not have to be about the class. Students are valued members of my classroom regardless of their background, education or other social factors. Part of my effectiveness as an instructor is my ability to relate scientific concepts with everyday concepts students are familiar with. For instance, students have trouble visualizing ionic movements and how these movements relate to the establishment of resting membrane potential. I turn myocytes/neurons into banks and ions into dollars. Students understand money and can relate that concept to ionic gradients and movements. While it may sound silly, ions as dollars, but it is an effective means of concept visualization for the students. To be an effective instructor I rely on my creativity and analytical abilities. I constantly research and develop lesson plans & assignments, review, take out what didn’t work and continually change my approaches. What works for one class may not work for the next. I try creative ideas including 3D modeling, cartoon depictions and even create crime scenes with a murder to solve as part of a dry bone lab. Studies show that happy and engaged brains learn better.

Education & Certifications

Q&A with Amanda

Tutoring Subjects