Teaching Innovators: Sarah Jerasa

Sarah Jerasa serves as an assistant professor of literacy in the Department of Education and Human Development. Growing up, she did not always feel seen within traditional classrooms, which is why her work highlights learning spaces that are outside of school. She found her passion for education while working at a summer camp and saw how curiosity could foster impactful learning opportunities. Her personal approach to teaching and learning is centered on embracing mistakes in order to reflect towards a journey of learning and discovery.

Jerasa works with undergraduate, master’s and doctoral students in her courses, so she enjoys forging relationships with educators at different points along their journey. We caught up with Jerasa to discuss her teaching philosophy, how literacy extends to online spaces – even social media – and how a quiet evening of cross-stitching can recharge an educator’s batteries.

What is your teaching philosophy?

Growing up, my best teacher was not an individual nor a mentor. I experienced most of my learning through mistakes. As a classroom teacher, scholar and teacher educator, making numerous mistakes has afforded me opportunities to reflect and reframe for different outcomes. I discovered who I was as a thinker, writer and learner. Through agency and choice, I became self-aware of my strengths and knowledge gaps. My self-discovery through mistakes has impacted my pedagogy and how I view instruction with students. Therefore, I strive to provide meaningful experiences and opportunities for students to excel, fail and reflect on their decisions during my courses. As such, my pedagogical philosophy as a university teacher educator is centered on engaging in reflective practices and providing experiential learning opportunities and student-centered instruction for developing relationships.

Why do you love teaching?

Teaching in the College of Education is particularly exciting because I have the opportunity to not simply pass along information or “hot takes” on classroom instruction. Rather, I see my role as a mentor and facilitator to support students of all levels. I most value the human connection of teaching and to be able to watch students grow in their thinking and development as educators, master teachers and scholars.

When did you know that the field of education was for you?

I did not always see myself as a teacher. In fact, school was often not a pleasant space for me growing up. I loved reading and writing at home, but I often felt constrained by the ways school forced particular compliant aspects of my learning. I never felt truly seen because my papers were always bleeding red, or letter-grades falsely described what I could potentially do as a reader and writer. However, during college I worked at a residential summer camp for gifted and talented middle school students, and I saw ways teaching and education could be different and could meet students’ passions and inquiries. I recalled teaching an introductory mini course on Japanese language and I felt such a connection with my campers that I knew I wanted to pursue a degree in education in order to center joy, autonomy and creativity with K-12 students.

Name an educator that inspired you to teach.

My father is an emeritus professor and growing up I wasn’t always clear on what it meant to be a professor and teach students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. I recall seeing my dad stay up late at night grading students’ finance exams, giving extensive feedback and wanting to help students grow as thinkers and learners. He would hold special office hours, gave them his home phone number and would frequently check in to ensure his students were on the right track. Whenever I would go to campus with him, students would be running down the hallway to say hello or thank him for his recommendation for an assignment or share their latest career accomplishment. It wasn’t just that my dad was an admired individual, I saw a true passion to build personal connections with others. When I decided to go into higher education and pursue my Ph.D., I asked my dad what sustained him over his 40-year career as a professor. He said without hesitation, “The students. I always worked to give the students the very best I had. To me, it wasn’t about a right answer on an exam or a score on my course evaluations. I wanted to help students see the potential they had. I valued my relationships with students over any research award or position title.”

Describe an effective approach you use in the classroom.

Whether I am working with my teacher-candidate undergraduates or my doctoral-level students, I believe that modeling is one of the most important approaches to effective teaching. In addition to studying TikTok and social media spaces, my other academic interest is writing, particularly writing instruction. Teaching writing is really hard, and a big part of becoming a stronger writer is engaging in the practice of writing. What I have found is that simply assigning an academic paper or essay isn’t really enough to support students’ writing development at any level. Instead, I spend a lot of time in my courses modeling the process of writing across many genres. In my EDLT 9220 Research in Early Literacy Development Doctoral course, we spent every class meeting examining mentor texts of academic scoping reviews, engaging in independent writing time and sharing out our work. Additionally, I believe that teaching is not just showcasing a final product but making known the messy in-between process for writing. So as a teacher, I write with my students and show them how my academic drafts look and how I’m thinking about my writing as it evolves towards a finished piece. This strategy is also my approach when working with undergraduate students who are writing literacy lesson plans for the very first time.

What is the most rewarding and most challenging aspect of teaching for you?

The most rewarding aspect of teaching are the relationships I develop with students. I intentionally take care to not only learn my students’ names but to invest time to find out their passions, interests and strengths. I have found that embedding community-building opportunities have been really rewarding ways for me to connect as well as model how teachers can do the same with their future students. One challenge I’ve experienced is how to mirror my in-person teaching to an asynchronous online or hybrid platform. In teaching for our M.Ed. program, which is fully online, I have had to carefully and intentionally consider ways that my students can still engage and build community. I’ve tried to use digital tools like Padlet, Canva white boards and other collaborative technologies so online students get to know me and their fellow students throughout the course.

What do you like about the Clemson University?

I grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia – a college town –so I remember my childhood being very intertwined with the university calendar and their community events. This was such an important experience for me that when I was looking for higher education positions, I wanted to move to a college town so my children could also experience what I loved so much about my childhood. So far, we have really enjoyed attending football games, grabbing dinner at Schilletter Dining Hall, spending weekends at Lake Hartwell and even trick-or-treating in downtown Clemson. There’s something to be said about a place where your kids and family feel like they belong which is why I am so glad I chose Clemson University to be our home community.

Is there any subject that you’re interested in and/or devote time to that might surprise people?

Outside of teaching instructional aspects of reading and writing in K-12 schools, I also study digital literacies within social media spaces to understand the many literacies that exist and take shape. As our social interactions, daily tasks and educational spaces incorporate more digital tools and technologies, I believe it is crucial to unpack how these spaces withhold, afford or shift meaning. Within these spaces I have been researching sub-communities like #BookTok to understand how users’ reading motivations shift as a result of participating in this platform as well as #TeacherTok to understand how teachers might be engaging in this community to support their pedagogy and content knowledge as professional development.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not teaching?

I enjoy spending time with my partner and my two young children. I honestly enjoy and look forward to quiet evenings cross-stitching. It is a hobby I started when I was in high school and there is something about having a focused activity that you can tune out all the chaos around you. I’m currently working on a pattern that has taken me over three years and I am still not finished!