“Zip! Zap! Zop!” my 15-year-old son cried as he wildly waved his arms. “My math teacher makes us do this exercise halfway through class. You should try it with your students.”
As he reflected on his upcoming 60th birthday, Rob LaZebnik, a writer for The Simpsons, saw his worst fear coming true: He was becoming boring. Rather than embracing the challenge and growth that comes from novel experiences, he found himself settling into the comfort of
Large language models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Llama have become powerful tools that can boost productivity and learning support, but they also undermine academic integrity by making it easier for students to submit unoriginal or automated work. How can we keep assessments purposeful, relevant, and
Have you ever invested a lot of time and energy into planning a new learning activity or assignment only to be disappointed with the response you received from students? Prototyping and testing your new design may help.
What does it mean to succeed without learning? That is a question I have wrestled with since last spring, when students in an introductory programming course I teach submitted assignments with computer code that was unusually advanced, well-structured, efficient, and carefully annotated. But when faced
As I examined students’ work and tracked their progress in the past few years, I observed a consistent pattern: many students were still repeating the same mistakes, showing limited improvement in conceptual understanding, and struggling with the language of mathematics. It became increasingly clear that
It was midway through week four of the fall semester. The preservice teacher candidates sat in small groups, reviewing their assignments from the previous week. One student’s brow furrowed as she read her feedback, stopping on the comment “Add more differentiation for diverse learners.” She
The ending of a course is worthy of greater attention than it typically receives. Endless time and energy are expended on crafting beautiful syllabi complete with assignment descriptions, an outline of topics and readings, and due dates. We have thoroughly ritualized the start of a
Deadlines are a blessing and a curse. We need them to get things done, but they often loom and approach faster than we anticipated or desire. When we miss them, we feel guilty. Sometimes we devise elaborate methods to ensure the timely completion of tasks.
You’ve prepared a fabulous, interactive class. You’ve designed engaging activities, developed meaningful discussion questions, and cultivated an inviting atmosphere for dialogue. You ask a wonderful open-ended question, anticipating a flurry of discussion and critical thinking—only to be met with silence. Your students stare back at
