“Focus on what you can control” is hardly groundbreaking advice. Yet when I read David Gooblar’s version of it this August in One Classroom at a Time: How Better Teaching Can Make College More Equitable (Harvard UP, 2025), it felt newly persuasive: “[Professors] cannot control
When generative AI (GenAI) appeared on the higher education landscape, the general reaction ranged from enthusiasm and curiosity to grave concern around how a technology that was not designed for education would impact our lives as educators and the lives of learners. The uncertainty educators
Why do students come to class? We may hope it’s for the love of learning, because of our inspirational teaching, or because they know it will help them get jobs or live happier lives in the long run. Of course, these are not the common
Facilitating experiential learning is central to my teaching philosophy. As an instructor of application-based coursework, I continually seek ways to help students engage deeply with course material and explore practical avenues for applying it within their field of study. Research has shown that application-based and
Few roles in higher education have transformed as dramatically as that of the academic advisor. Historically, advisors were often behind-the-scenes figures signing special permission forms that students submitted and retrieved through administrative assistants, with little direct contact or guidance. Today, advising has become deeply integrated
Trauma is an invisible backpack that accompanies students into the college classroom. This backpack may carry a history of abuse, exposure to violence, racial trauma, neglect, family loss, experience as a refugee, or survival from a natural disaster. Yet we often expect students to be
Building rapport with students from the very first day of class is a cornerstone of effective teaching, and a fundamental, yet often overlooked, step in this process is learning their names immediately. While it might seem like a minor detail amid the hustle and bustle
John lost both his parents by the time he was 12. He moved around between different families, got himself into a lot of trouble, and eventually was expelled from high school. Fast-forward many years, and John, after earning degrees from Harvard, Columbia, and Yale, went
For some of us, it takes some time to get into the swing of summer. Some of us only finished our academic years mid-June. Others immediately attended conferences or workshops. Every year, I look at the months of summer looming ahead and map out all
Every fall term since the start of the pandemic, I’ve expected that students will come to class with more energy than the semester before. Yes, Zoom classes and the fear of contagion changed our experiences of higher education, but as the distance from the initial
