Teaching/Work Experiences
After serving as an educational volunteer at northern Thailand, I decided to devote my life to education and research.
Get to know more about me on my road to becoming a teaching professor!!
Get to know more about me on my road to becoming a teaching professor!!
Teaching assistant
Courses TA'd: COGS 1, COGS 14A, COGS 101C, COGS 12
COGS 1: An introductory course to cognitive science (462 students enrolled)
- I held weekly sections (68 students) and collaborated with my fellow TAs to create quizzes and assignments.
- My sections covered topics such as Distributed Cognition, Theory of Mind, and Language acquisition.
- An example of my section materials can be found here.
- My evals can be found here: where 86.2% of students recommending me as TA.
COGS 14A: An introductory course to research design (297 students enrolled)
- I taught two sections and designed workshops for research reading.
- Focused on demonstrating and explaining detailed research design and ethics
- Example materials for my research reading workshop can be found here.
- My evals can be found here: with 88.9% of students recommending me as TA, and excellent remarks from the instructor.
COGS 101C: An Upper Division course on language (54 students enrolled)
- I led review sections and graded assignments on Phonetics, Language Relativity, and Bilingualism.
- With experiences in TESOL and SLA, I was also gave a guest lecturer on Second Language Acquisition.
- The video to my guest lecture can be found here (starting at around 1hr40mins).
- My evals can be found here, where 94.4% of students recommending me as TA, and Excellent remarks from the instructor.
COGS 12: An introductory class on Language, Culture, and Cognition (61 students enrolled)
- Honed my grading and communication skills for supporting and grading two 600 word essays for each student/week.
- The final assignment was a 10 page position paper on a topic related to language, culture, and the mind. I graded
around 30 of the articles with clear grading rubrics.
- I was deeply involved in helping students structure their thoughts, confirming their understanding of papers read, and
guiding them to form a comprehensive final paper.
- My evals can be found here, where 94.7% of the students agreed that they would recommend me as a TA.
COGS 1: An introductory course to cognitive science (462 students enrolled)
- I held weekly sections (68 students) and collaborated with my fellow TAs to create quizzes and assignments.
- My sections covered topics such as Distributed Cognition, Theory of Mind, and Language acquisition.
- An example of my section materials can be found here.
- My evals can be found here: where 86.2% of students recommending me as TA.
COGS 14A: An introductory course to research design (297 students enrolled)
- I taught two sections and designed workshops for research reading.
- Focused on demonstrating and explaining detailed research design and ethics
- Example materials for my research reading workshop can be found here.
- My evals can be found here: with 88.9% of students recommending me as TA, and excellent remarks from the instructor.
COGS 101C: An Upper Division course on language (54 students enrolled)
- I led review sections and graded assignments on Phonetics, Language Relativity, and Bilingualism.
- With experiences in TESOL and SLA, I was also gave a guest lecturer on Second Language Acquisition.
- The video to my guest lecture can be found here (starting at around 1hr40mins).
- My evals can be found here, where 94.4% of students recommending me as TA, and Excellent remarks from the instructor.
COGS 12: An introductory class on Language, Culture, and Cognition (61 students enrolled)
- Honed my grading and communication skills for supporting and grading two 600 word essays for each student/week.
- The final assignment was a 10 page position paper on a topic related to language, culture, and the mind. I graded
around 30 of the articles with clear grading rubrics.
- I was deeply involved in helping students structure their thoughts, confirming their understanding of papers read, and
guiding them to form a comprehensive final paper.
- My evals can be found here, where 94.7% of the students agreed that they would recommend me as a TA.
GPSA Representative of CogSci
- I served as the GPSA Representative of the Cognitive Science Department from academic year 2022 and 2023.
- I also served as the Cultural Event Coordinator for the GPSA Social Team.
Outstanding performances of my term is as follows:
1. Drafted a statement with GPSA executive members against gun violence, and provided suggestions for UCSD on
mental health support and active shooter scenario training in prevention of gun violence incidents on campus. The
statement can be found as attached (scroll to the bottom, you'll see my name :)).
2. Worked with Social Team members on events that brought the graduate community together, such as Trivia Nights.
3. Hosted my own event on Hip Hop and Street Dance culture, introducing Hip Hop culture to the graduate population.
4. Served on the Student Transportation Advisory Committee to help monitor campus transportation related issues.
5. Served as a active member of the GPSA council, where I participated in the drafting and voting of
resolutions/endorsements/budgets, expressed concerns from my department (CogSci), relayed important info back to
my department, and volunteered at GPSA outreach events.
IELTS/TOEFL Tutoring with
college students
As a Private Tutor, I had 4 ESL students whom I taught not only IELTS, TOEFL, and college entrance exam test-prep, but also focused on training them how to "use English":
- I emphasize the usage of multimodality in my teaching materials and taught with Content Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL) principles to help students attend to the content better.
- Lesson plans integrated empirically tested TESOL (SLA) techniques such as Repeated Reading, Extensive Reading,
and Soliloquizing to help students attain native-like language skills.
- Kept track of my student's performances through formative and summative assessments with action research
knowledge.
- I emphasize the usage of multimodality in my teaching materials and taught with Content Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL) principles to help students attend to the content better.
- Lesson plans integrated empirically tested TESOL (SLA) techniques such as Repeated Reading, Extensive Reading,
and Soliloquizing to help students attain native-like language skills.
- Kept track of my student's performances through formative and summative assessments with action research
knowledge.
Chinese Tutoring with UVA students
I tutored Chinese learners from the University of Virginia on a short-term internship.
- Me and my partner focused on diminishing the gap between high/low-achievers as students came in with different
language proficiencies.
- We implemented Problem Based Learning and Task Based Language Teaching designs to solve the problem; for
which we instructed the high-achiever to scaffold the low-achiever.
- This experience taught me how to "slow down" in classes, and adjust teaching materials according to student's pace.
- Me and my partner focused on diminishing the gap between high/low-achievers as students came in with different
language proficiencies.
- We implemented Problem Based Learning and Task Based Language Teaching designs to solve the problem; for
which we instructed the high-achiever to scaffold the low-achiever.
- This experience taught me how to "slow down" in classes, and adjust teaching materials according to student's pace.
Administrative internship at a private elementary school.
(+Teaching demonstration)
Worked as an administrative intern at Future Heir Bilingual Elementary School.
- Took a major role in the production of science projects, summer water fights, and English singing competitions.
- I also completed two teaching demonstrations on grade 4 and 6 classes, which I implemented Gamification and
Multimodality in my teachings.
- Took a major role in the production of science projects, summer water fights, and English singing competitions.
- I also completed two teaching demonstrations on grade 4 and 6 classes, which I implemented Gamification and
Multimodality in my teachings.
Educational volunteering at a remote school in northern Thailand
Voluntarily taught Chinese at a remote school in northern Thailand for underprivileged students. This experience was exceptional as it not only made me fall in love with education, but also made me concerned about educational fairness. I was also gifted a hand-written Buddhist Sutra from one of my students for my love and care for them. The bond between my students and I encouraged me to fight for the people in need, as I went on to become an advocate of enhancing the efficacy in volunteering. To my observation throughout several volunteering experiences, we have somewhat been providing teaching resources that are not necessarily needed in the regions we service. Therefore, if we could identify the needs and take into consideration the efficacy of our resources beforehand, we'd make the most of what we have to offer. If my beliefs for rural education resonates with you, please feel free to contact me, I'd be more than happy to chat with you.
(Check out some pictures of me teaching Chinese and martial arts in Thailand! )