I'm excited about the topics I teach, and I teach to inspire my students to feel that same excitement. I work hard to foster a classroom environment where students feel safe learning and asking questions. Active learning guides a lot of my teaching practice and I'm espically drawn to object based teaching which allows students to learn about a subject through close looking and examination of objects. In Ornithology labs, I encourage students to come up with their own systems for identifying bird families while helping them find specific things to look for in the trickier families. I also try to cater my teaching to the interests of the students. I know I can't convince everyone to become a biologist, so I work with my students to find how the class can support their growth and learning. Finally, I rely on student feedback to guide my approach to teaching. Equitable teaching requires meeting my students where they are in their learning and I find that feedback is a good way of making sure that students in my classroom are getting what they need.