School name: Washington State University Tri-Cities

Type of school:  Branch campus of an R1

School locale: Richland, WA, USA

Is your role mostly in-person, hybrid, online? In-person

For how many years have you taught psychology? 11 years (already?!)

Classes you teach:  Introductory Psychology, Statistics, Research Methods, and Organizational Psychology when I’m lucky

Specialization: Organizational Psychology

What size classes do you teach?  25 (statistics) to 90 (Intro)

What’s the best advice about teaching you’ve ever received?  At some point, everyone has rotten vegetables in their fridge. A colleague once said this during a meeting while we were talking about how easy it is to compare ourselves to other people and feel inadequate, forgetting that even for skilled teachers, our best intentions don’t always go exactly as planned (aka, we buy vegetables with good intentions, but then forget about them in the back of the fridge….). I think the visceral imagery of the metaphor has stuck with me and helped me extend more compassion toward myself as a teacher (and human) just trying to do her best. So whenever I start feeling like I’m the only one who doesn’t have it all figured out, I remind myself that at some point, everyone has rotten vegetables in their fridge.

What do you know now about teaching that you wish you knew when you were starting? I wish I had realized earlier that it’s okay to make choices that balance student needs with my own. Early in my career, I thought being a good teacher meant constant self-sacrifice. I would spend late nights grading, answering emails at all hours, trying to be endlessly available. Over time, I’ve realized I need and deserve a sustainable approach to teaching. The grades can wait an extra 24 hours if it means I get the sleep I need. Teaching is a long career, and learning how to do it sustainably has been one of the most important (and hardest) lessons for me.

Briefly tell us about your favorite lecture topic or course to teach. Introductory Psychology will always be my favorite child (shhh…please don’t tell Statistics). The classes are large and energetic, full of students encountering psychology for the first time. I love introducing a concept and watching those “wait…that explains so much” moments happen in real time. I will never get enough of it.

Briefly describe a favorite assignment or in-class activity.  I actually have two answers. For a single class activity, my favorite is the “Barbie Drop” in my stats class. Students work in groups and use regression to predict how many rubber bands it will take to drop a Barbie from the top floor of one of our buildings. The goal is to get her as close to the ground as possible without touching it. It’s chaotic, hilarious, and surprisingly informative. Students have an absolute blast and I look forward to it every semester.

More broadly though, my favorite activities are the first and last days of class. On the first day, I love doing activities that build excitement and curiosity about the semester ahead. On the last day, I love bringing everything full circle and doing activities that help students see how much they’ve grown, both intellectually and personally. And because I like closure, I think it’s important to take a moment to celebrate the effort, mistakes, persistence, and learning that happened throughout the semester. It feels good to end on a high note.

What are three words that best describe your teaching style? Experiential. Energetic. Intentional.

What’s your workspace like?  So, so chaotic. I want to be the kind of person with a tidy, aesthetically pleasing workspace. You know: real plants, color-coded notebooks, the whole thing. In reality, it’s more of a dumping ground of papers, books, and half-graded homework. I will say, perhaps the most commented item in my office is my bin of Barbies, which piques everyone’s curiosity (if you want an answer as to why I have a bin of Barbies, see my description for favorite class activity above).  That said, my electronic files are meticulously organized. Apparently, that’s where all of my organizational energy goes (or most of it; my home closet is organized by color and length, but those are the only two areas of my life in which I am organized).

What is something you are currently focused on improving or changing in your teaching?  Right now, I’m rethinking assessment in my Intro Psych course. Historically I’ve used a pretty traditional mix of exams and papers, which still have an important place in the class. But lately I’ve been asking myself whether those assignments fully capture what I want students to take away from the course. So I’m looking into ways for students to apply psychology in more public-facing or applied settings: things like writing a letter to a legislator or creating a public service announcement. I’m still exploring these ideas, but the guiding question for me is “How can we assess student knowledge while also building additional skills?” I want more of my assignments to reflect that ethos.

What is something your students would be surprised to learn about you? I’m a super crafty person. If it involves glue, fabric, or glitter, I’m probably interested. Does something need to be bedazzled? I’m there with my glue gun. Like right now, my daughter is selling girl scout cookies, so we painted a sign for their table at the store.

What are you currently reading for pleasure?  I love reading. All books, all genres, all the time. Right now, I am reading Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. It’s making me feel a lot of feelings around grief and family, but I like that.