Spencer Ivy

I love to teach. I believe that there is no greater feeling than seeing the eyes of a student light up with an idea, or their leaning forward into a desk as if to draw themselves physically closer to some new insight. Often times, these insights are shared, others they simply find their way onto the private pages of notebooks to be forgotten until they are needed.  Nevertheless, whether these ideas make their way into the classroom or not, it is my privilege and joy to see them invented. I believe that the educational experience ought to be a transmission of the capacity for such insights from professor to student. Thus, in the mode of teacher, I play the role of midwife, or conduit through which new, electric insight might be born out in the minds of my students. I do not take it as my goal to impart 'the facts' nor to teach 'the truth,' but rather to offer the necessary tools (lessons) to my students so that they may arrive at the truth for themselves - to experience the joy of insight and wonder in creativity that they are each capable of.  I am always experimenting with my strategies and course design to achieve these goals, and hope that these experiments might help other teachers and course designers. To this end, my syllabi and some selected lectures are available below.