Greetings! My name is Dr. Sabrina M. Weiss (they/them) and I am excited to offer courses through Dayla learning in collaboration with Dr. Michelle Parrinello-Cason!
I wanted to share a bit about myself as a person and as an educator to give some context about how and why I teach what I teach.
Background
My background includes university teaching experience, advanced degrees in Science and Technology Studies as well as in Bioethics, prior Navy Officer experience, debate coaching, political activism, private tutoring and non-profit work. I bring all of these real world experiences into my mentoring of young people by staying mindful of challenges that they will face in higher education, professional, and adult life. These goals are balanced with a recognition that we all have learning support needs and styles that should be encouraged and developed to help us to integrate and thrive in future endeavors.
Learner-Oriented Teaching
My style of teaching is learner-oriented, which means that my classes are a little less structured to give me flexibility to meet my learners where their interests and challenges are at.
Age Range
Because of my teaching style and training, I only teach middle school and high school aged students (12+ with case-by-case flexibility).
Topics
Topics that I love to teach all touch on deep philosophical and ethical questions, such as what the limits of “a person” are (animal rights, A.I. studies), how we create media and consume it (books, video games, etc), how we negotiate difference while striving for justice (social justice), and how our identities inform and constrain our live (race and gender studies, intersectionality). My specialties are in bioethics, ethical philosophy, technology theory, embodiment studies, and gender theory (feminist, woman’s studies, men’s studies, and queer theory), and institutional/structural theories (like those in sociology). I also strive to always stay mindful of colonialism, Western-centric sources, and the need to diversify our sources and conversations.
Why I use texts
I believe in balancing accessibility (such as to educational resources) with authority/trust (reputable expert sources), and so usually include a text (often a book, but not always) in my courses to give us a common starting point that we can reasonable trust is reliable (while not infallible). I also know from my professional experiences that reading skills are essential to learning, especially for autodidactic people (people who like to self-learn) and people who follow their intellectual passions.
Accommodation to Adapt
While I do my best to accommodate learners in my classes, my goal is to guide learners in strengthening reading skills to aid in transitioning to adult life, whether it is in higher education or a vocation/profession.
Types of Texts
Sources I use in my courses include fiction books (especially fantasy, science fiction, and speculative fiction), nonfiction books (mostly written by recognized experts, like policy advisors or academics), movies and TV shows, and video games. I believe that all media can be a starting point for learning, and the use of more commonly accessible sources (instead of textbooks or expensive academic texts) gives enough structure for our discussions to expand upon.
Critical Thinking and Asynchronous Interactions
I also believe that critical thinking and engagement needs to be modelled and encouraged in our learners. As a former debate competitor and debate coach, I recognize that popular portrayals of debates are not very constructive or positive, and many people feel a need to give a quick and aggressive response to anything they are presented with in order for it to matter. However, this can often be counterproductive to effective learning. I use Socratic Method to challenge students to think more deeply about things with a goal to exercise thinking muscles, not to “trap” or trick learners.
Letting Brains “Breathe”
I also use asynchronous interactions (using Discord and journals) to encourage more reflective (and less reflexive) thinking; when we have space and time to mentally “breathe,” we can often come to more fulfilling understandings.
Opening Better Discussions
One thing I do not tolerate is disengagement or exclusion of others (whether other learners or authors as sources) in class, especially using ad hominem attacks. Our criticisms should always aim to promote a better discussion, not shut it down. While learners may need a break or space to breathe (which I encourage), completely rejection of a topic or resource will not support learning. Therefore, I encourage proactivity in checking out the listed resources for a class and contacting me with concerns before the class begins so we can work out anticipated issues as early as possible.
Meta-cognitive Skills
Meta-cognitive skills development is a high priority of mine. Meta-cognitive skills are skills like emotional self-awareness (“I’m getting frustrated and need a moment”), grit/perseverance (“I’m struggling, but I’m going to keep trying”), and self-efficacy (“I can do this”). These have been found to be incredibly important for future thriving in education and professional life, and I actively engage these as much as possible in my courses. It is more important to me that learners cultivate these skills over learning rote facts, because they will help with future endeavors. To aid in this, I ask that anyone who requests evaluation provide some goals and self-assessment to give me a starting point and to help us set realistic and appropriate learning goals together.
Clubs and Games
In keeping with my interests in learner-centered education, I also enjoy offering informal paid “clubs” and other enrichment activities, like schedule group play in challenging video games (like Valheim or Minecraft), and I run tabletop roleplaying games like Pathfinder 2e and D&D 5e (however, due to ethical concerns, I am moving away from 5e to protect my players). These are great opportunities to socialize in a supervised and safe environment and to practice those meta-cognitive skills (especially “failing forward”). I am passionate about supporting indie games and would be excited to share these with interested players. I do charge for these to get commitment from players and to compensate me for my time (and allow me to purchase rules and supplementary materials), but I do my best to keep them affordable and accessible.
Book Clubs
I also co-facilitate our book clubs with Dr. Michelle Parrinello-Cason for tweens and teens. My books all have fantasy, science fiction, or speculative fiction elements, as recognition that these genres have historically been ignored as “good literature” (and because they are my favorite genres). I strive to provide a variety of books and authors, and am actively screening books, especially those by new and diverse authors.
I am excited to work with our learners; thank you for taking the time to get to know me! Please feel free to reach out with comments or questions!
