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advice to new instructors

Advice to New Teachers: Lie, Cheat, and Steal

Author note: This essay is meant to be a bit tongue in cheek. Just to be clear: I am not advocating for academic dishonesty.

Years ago, I was asked to address the new faculty at my institution and give advice about becoming good teachers.

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Differentiated Instruction: One Size Does Not Fit All

I teach students soon to be elementary and special education teachers, and they are often surprised to discover that their students are not “one size fits all”. The phrase has been around for decades and originally implied that a particular piece of clothing would fit

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young professor at chalkboard

23 Practical Strategies to Help New Teachers Thrive

“If you know the content, you can teach.”

How many of us have heard this sentiment before? How many of us believe it ourselves?

It is easy to assume that a content expert is automatically qualified to teach a course on his or her

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prof in lecture hall

Are We Too Preoccupied with Teaching Techniques?

College teachers love techniques. If you’re invited to lead a teaching workshop, you can expect to be asked, “Will you share some good techniques?” Suggest them in the workshop and watch lots of smiling participants write them down with great enthusiasm. Why do we love

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professor chatting with students

Caring About Students Matters

Good teachers care about their students. We all know that, but sometimes over the course of a long semester, it’s easy to forget just how important it is to show our students we care about them. I was reminded of this importance by two recent

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prof in lecture hall

Step Away from the Lectern

A quote from my June 3 blog post appeared in the October 18 issue of the New York Times. I was thrilled until I read the beautifully written op-ed piece. It proposes more lecture and less active learning. My quote was used to illustrate the

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Teaching Concerns of New (and Not So New?) Teachers

The list of concerns was compiled from a qualitative analysis of 10 years of graduate teaching assistants’ online discussion posts. The 120 students wrote the posts in a three-credit course that prepared them to teach beginning communication courses. It’s a list that raises some interesting

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teaching professor

Developing a Teaching Persona

An email query about teaching personas reminded me how much I haven’t figured out about our teaching identities. I’m still struggling with very basic questions and wondered if a conversation here might not get us all thinking more about how we present ourselves as teachers.

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