CCT ePortfolio
Graduate Certificate of Collegiate Teaching — ePortfolio
This ePortfolio documents my progress and reflections through Michigan State University’s Graduate Certificate of Collegiate Teaching (CCT) program.
Certificate Components
Class is currently in progress (Fall 2026). Reflection and artifacts will be added upon completion.
Coming soon.
Coming soon.
Coming soon.
My fundamental teaching goal is imploring and showcasing to students the power of critical thinking and reinforcing that inside and outside of the classroom. As a lot of course material tends to compound and build on itself, I aim to showcase an interdisciplinary approach to my students and for them to be able to apply what they learn in the classroom into the real world. This also applies in reverse where students can apply their lived experiences to classroom, allowing for easier memorry retention and buy-in towards class. In order to reach the largest number of students, I acknowledge that students from all walks of life will potentially enroll and be taking the class that I will teaching. With that in mind, I aspire to give examples that will allow students to apply examples or situations from their everyday life. By making content relevant, this inclusivity hopefully leads to a higher confidence in the skills that they can potentially learn and apply. With higher level course work, I want there to be a higher focus on concretely understanding the material and showcasing real-world application. For example, with the course that I have the most familiarity with (Exercise Physiology), I personally want to give students the tools that they may need to assess health-based outcomes or changes and how to create change for their participants and patients. Whether students decide to change the major or emphasis, they at least have the knowledge that they can use to enhance their own life.
As a student that came from a community college and as a first-generation college graduate, I understand the underlying mechanisms experienced by my students and the balancing act needed to succeed within school and with outside responsibility. To prevent classes from being as intimidating as possible for students – professor relations, fostering open communication and an accepting class environment from the start is always crucial with my classes. I use this as a bridge to showcase that by engaging and asking questions in class can be beneficial to tie in the different levels of knowledge that students are bringing to the classroom as well as helping to drive lecture forward to avoid awkward pauses. I’ve also employed teaching strategies gathered from professional development opportunities, from the book, How to TeachStudents How To Learn by Sandra McGuire, and targetting the build up of Bloom’s Taxonomy in a university context. Since every student will have different levels of comfortability with their concepts, providing and showcasing different types of study strategies throughout the semester and implementing reflections for students can provide more opportunities to critically evaluate and improve upon themselves. By providing a safe and ideal space for people to share their experiences while giving more strategies and techniques to improve in the class, I hope to increase the inclusivity of the classroom and to show how applicable the course content is without making it seem scary. While classes may still seem quite intimidating on the surface, I found that the application of different types of learning strategies to be the best aid for students. This include the implementation of simulated assessment practice, guided groupwork/review, flipped classroom design, and clicker review to help improve class culture and participation. As a lot of these topics have issues or concepts that can make students feel like they are “drinking water from a fire hydrant”, pairing these effective teaching practices and showcasing the connection between content can help to break up the monotony and difficulty of the presented content for students.