The Finish Line
One of the great things about life in academia is the ebb and flow of the year. It has a rhythm. We prepare for our new students, we hand out assignments, receive the assignments, grade the...
View ArticleAnother wild ride begins!
I love the predictable change that is the academic year. Up and down we go, twists and turns, thrills and frights….but we always know that the ride will come to an end briefly before another begins....
View ArticleWhen Things Don’t Go The Way You Plan….Have a Plan B
True Confessions Time….. Sometimes the great ideas and innovations we develop for our students don’t go according to plan. I tried the “Learning By Answering Questions” in one of my intro Biology...
View ArticleDo we teach to the evaluation?
Student evaluations of courses and professors have been around for decades. Typically, they are given at the end of the semester and serve as a tool for evaluating the quality of instruction and, thus,...
View ArticleComponents of grade inflation
One of my recent posts centered on a possible link between student evaluations and grade inflation (see the post for Feb. 17, 2015, for example). While many studies suggest that evaluations may play...
View ArticleOffice hours: An underutilized teaching time
Sometimes it seems that no matter when I hold office hours, the majority of my students are otherwise occupied. Even when I hold office hours in the evening, although more do show up in the evening....
View ArticleApril is the Cruelest Month
For all of us in the midst of the academic year, April is the toughest month. The weather, especially after a winter filled with darkness, cold and gray skies, beckons us outside. Color returns to our...
View Article“See you at Graduation”
Minivans, with their hatches up, gradually fill with suitcases, trash bags filled with comforters, boxes of books, lamps at odd angles. Students wander nearly deserted hallways, sometimes parents in...
View ArticleThe importance of the first five minutes of class
Maybe they just woke up. Maybe they rushed over from their previous class. Maybe they just finished a big paper or assignment. Whatever the cause, it’s most likely that your students are distracted and...
View ArticleSometimes you build it, but they don’t come
If you read the blogs, websites and published articles about teaching these days, you read a lot about things like making your class more engaging through active learning, or how to get your students...
View ArticleThe importance of office hours
The Doctor is IN. Most of us have a few hours a week we set aside for students to drop in and ask questions. At my institution, we are required to have at least two hours each week that are … Continue...
View ArticleStorytelling is a great way to teach content
Active learning. Student-inquiry. Flipped. “Content coverage” is taking a back seat to more active, student-centered activities. We hear, “Less is More.” “Content doesn’t equal learning.” And yet, at...
View ArticleDespite your best efforts…..what now?
Your students seemed active and engaged with the course material. They asked great questions, offered interesting comments in class, worked effectively in groups on various activities. They seemed to...
View ArticleTriage Time
Now that it’s well into November, we only have about a month to go in the semester. This is the time of semester when our students are looking a little ragged. They seem sleep-deprived and more of them...
View ArticleWhen College is like a Ghost town
You can walk the sidewalks of campus and not run into any students. From the outside it looks like everyone is gone for the winter break. It’s a weird time of semester. You know that lots of students...
View ArticleWhen to Model, When to Guide
Student-focused learning is all the rage in higher education. Putting the student in the driver’s seat of his/her/their own learning. Enticing them to put in the elbow grease that it takes to really...
View ArticleAn unexpected consequence of the student-centered classroom
You have reduced your lecture time to short events that are bookended by student activities and discussions. Most class sessions include group work like discussions, debates, collaborative...
View Article“Excuse me, is what you are saying right now important for us to know?”
You’ve launched into an explanation of a difficult concept, using a story or example that will illustrate it nicely. The story isn’t in the reading. It deviates from the perceived script. Then a...
View ArticleThe Light at the End of the Tunnel
This has been one of the craziest semesters I have experienced in years. It’s a combination of things. I’m teaching a new laboratory course in a subject I haven’t taught for decades. All new labs, all...
View ArticleFinal papers written under stress
You have several large stacks of student papers to grade, one for each class. These are final projects; culminating experiences that your students probably stayed up all night finishing. For some of...
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