College Courses

Whatcom Community College: Community & Continuing Education Program

I have taught community education classes on natural history nature observation, botany, entomology, and marine and forest ecology. My approach to community education is to get people out into the field to learn about the incredibly biodiversity that surrounds us in our daily lives.

Dates: Ongoing

Location: Bellingham, WA

Activities: Led one or two-day classes spent mostly in the field learning about local plant and animal life.

Western Washington University: Literature of Nature and Place

During the fall of 2017 I served as the teaching assistant for Literature of Nature and Place, a 400-level environmental studies course at WWU which was offered online that quarter. The class introduced students to the writing of literary figures including John Muir, Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, Terry Tempest Williams, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and other well-known authors. Students also wrote an original nature essay to develop their own voices as writers.

In the winter quarter of 2018 I co-taught an in-person version of Literature of Nature and Place, helping to redesign the class to focus on encompassing the voices of marginalized peoples and critically examining the ways in which we talk about nature and the environment. Authors featured in the winter course included William Cronon, Esther Belin, bell hooks, David Abram, Jamaica Kincaid, Robert MacFarlane, and many others. Students wrote an original nature essay as part of this class.

Dates: September 2017 – March 2018

Location: Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA

Activities: Assisted with selection of readings, design of the syllabus, grading student papers, mentoring students in writing and critical thinking, and leading class field trips.

 

University of Montana: Writing 101 

During the 2011-2012 academic year I taught two semesters of first-year college writing. The theme for the year’s Writing 101 class at UM was “Writing about place,” an exploration of what it means to live in and connect with a cultural, natural, and historical place.

Dates: August 2011 – May 2012

Location: University of Montana, Missoula, MT

Activities: Taught college writing concepts including rhetoric, argumentative writing, narratives, revising, and editing.