course planning
Making feedback worth your while
To be helpful, feedback should focus on helping students to improve their work, not on evaluating them. And it should connect back to expectations that were clear from the start.
Who am I teaching? Ideas for the first day of class
It's important for instructors to get to know the learners in the room, because the learners' prior knowledge and goals play a huge role in determining what they'll learn, and how much they'll learn, and how quickly. Everyone in the room will learn a lot more if the class becomes a community.
Graphic content: using mind mapping in class
In my mind, there are three great ways to use mind maps in the classroom: 1) mastering a lot of new information in an intro class; 2) going beyond rote learning; or 3) planning an essay, paper, project, or complex assignment, especially in a group
Teaching first-generation college students
When I delved into scholarship on supporting first-gen college students, I thought about Marius and the Roman "new man" trope. They turned a potential deficit into an asset, and a core aspect of their identity.
Joining the world's nerdiest conversation: learning to read (and write) academic papers
By teaching students to pick apart and become conscious of the structures and conventions of scholarly writing, we can help them to absorb those conventions and replicate them.
Making online courses more accessible with Universal Design for Learning
UDL can and should include using tech accessibility tools, but also goes much further. At the end of the day, UDL is about getting rid of artificial barriers so that everyone can get on with the business of learning.
What does it mean to be "student-centered"? Or, how is Latin like horseback riding?
When I first heard the term "student-centered teaching," I recognized it as an apt description of what I had been doing instinctively. In general, it means shifting your focus from the content you're teaching to what your students are learning.
Quickfire challenges in the classroom (or, ideas for breakout rooms)
I think the "Quickfire" is a framework that we can apply to teaching, particularly to active learning in the form of group work, including online breakout rooms. It's something we can do in every class, and we can mix it up to keep it interesting.
When dialogue goes off the rails
As professors and facilitators of discussion, we urgently need more training on what to do when discussion goes off the rails, because it does not feel good to let students down.
Gimme a break: active learning breaks in lecture courses
Embrace taking breaks during your lectures, even just for a minute or two, and even at the end of the semester when you're exhausted. It's not laziness, it's cognitive science!
Sharing the Wealth: what is an "asset-based" approach to teaching?
It's worth reflecting on what assets you bring to the table as a learner, too, as you think about how to make the most of the assets others bring to your classrooms.
The Tyranny of Learning Objectives
Civic Engagement in the Classroom, part 2
Missed Part I? Read it here. 3. Create community in your classroom I only taught for a few months during the pandemic. It was one of the hardest challenges I’d faced in teaching—like laying railroad tracks while the train was moving—and I know I wasn’t the