Summer flexibility presents a pedagogical paradox of sorts. On the one hand, summer is the perfect time to reflect on our teaching, change out required readings, fine-tune assignments, and generally modify course design. On the other hand, come the last day of the academic year, what most of us yearn for is the wide expanse of days with few to no student emails and the flexibility to do whatever we want, a proposition made more attractive by our not being on contract. The good news is that our minds are very good at incubating ideas, and the time we take off may in fact lead to more innovation and insights when we focus on work. All well and good, but there is another way to advance your teaching effectiveness: pedagogical meta riffing.
