People Type: GSAC

Patricia (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in Second Language Acquisition and German. Since 2021, she has been teaching German language and culture courses in both German and English at UW-Madison. Patricia’s student-centered teaching approach integrates universal design for learning and culturally sustaining pedagogy. Patricia cares about students as individuals with different identities, about their learning inside and outside of her classroom, and about class community and learning atmosphere. By bringing authentic materials that reflect diverse perspectives into the classroom, Patricia encourages students to find, make, and have important connections, changes, and opportunities. As a lifelong learner herself, she continuously attends workshops, broadens her horizon by reading scholarly articles on pedagogy and second language acquisition, critically reflects and evaluates her lessons, and regularly takes risks by trying new methods and approaches.

Haley has been teaching for over three years, in multiple areas including feminist literature, film and literature, a 100-level legal studies course, a 100-level ethnic studies class, and most recently English 100. Haley enjoys changing disciplines because she appreciates the opportunity to grow and be challenged as she develops as an educator, and each term she strives to gain a new skillset. Her very favorite class to teach was also her first class – ENGL 144, African Feminisms with her advisor and mentor Professor Ainehi Edoro. Professor Edoro really nurtured Haley’s creative approach to teaching, and Haley has developed close bonds with those students that continue today, many letters of recommendation and office hours later! Teaching ENGL 144 taught Haley how to reach students and connect them to their interests, but also how to model for your students a standard of excellence and rigor. Haley’s approach to teaching since having that experience has been to make learning engaging, and to create an environment where students feel comfortable growing and supporting one another.