Still finishing up? I remember one semester when I was doing my final grading in my office on a Saturday morning. It was very close to Christmas. I finally finished, submitted the grades, and exuberantly headed home with Christmas music on the radio far louder than it should have been. It was such a relief [...]
Posts Tagged ‘teaching and learning reflections’
Sculpting: An Inspiring Metaphor
Posted Thursday, December 9th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerWhat can I offer this week, which for many is one of the busiest weeks of the semester? It is such stressful time for teachers and students—everybody gets tired, even the best of us get cranky. I know what many teachers would love to have: a grading machine, delivered overnight with no assembly required.
Minus the [...]
Lessons: Humility, Acceptance, and a Commitment to Improvement
Posted Tuesday, May 18th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerWe can all improve. And we should feel at least some responsibility to do so. I also don’t think we reckon as we should with the fact that teaching skills don’t stay the same, at least not for very long. Either we are improving or the opposite is happening.
How Much Group Work?
Posted Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerSo, this is a bit embarrassing. In the previous blog I noted that faculty endorsement of group work was tentative. It may be, but I’ve also been assuming that as a consequence, use of it in college courses is not as widespread as it might need to be. Well, shortly (as in a couple of [...]
Faculty Perceptions of Group Work
Posted Tuesday, May 4th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerWe’ve all seen those survey results where employers and recruiters list the skills and characteristics they are most looking for in college graduates. And I expect you know that teamwork, the ability to work in groups with others, is always high on the list (second only to communication skills in a Wall Street Journal survey [...]
Joining the Conversation
Posted Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerIn a previous blog entry, we revisited the market metaphor and its applicability to higher education. Robert Knapp pointed out some of the comparisons that stimulate thought, analysis and hopefully response. But he concluded, as most in higher education have, that overall, a business model does not capture what higher education aspires to be about. He suggests an interesting alteration—a slogan that captures what Knapp considers an appropriate guiding metaphor for higher education. “Joining the conversation.”
Good Courses and Good Papers
Posted Monday, April 19th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerI’m always on the lookout for new teaching metaphors and I found a good one this weekend.
“What magic is it that removes the barrier—that allows teachers to converse with, rather than to talk at, our students? It’s my private theory that the solution is analogous to writing itself: that good classes, like good papers need a thesis, a plan, a problem, and, finally, a sense of larger significance.” (p. 38)
The Truly Heroic
Posted Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerA lot of books in my teaching library are now old; I’ve been collecting them for many years now. But I’m discovering there’s a timelessness to a lot of material on teaching—so much research has a really short shelf life but an instructional insight, or an approach (new if you haven’t tried it) can be just what you need. Its value is not compromised by the fact that somebody recommended it 25 years ago.
Making a Difference
Posted Thursday, February 11th, 2010 by Maryellen Weimer“Teachers shouldn’t expect to make a difference in the life of every student. They don’t and won’t. But making a difference in one life is a powerful motivator. We never forget those students who tell we have, and we are further motivated by those teachers who once made a big difference in our lives.”
The Study Strategies that Work in Your Field
Posted Thursday, January 14th, 2010 by Maryellen WeimerThere’s a piece coming out in the February issue of the newsletter that highlights content from an article written by a political scientist who teaches quantitative content to math averse students. It’s a very pratical piece but also a great model—of pedagogical scholarship and of something we should all consider doing.
The author’s basic premise [...]
