I am cleaning up my office after the book. I think a good half of my teaching-learning books (and I have a lots) are off the shelves and on the floor, desk, and table. Putting them away is a chance to look again at old favorites and find things missed or not remembered.
For example, Linda [...]

I was re-reading Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach last week. What a classic! If you haven’t ver read this book, it does deserve to be on that must-do-before-I-die list. It is such a good book. Actually it is so good, I ended up being just a bit depressed. This weekend I finished the book I’ve [...]

“What we do in the same class can be soon forgotten by one student, yet have a profound impact on another.” (p.2) Joel Foisy, a math professor, says this might well be his “biggest” teaching lesson. He has another insight along the same lines: “Any given class is really many different classes—one for each student [...]

Student evaluation results from last semester usually get distributed about this time at a lot of places. I thought a few reminders might be in order. This particular set is brought to you courtesy of the IDEA Center (Individual Development and Assessment Center) at Kansas State University. This center is one of the largest providers [...]

With 10 inches of snow on top of two inches of ice, there wasn’t much to do besides read this past week, and I got around to several books that have been waiting on my shelf. One of those books is a collection of essays, all written by faculty at SUNY (State University of New [...]

In the February issue of The Teaching Professor I highlight some very practical research that looked at student responses to written feedback provided on their papers. Most of us tend to be a bit cynical about this. We see students quickly turning to the page with the grade and then shoving the paper into the [...]

Recently I read this advice to new faculty: “Just be yourself.” Like a lot of advice, this isn’t bad; it’s just not very good. Every person has many selves, so which one of the many should you be in the classroom? Moreover, the classroom teacher is under some obligation to meet professional standards. You can’t [...]

And so begins another semester or term. Being in a job with so many endings and beginnings has its advantages. Sometimes I think we take them for granted and might need a gentle reminder of the promises they hold.
There will be new students. Chances are good that some will be ready to learn. Chances are [...]