Teaching Philosophy

As an instruction librarian, I approach all interactions with students and faculty as instructional opportunities. Each course, workshop, and individual poses a unique situation in which I work closely with the people involved to sort out their information needs, their questions and interests, and what they hope to accomplish as a result of our time together.

I am sensitive to the vulnerability it takes to ask for help, and understand that it can be intimidating for someone to approach a stranger and admit that they do not know something. I try my best to connect with the humanity of the person or people in front of me.

Hunter College – City University of New York

Course-related instruction

A large part of my work as an instruction librarian is creating one- or two-shot course-related instruction upon request. I have worked with hundreds of classes across various disciplines, developing workshops and research-related assignments and activities for students for all stages of the research process.

Examples

ENGL 120 is Hunter’s introductory composition class and librarians work each semester with all sections of ENGL 120. Over the years, I developed a series of activities for students in ENGL 120 than range from “flipped” classroom assignments that I have the teacher of record give to the students, to hands-on workshops related to various parts of the research process. My primary goal with my ENGL 120 classes is to get the students to do the work, practicing and applying the concepts we discuss in class, and reflecting on the process during our discussions.

ARTH 300 (undergraduate-level) and 602 (graduate-level) are the research methods classes for the department of Art & Art History. I have worked with various instructors for these courses over the years, but during the Covid-19 pandemic I radically reimagined my instruction for them in collaboration with Professor Tara Zanardi in the Art & Art History Department. Professor Zanardi was amenable to my embedding in her classes and I was able to develop two different assignments that built off of each other to help scaffold the research process for these students, who were researching individual works of art. This work expanded to more sections of these classes when I was approached by other Art History faculty members, and I continue sharing these assignments with others in the department, adapting them as needed for each new class.

Credit-bearing courses

LIBR 100: Information Research

LIBR 100 is the Hunter College Libraries’ one-credit class. The course focuses on the research process. Prior to the summer of 2020, all sections of the course were taught in person. In 2020, I co-developed an online, asynchronous, modular version of the class with my colleague Jennifer Newman. We have since migrated the course to the CUNY Academic Commons as an Open Educational Resource.

Asynchronous, online sections, co-taught with Jennifer Newman:

• Fall 2020-present
  • 1 section each fall
  • 2 sections each spring
  • Fall 2022 – migrated course to the CUNY Academic Commons from Blackboard
• Summer 2020 (2 sections, co-taught with Jennifer Newman)
  • Developed online, asynchronous, modular version of the course in response to the pandemic

In-person sections:

• Spring 2020 (2 sections, interrupted by Covid-19 pandemic and transitioned to remote instruction)
• Spring 2016 (co-taught with Stephanie Margolin)
• Fall 2015 (co-taught with Stephanie Margolin)
• Fall 2012

Open Educational Resources

Newman, J. & Ward, S.K.L., “LIBR 100 OER” (2022) https://lib100oer.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

Brown, Mason; Margolin, Stephanie; and Ward, Sarah Laleman, “SEEK Summer Bridge Program in the Hunter College (CUNY) Libraries 2018” (2018). CUNY Academic Works.

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_oers/7

–“SEEK Summer Bridge Program in the Hunter College (CUNY) Libraries 2017” (2017). CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_oers/6 

–“SEEK Summer Bridge Program in the Hunter College (CUNY) Libraries 2016” (2016). CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_oers/5 

–“SEEK Summer Bridge Program in the Hunter College (CUNY) Libraries 2015” (2015). CUNY Academic Works. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_oers/4