UO Libraries

annie@uoregon.edu | 541-346-2663

Courses: One-shot classes in Human Physiology and Chemistry, as well as FIGs and sometimes Writing 123

In my classes you will:

• Practice foundational, transferrable skills.
• Understand what it means to be at a research university with the chance to gain new knowledge.

I was invited into the Teaching Academy because:

• I participated in a Summer Institute on Scientific Teaching.

In what ways are you working to make your teaching inclusive?

I hope that by being a female instructor in STEM classes, that I help show students about additional paths to careers in STEM. I hope that my one-shot classes help students learn how to find answers to questions that are of interest to them. However, usually I am working within the construct of an assignment that was designed by someone other than myself.

What do you do in terms of professional engagement with the teaching and learning culture on campus or nationally?

I attend workshops, read and write articles about improving instruction, read and contribute to an instruction librarian listserv, hold monthly instruction meetings and I am leading a strategic plan to use evidence-based practices for instruction within the Libraries. As part of the evidence-based practices, we are establishing a learning community allowing librarians to observe other librarians during instruction sessions.

In what ways was your teaching in this course research-led—informed by research on how students learn and inflected by UO's research mission?

Most of my sessions are structured around practices that are considered effective as I understand them and a collaboration with the instructor of records. While each session may vary, I try to speak as little as possible (and not for longer than 15 minutes) and have students practice the skills they will need to be successful. This usually involves prep work before class and then in class discussion, activities and time to ask questions.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration in whatever book or article I have read last. A year ago I found important meaning and value in using the models described in the monograph "Weapons of Math Destruction" by Cathy O'Neil to talk about the importance of using a tool like COPUS. Then I was taken with so many of the ideas in "Make it Stick" all of which seemed to have implications for how I conducted my instruction sessions. Recently, I've been very interested in making sure that others know about the importance of using coaches, especially for professionals, as described by Atule Gawande in the New Yorker and as a TED talk. My proudest moment as an instruction librarian was when I got to work with a student in a capstone class, who had previously seen me in a 200 level class. He said "Oh, now you're interesting."