Teaching Philosophy
Unleashing the creativity and aptitude in computer science requires grasping concepts that have content and form that may be radically different than what students are used to see in other classes. In computer science learning can happen only if students are fully devoted to the subject matter and if they understand their own cognitive processes. My strongest motivator for becoming a teacher is the fact that the process of learning computer science needs a more subtle form of knowledge presentation than a simple ex-cathedra lecture. Rather, teaching computer science requires a carefully crafted approach that relies on the teacher to recognize and harness students individual abilities and spark interest in exploring computer science. To this end, my approach is to connect well-known topics that students can relate to and shape the course materials to provoke students to reason about the topic from the computer science perspective. My teaching technique is, above all, aimed towards bringing the computer science way of thinking close to my students. By working this way, instead of giving them solutions for current problems, as a teacher I can empower them to reason about the problems that are yet to come.
Instructor
In summer 2011 I taught, structured the syllabus, and designed lecture materials for CMPSC 8 Introduction to Computer Science course. I presented introductory computer science concepts such as variables and expressions, data and control structures, algorithms, debugging, program design, and documentation to fifty students with little or no programming experience.
The full course syllabus can be found here: CMPSC8-Summer2011
Teaching assistant
I held discussion sections, implemented course programming materials and graded for the following courses:
- CS 177 - Computer Security, for prof. Giovanni Vigna, Winter 08
- CS 176 - Introduction to Computer Communication Networks, for prof. Elizabeth Belding, Fall 07
- CS 5JA - Introduction to Computer Programming, for prof. Michael Costanzo, Spring 07; and prof. Diana Franklin, Spring 08
- CS140 - Parallel Programming, for professor John Gilbert, Winter 07
- CS 40 - Foundations of Computer Science, for professor Peter Cappello, Fall 06
Certificate in College and University Teaching
I am working towards the UC Santa Barbara certificate in college and university teaching. The program provides training in teaching and planning a course, use of instructional technologies and application of research, theory, models, and/or principles of student learning. More information can be found here CCUT.
