Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but what if it’s also the best first step to faculty teaching excellence? When it comes to pedagogy, we often focus on tips and techniques. Perhaps we have a handful of prescribed practices that we recommend or
It happens every time. Months ahead of the event, I sign up to attend a teaching conference and essentially commit to spending three days (sometimes more with travel) away from home. Then the semester starts, and I get caught up in the whack-a-mole that is
My mother was not your typical 1990s Beanie Babies collector. She didn’t care whether the little pellet-filled critters that she scavenged for at flea markets and rummage sales and on eBay were in mint condition or whether their heart-shaped name tags were still intact.
I must confess, I’ve always been skeptical about group work. Raised in East Asia, my K–16 education relied heavily, if not exclusively, on lectures. Even during my graduate studies in mathematics at a flagship public university in the US, my classmates and I rarely engaged
I often think teaching should be an Olympic sport. It takes skill, knowledge of your craft, a lot of practice, dedication, will, and resilience. All these attributes have been on display as the world has watched the games this summer. As a teacher, there are
It wasn’t until I described how watching Ian McKellen’s explication of Macbeth helped me recover from a lousy class session that I realized how often I turn to YouTube videos to process the ups and downs of teaching. Here are a few more of my
We all have had that lesson that has not gone the way we anticipated: we set high goals for our students, and whether because of delivery or circumstances out of our control, the lesson failed. We also struggle with failures as we aim to inspire
How will your class be different in 2024?
This article first appeared in the December 2011 issue of The Teaching Professor.
I can’t remember when it happened; I just know that it did. I changed vocations in 2003, becoming a full-time academic after being president of a heat treating company in Ohio.
I have a brown wicker chair on my back porch. It is nestled in a little nook, shaded by the overhang of my roof and the foliage of Douglas firs and oaks. My neighbor’s water features, two little fountains and streams, gently murmur. One
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