The Cost of “Call Me Whatever”
Nichole DeWall
March 9, 2026
I sidestepped the question for years.
I sidestepped the question for years.
Two of my past articles for The Teaching Professor describe different types of educational “moments”: teaching moments and critical moments. Although I have been in the classroom for nearly 35 years, I continue to seek out strategies, like these moments, to fine-tune my teaching. In
How should we respond when students complain about their professors—aka our colleagues?
I often wear sunglasses on my walk from my parking spot on campus to my office. I recently realized that when I have them on, I am seeing but not really seeing. The shaded lenses provide a buffer from the world. I stroll by a
In teaching, unaddressed countertransference has profound implications for educators and students alike. Consider the story of my past student who experienced heart-wrenching life circumstances during the semester: He lost both parents and became the primary caregiver for his younger siblings. Naturally, his GPA fell significantly
You know the feeling. We all deal with it.
Walking into a classroom the first day of a new semester, you’re thinking about it all: What are going to be the first words out of my mouth? What are these students thinking about right now?
I’m hopelessly unathletic, which means I’ve usually observed the rituals at the so-called sports school where I teach from a distance—until recently, that is, when a student invited me to something called “tailgating.” My takeaway? The sense of belonging and excitement that I witnessed during
Experience shows that online courses naturally lend themselves to more self-disclosure on the part of faculty and students than face-to-face courses do, possibly due to the increased quantity of discussion. Most large lecture courses have little if any discussion, and while smaller classes may have
“Even for the most experienced instructor, determining the best ways to establish and strengthen relationships with students in higher education settings can, at times, be difficult” (Strachan, 2020, p. 53). And these are difficult times. All of us are tired of life unlike what we’re
I decided last spring to implement a new teaching strategy: individual midterm conferences with every student enrolled in my classes. That’s approximately 75 students total. Throughout my years of teaching, I’d heard colleagues report that meeting with students individually during the semester had a positive
