Susie is the best math teacher I’ve ever had. She uses a course pack that saves time during class, so we’re not spending half of class time copying the question down. The course pack covers everything we need to know and answers our questions as to why we do things a certain way. As engineers, we are always wondering “Why?”. She’s very thorough and explains every step. Her teaching appeals to every type of learner. She’s so compassionate to everyone and is always enthusiastic, which results in a positive learning experience even if we dislike the math we’re doing.
Susie has been a full-time faculty member in the Math and Statistics department since 2012, primarily teaching first year calculus courses for civil, mechanical and electrical engineering students, and was a recipient of a Teacher Recognition Award in 2025. “I attended the University of Victoria for grad studies, and as I was finishing up my PhD, I was thinking about employment. Through one of the math faculty at Camosun I met the chair of the department, who asked me if I would be interested in term teaching. So I started there until I became full-time.”
I wondered what Susie enjoys most about teaching. “I think it’s a good fit for my personality. As an extrovert, I feel energized being with people. In math, you have two options: you teach, or you do research. I feel like the research pathway is more for introverts because a lot of that work can be quite lonely. But I like the interaction with the students. Many students tell me that they enjoy college math a lot more than high school math because they are learning from someone who really likes the subject. And I love showing students that math can be fun, or at least not so terrifying.”
I asked Susie where students in her courses come from “Half of them are straight out of high school. The other half are older, some of them quite a lot older, people coming back to school because they want a career with a pension. The technology programs I teach for are short, which is appealing for people returning to school. I always have a lot of international students as well, although that’s changing right now. More recently we’ve had a lot of international students from South America, some of whom have completed engineering programs, so they come in strong.” Overall, Susie says only about one third of her students have taken some form of calculus before “so it can be a challenge trying to make the course interesting enough for the folks who understand the content, but also introductory enough for the students who don’t.” But because Susie’s students come from cohort programs, and see each other in all their courses, they get to know each other well which creates some good peer to peer support moments in her classes. “I see that happening often, especially in the second term, where weaker students work with strong students.”
I asked Susie what a typical class looks like for her. “The classroom setup is traditional, but I teach using a tablet instead of a whiteboard. I also use prepared course packs, which are skeleton lecture notes with the questions already typed out, so students can work either with a physical copy or a digital copy on their own device. For each topic, I start with foundational principles so that they have the background they need. Then we build the difficulty. I post the lecture notes on D2L, so if students choose not to take notes, they can find the notes online later.” Susie started using D2L shortly before the pandemic hit. “I’ve been moving away from using textbooks. I wanted to use textbook problem sets for extra practice, but I didn’t want students to have to pay for that extra practice. Since under Fair Dealing we can include up to 10% of a textbook in D2L, I scanned the problem sets and put them on D2L. I also wanted a place to put my lecture notes that would be easy for students to access, but not public.” And since D2L is the tool the college supports, it seemed like a natural move for Susie.
I was curious what Susie does to keep things fresh in her courses. “I feel like I haven’t been teaching all that long. Even though I’ve taught each of my courses multiple times, it doesn’t feel repetitive yet although I imagine it may at some point. Every time I teach a course, I take notes about how I could do something better or clarify something else and I try to keep an eye on what topics seem confusing to students so I can work to make them more accessible.”
I wondered as well if there were memories from her years of teaching Susie could share. “My courses are mostly about calculus, which engineering students usually enjoy, but they end with statistics, which those same students tend to resist. When I first started teaching statistics, students were getting bad marks, and the classes were not enjoyable because everyone was grumpy about the topic. So, over the years, I’ve worked on making statistics more accessible and making the questions more interesting and relatable for students, which has made it a more enjoyable experience for the students and for myself. Because it happened as a result of feedback from students, that was quite memorable for me.”
My final question for Susie was around what advice she might have for new faculty coming to teach at Camosun. “First, I would say try to start off with resources from your peers. I had lots of good material handed to me when I started. But as you gain more experience, make that material your own because when you teach from your own materials and your own ideas, it will feel more natural and creative as you find your voice as an instructor.”