Instructors

Instructor: Nicole (Nicky) Wakim, PhD

Pronouns: she/her/hers

You are welcome to address me as Nicky (pronounced “nik-EE”), Dr. Wakim (pronounced “wah-KEEM”), Dr. W, Dr. Nicky, Professor, Professor Wakim, or any combination of the prior.

Best method to contact: Office hours or Slack for most things or E-mail for private communication.

Brief professor statement: As a professor, my main goal is to instill a growth mindset into my students. Growth mindset means we are NOT stuck in our abilities or knowledge, and that we all can and will grow! This course aims to be as transparent as possible. I want you to understand my motivation for assessments, questions, and lessons. I also want those assessments to be clear, so please ask for clarification whenever needed.

Office Hours

Running from 7/23-8/31

Nicky’s Webex

M 3-3:30pm

Th 2-2:30pm

Warning

I am out of town from July 2 to July 22

  • I can answer questions via Slack/email from July 13-17
    • Maybe take some meetings during that time, but I’m in a flipped time zone eek!
  • I will not have access to my computer from July 2-12 and July 18-22

My scope of practice

If you are interested in what I consider my Scope of Practice, here is an adapted table from Dr. Costa’s An Educator’s Scope of Practice:

What I do What I do not do
Create positive learning conditions for all learners Police my students’ attention
Create assessments that accommodate all students’ learning styles Focus on eliminating any opportunity for cheating
Consistently maintain expertise in my subject matter area Ignore recent updates in my subject matter area
Know and apply work in pedagogy and learning sciences Focus only on subject matter expertise
Empathy Counseling
Work to dismantle racism, sexism, and oppression in all forms, apply DEI principles Ignore equity concerns
Recognize the probability of trauma in my classroom Try to assess individual trauma histories
Develop self-awareness and cultural humility Overly focus on behaviors or culture of others
Recognize and respond to impact of trauma on learning Rigidity or over-reliance on what worked for me (or others in past) as a learner
Refer you to resources in school, city, local government Ignore your concerns nor tell you it’s “not my problem”
Scaffold work in the course to gradually build knowledge Eliminate all struggle while learning