Lecturer Crystal O. Wong Outlines Approaches for Teachers to Connect with Students

FACULTY FOCUS -- Crystal O. Wong, Ed.D., began her teaching career in the San Francisco Unified School District as a K - 5 music, literacy and classroom teacher before starting a second career at San Francisco State University, where she teaches in the Writing Program. She wrote this piece for Faculty Focus.

“Negative feelings about students may creep up from time to time, so we must start the relationship process by working on ourselves, and reflecting on our role as a teacher by examining how our personal and cultural experiences inform our teaching practices and biases of students (Patton, 2016). We must also appreciate the multiple intersecting identities students bring to the classroom and support them with a curriculum that affirms and embraces diversity (Mahiri, 2017),” Wong wrote. “... I also draw from faculty in SF State’s writing program who have researched undergraduate writers (Soliday and Trainor, 2016). Based on their research, students thrive when their writing courses maximize student engagement and agency, focus on students’ emerging identities, and provide welcoming pathways into academic communities.”