Personal Description:

My passion is teaching and learning. As a science educator and librarian, I wish to help others find their way to being a more informed, engaged citizen by teaching the why and how of information, numerical, and scientific literacy and encouraging critical thinking. I see myself as part of a team that values others’ expertise while building the best possible educational experience. All viewpoints have the potential to teach me
something about the world, helping me to continue to grow as a well-informed, engaged educator.

I have 10 years of university education in chemistry, and I have worked in both academia and industry as a chemist. Additionally, I completed a master's degree in Library and Information Studies.

I offer in-person tutoring at the local public library.

Random useless skill: impressively loud evil cackle, which I seriously surprised some students with when dressed as a witch at the chemistry department's Halloween Party. I have yet to figure out how to use this in an actual teaching environment, but I welcome suggestions.

Tutoring Experience:

I have over 8 years award-winning experience teaching highly technical topics to students of many ages. Most of my experience has been teaching and tutoring first year post-secondary students. I am currently starting to tutor grade 11 and 12 students.

I started teaching chemistry when I was still an undergraduate at the University of Alberta. My first formal position was as a lab teaching assistant for general chemistry, where I was the only person teaching groups of 18-22 students in the lab. I also worked in the one-on-one chemistry tutoring help room where I won my first teaching award. After a few years, I was hired as the assistant to the general chemistry coordinator, here I assisted with developing new teaching labs to update the general chemistry curriculum.

Shortly after I completed my degree at the University of Alberta, I went to McGill University, where I once again was teaching chemistry as a lab teaching assistant. Again, I was the main educator for the students in the lab, and I often tutored my students one-on-one by appointment or over email. I taught first year general chemistry, and second year physical chemistry. I won a teaching award for my work as a physical chemistry teaching assistant.

As a librarian, I have taught a number of workshops on research and library skills. I also have provided one-on-one tutoring by appointment.

Note: For "essay writing" I am referring to writing lab reports and chemistry assignments. I also provide help learning how and when to cite in science papers, as well as how to find the information sources you need to write these papers (research support).

Tutoring Approach:

As an educator and tutor, I strive to let students know that I am happy to assist them. I tutor students in ways that encourages active participation to reinforce key concepts. I constantly look for feedback from my students through asking questions of the student and paying attention to student interactions with what they are learning. This helps me improve future material since a teacher should always work to improve themselves.