"I fell in love with language teaching as an undergraduate student, where I taught Spanish as a university TA and as an elementary and high school student teacher. After teaching in Ecuador on a Fulbright grant, I returned to school for my MA in Applied Linguistics because I wanted to better understand how language research can inform practice and vice versa. It was during this time that I discovered conversation analysis and realized how useful this approach could be for training educators.
With this approach, I've learned that small changes in how we interact with students—the types of questions we ask, where we direct our gaze, how long we pause, for example—can have big impacts on student learning outcomes. My research on pedagogical interactions has greatly influenced not only how I teach but also how I train new teachers. After working with various student populations across a range of settings, I've found my niche in academic writing and am now exploring this in my doctoral dissertation. I feel privileged to teach in the TESOL Certificate Program because of the dedicated and passionate community of faculty and students. In the Intercultural Communication course that I teach, I always look forward to our discussions about how cultural backgrounds shape classroom interactions. Everyone draws on their unique experiences when we brainstorm how to promote participation and support student success."