Volume XXXVIII, No. 14 | April 29, 2016 Educating Through Coaching: Defining Your Role and Instilling a Dynamic Classroom Environment “Pressure Is a Privilege.”—Billie Jean King Think back to the very first moment you received confirmation that you are officially a “teacher.” Whether that was an affirming call from your department’s dean, an [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 13 | April 22, 2016 How Students Can—and Should—Contribute to the Rubric Creation Process I was in a kindergarten classroom a few weeks ago and was mesmerized by a rubric that was detailed on a large flipchart at the back of the room. It was titled “My Star Paper” [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 12 | April 15, 2016 Too Many Screens? Try Collaborative Note-Taking There are two major problems that face the modern professor. The first is students who are underprepared for note-taking or who, worse still, have no conception of it. The second is students who are distracted by multiple screens. Finding [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 11 | April 8, 2016 In Their Own Voices: Community College Students Address "Revolution" In our country there needs to be a revolution. This revolution must start with our thinking. We are a society of boastfulness, when very few of us really have anything to be boastful about. We hang [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 10 | April 1, 2016 If You Can’t Beat It, Integrate It: Using Smartphones and Polling Software to Create an Interactive Learning Environment A common complaint among educators is the number of distracted students in their classes. Many of us bemoan students in our classes engrossed in their smartphones instead [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 9 | March 25, 2016 Seven Years a Teacher: Five Lessons Learned as a Two-Year College Instructor Frederick Douglass is attributed with the following quote: “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” With this quote in mind, I would like to introduce you to a story about progress achieved [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 8 | March 11, 2016 Using Badges in an Online Class: How Gamification Can Improve Student Learning Several years ago, I learned about gamification and started thinking about how I could apply it to my online courses. I decided that using badges would be a good way to introduce these [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 7 | March 4, 2016 Recognizing the Value of Soft Skills in College We all see those students in our classrooms—the ones with that certain casual attitude towards attendance, participation, and communication in general. They have experienced a lifetime of getting a “pass” for missed deadlines and exhibiting disrespect or [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 6 | February 26, 2016 Teaching as Storytelling: Bringing Interest Back to the Classroom “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story?”—Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda We’ve all been in many classrooms: high school history, undergraduate math, graduate level humanities, theatre, philosophy, biology, etc., etc. Look back through your educational career. Who [...]
Volume XXXVIII, No. 5 | February 19, 2016 Strategies to Advance Learning Outcomes in the Non-Science Major Biology Classroom As many college science instructors do, I have encountered additional challenges to successfully teaching assigned concepts to non-science majors. To better prepare for these classes, I glance through my notes from prior semesters and [...]
