English 

srust@uoregon.edu | 541-346-0058

Courses: I teach first-year writing both in person and online, including designated sections for international students. I also teach several different film and media courses for the Cinema Studies department and the Clark Honor's College. 

In my courses you will: 

• Learn with and from peers.  
• Explore new perspectives.  

I was invited into the Teaching Academy because:  

• I participated in the UO Summer Teaching Institute.  

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

I am working to make my teaching inclusive through student-centered pedagogy and curriculum design and aiming to achieve my goal of making my classes accessible and aligned with the best practices in Universal Design for Learning. I do this by creating a welcoming, respectful learning environment; using backward assignment design to align learning activities with course and department learning outcomes; communicating clear and high expectations and providing constructive feedback and opportunities for revision; using research-led teaching methods that consider diverse learning preferences, abilities, ways of knowing, and prior experience and knowledge; offering multiple ways for students to demonstrate their knowledge; and promoting respectful interaction between students through group discussions, presentations, projects, and encouraging students to respect each other as teammates rather than competitors.  

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

I attend Inclusive Pedagogies Research Interest group meetings twice per term and regularly attend TEP workshops, work-in-progress talks at the Humanities Center, take students to Common Reading events and exhibits at the Jordan Schnitzer Art Museum, attend unique events on campus like the Social Justice Teach-In, and also attend national and regional conferences on student learning and engagement. I complete regular peer-teaching observations of my colleagues, network with tutors and advisers around campus such as the Center for Teaching Writing, the Teaching and Learning Center, and the Jacqua Center for Student Athletes. 

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?  

For all of my courses, I find that students learn best and enjoy the class when I communicate my expectations clearly, when I value the prior knowledge and experience that each student brings to the class, and when I give them opportunities to teach and learn from one another. I articulate specific learning goals for the course and then relate each assignment back to those goals so that students understand the relevance of each assignment. I structure small-group discussions and activities during class and online to encourage peer-to-peer knowledge sharing, I assign building-block activities to help students prepare for major projects, offer multiple opportunities for students to reflect on their learning, and invite students into my own research projects by collaborating with them to build course readers and online resources. 

Who had the most influence on you growing up? 

Growing up in a large family taught me to listen and empathize; two aspects of my identity that have served me well. Students generally prefer to be listened to and taught to do things for themselves rather than be professed to by an all-knowing sage.  

What are you reading right now? 

All About Love by bell hooks. I received a copy of the book from the Division of Equity and Inclusion upon my recent promotion to Senior Instructor and it is helping me think about a central concern/need I have about teaching online: how to infuse the online environment with the same highly personal sense of love, compassion, and sense of justice and equity that good teachers bring with them to their in-person classes that students so strongly need and deserve.