The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The

great teacher inspires.

William Arthur Ward

Getting nomination for Faculty Performance Award is very inspiring. I take this opportunity to share my

student success stories and student-centered teaching experiences. From beginning of my teaching career

at Galveston College, I`ve remained focused on students success and excellence in teaching methods, both

inside and outside the classroom. Starting as faculty member at Galveston College, I have open mind to

understand that progressive excellence in teaching that needs constantly re-evaluating my teaching methods

and adopting newer methods from various sources. Thus continually striving for the most effective ways to

create student-oriented learning materials. I tap every source and even inquisitively inquiring successful

and improved students for learning and success strategies that may work for other students.

Like in any profession teaching involves openness to adopt, re-evaluate and refocus, I always reinvent

myself to examine my teaching materials, techniques, student feedback and also experiment with all

possible ways to be more simplified if necessary for the benefit of the student learning. I take every

opportunity to introduce new teaching technology tools while integrating with the study materials. I

constantly address the needs of increasingly diverse students, applying different learning styles and

incorporating various assessment strategies.

I encourage students in my classes to involve in extensive group work, critical thinking exercises and

practice to talk legible biology language. I design coursework to promote critical reading and critical

thinking abilities. I also implement Library reading and research in my courses. I conduct office hours and

strongly encourage students to visit my office if they have questions about the course material and

additional help for understanding topics. I also use different teaching techniques, writing on board,

PowerPoint presentations, animations/videos, and interactive exercises to reach students of different

learning styles and for improving student retention.

To update in teaching methodologies and interact with inter college teaching professionals I attend teaching

and Science Conferences every year. I take and share experiences with other teaching professionals for

continuous improvement. Also, Galveston College`s professional development activities and seminars offer

excellent ways to broaden my vision of teaching and learning. As part of my professional activities, I am

serving as a member of library committee.

Some of the emails from my students:

Thank you Dr. Raj! I appreciate you and the way you encouraged me to do better! I can now

finish my Bachelor`s degree! Thanks for everything!

Thank you so much Dr. Raj you are truly one of the best teacher I had.

I wanted to say thank you. I think you are a great instructor that puts in much time to help

students succeed. I thoroughly enjoyed the classes I took with you. I was not looking forward to

the microbiology project and presentation but I did end up enjoying presenting to the class. I am

thinking about becoming a high school/ middle school science teacher. I think a similar project

would be good experience for them as well. I hope you had a good break.