Teaching Experience
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Part-Time Instructor, Santa Monica College (SMC), Santa Monica, CA August 2018-Present
Teaching Associate, University of California, Santa Barbara January 2018-June 2019
Teaching Assistant, University of California, Santa Barbara 2012-2017
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Teaching Philosophy
My goal as an instructor is to help students become independent, empowered critical thinkers, who are able to take what and how they learn in the classroom and apply it to the real world. I believe that students learn best by connecting class material with the real world and with their own lived experiences. No one walks into a classroom with zero knowledge about the topic, whether it be racism or American politics, we all know something. I encourage students to reflect and be critical of class readings and I often assign reading journal reflections that assist students in this process. I ask that they connect material covered in class to the real world by starting class with a “current events” discussion every day. As one student stated in my teaching evaluations: “Yanira welcomes questions and conflicting ideas from students. She allows us to form our own opinions and thoughts and to present them. Instead of giving us the answer, she makes us find it.”
I also embrace a collective learning environment, where students teach and learn from one another, and where I, too, learn from them. The Adjunct Faculty Mentoring Project Coordinator at UCSB often wrote in my evaluations that “it is clear that one of Yanira’s strengths is the rapport she is able to build with her students. Her classroom environment is comfortable, providing a space for her students to take risks and make mistakes.” Student often comment on how they enjoyed being able to make comments, ask questions, and learn from our class discussions. One of my proudest student evaluations is when a student wrote of how proud they felt of the work WE had done together. I truly believe that through classroom dialogue we create new knowledge together.
Finally, and most importantly, I employ an equity-minded pedagogy. The cornerstone of equity-minded pedagogy is recognizing that not everyone begins the college experience from the same place. Some have access to the resources they need to be successful college students—access to tutors, income security, access to high schools that prepared them for a college education. Some students lack these resources—they attended poorly funded schools with truncated curriculum, they are income insecure and might be working part or full-time, and millions of students have identifiable disabilities or special needs. I strive to take all of these factors in mind when designing class curricula, including reading load and class assignments. I take all of these in mind when students miss class because they could not find a babysitter or submitted an assignment late because they had to work.
Additionally, I include campus resources in my syllabi and make it a habit to remind students of the various resources available on campus, sometimes referring (or walking) students directly to the writing or the disability center and assisting them in applying for financial emergency funds when they express their need for it. By highlighting the availability and encouraging usage of these resources during class time, students feel comfortable approaching me with their own unique needs, which allows us to have a contingency plan set in place and prevents a student from dropping the class, or dropping out of college, altogether. As many students have commented in my teaching evaluations, I want care about them, and I want them to succeed.
My goal as an instructor is to help students become independent, empowered critical thinkers, who are able to take what and how they learn in the classroom and apply it to the real world. I believe that students learn best by connecting class material with the real world and with their own lived experiences. No one walks into a classroom with zero knowledge about the topic, whether it be racism or American politics, we all know something. I encourage students to reflect and be critical of class readings and I often assign reading journal reflections that assist students in this process. I ask that they connect material covered in class to the real world by starting class with a “current events” discussion every day. As one student stated in my teaching evaluations: “Yanira welcomes questions and conflicting ideas from students. She allows us to form our own opinions and thoughts and to present them. Instead of giving us the answer, she makes us find it.”
I also embrace a collective learning environment, where students teach and learn from one another, and where I, too, learn from them. The Adjunct Faculty Mentoring Project Coordinator at UCSB often wrote in my evaluations that “it is clear that one of Yanira’s strengths is the rapport she is able to build with her students. Her classroom environment is comfortable, providing a space for her students to take risks and make mistakes.” Student often comment on how they enjoyed being able to make comments, ask questions, and learn from our class discussions. One of my proudest student evaluations is when a student wrote of how proud they felt of the work WE had done together. I truly believe that through classroom dialogue we create new knowledge together.
Finally, and most importantly, I employ an equity-minded pedagogy. The cornerstone of equity-minded pedagogy is recognizing that not everyone begins the college experience from the same place. Some have access to the resources they need to be successful college students—access to tutors, income security, access to high schools that prepared them for a college education. Some students lack these resources—they attended poorly funded schools with truncated curriculum, they are income insecure and might be working part or full-time, and millions of students have identifiable disabilities or special needs. I strive to take all of these factors in mind when designing class curricula, including reading load and class assignments. I take all of these in mind when students miss class because they could not find a babysitter or submitted an assignment late because they had to work.
Additionally, I include campus resources in my syllabi and make it a habit to remind students of the various resources available on campus, sometimes referring (or walking) students directly to the writing or the disability center and assisting them in applying for financial emergency funds when they express their need for it. By highlighting the availability and encouraging usage of these resources during class time, students feel comfortable approaching me with their own unique needs, which allows us to have a contingency plan set in place and prevents a student from dropping the class, or dropping out of college, altogether. As many students have commented in my teaching evaluations, I want care about them, and I want them to succeed.
Selected Comments from Teaching Evaluations
