Overheard In The Hallway: Student Evals
Professor A: Where else besides academia do you have 100+ people evaluating you every 15 weeks?
Professor B:
Professor A: Exactly.
Professor A: Where else besides academia do you have 100+ people evaluating you every 15 weeks?
Professor B:
Professor A: Exactly.
One of my former colleagues at Drake University shared this email from a student taking his online course:
prof, i luv this www class, im sitting in my pjs right now working on the stuff 4 class, but im fraid this assgnmt is gun b late. cud u gimme n x10shun til fri? srry, wont hppen again. ttyl
Insidehighered.com has an article on the University of Phoenix and their two-year degree granting college, Axia. According to them, Axia has more than 100,000 students that have enrolled over the past two years.
I know what most of my colleagues and administrators think of the University of Phoenix. Anyone out there have actual experience with either program? Just curious...
Recently had a nine year old show me how to do lattice multiplication. Here's a video showing how it works.
And I spent all that time in grade school memorizing multiplication tables!
Here is a list of 100 English words that many people spell incorrectly. The ones I see most on my students' papers?
it's (this is a contraction meaning "it is." Something that belongs to it is "its")
their/they're/there (while they are all pronounced the same, the spelling and meanings are different. Possessive is "their" and the contraction of "they are" is "they're")
Wish I had a dollar for every time I've corrected one of these words on a student paper...
Check this out. It's a list of words that are often mispronounced. I have to admit I sometimes find myself saying realator for realtor. I can spell it correctly but...
Thanks to Barbara Nixon for the link!
I was having a new dishwasher installed this morning and overheard the two workmen talking about a fellow employee. Apparently this third employee was telling them how he managed to go home early the previous work day. He kicked in the front of the appliance he was delivering and then called the store to tell them he couldn't install it because it was damaged.
This is interesting. Wally Wallington demonstrates how he thinks Stonehenge was built.
Yesterday I met with Angela Maiers and Mike Sansone while I was visiting in Des Moines (Thanks Mike for the great lunch at Huhot!). They decided that as it was the second anniversary of the date I started my teaching blog that I was ready to learn something new. I am now on Twitter and soon hope to develop my own wiki for my classes.
Professor Lisa M. Lane (MiraCosta College) writes about the fear of learning new things...when everyone else seems to be ahead of you and you're struggling to figure things out.
"I dreamt the other night that I went to the first day of class as a student, an upper division or graduate class of some kind. About 20 students. The professor walks in and begins an interactive lecture. I realize I don’t understand what he’s talking about. I look around and see that each of the other students has a stack of about 7 books. Seeing I’m lost, a helpful student opens one and points to a chapter for me. But it’s obvious from the way the professor is talking that everyone has read this already. Before the first day of class. Everyone is quite literally “on the same page”, and I have no idea what’s being discussed."
I think it's good for us as teachers to attempt something new and thus remember the frustration and then the satisfaction of learning, something our students experience on a regular basis.
I'll be in Davenport, Iowa, on April 3-4, 2008, to facilitate a workshop for the faculty at St Ambrose University. Dr. Paul Jacobson, Director of their Center for Teaching Excellence, regularly organizes teaching circles, book discussions, and speakers. I found these tips on their website for "Beating those Bio-rhythm Blues: Keeping the 8:00 and 3:30 Scholars Involved and Learning" by Professor Rachel Serienz. Her advice?
Be active. Enter the classroom briskly and joyfully conveying to students the message, "I enjoy my discipline, I enjoy you, and I enjoy the act of teaching through which you and my discipline can meet." Walk around as you speak. Use facial expressions to convey your own reaction to a concept being addressed whether that reaction be acceptance, amusement, or disgust. Use gestures, keeping hands apart and reaching out to students as though inviting them into your own enthusiastic sphere. Nothing is less motivating to students during those "blues times" than a static, solemn, arms-folded dispenser of facts.
Engage in community building. Get to know your students as the persons they are outside your classroom. Learn who is in band, choir, athletics, and who is currently involved in a theatre production. Keep current on who is achieving what...Acknowledge these achievements with a brief mention. Even elicit a brief round of applause. This can be done just prior to the time when the "start bell" sounds, so that no teaching time is sacrificed.
Open your lesson in a way likely to engage student attention. Mention a current event that relates to upcoming concepts. Ask a challenging question to which students can discover the answer by paying attention. Read an appropriate poem or a brief literary passage or show a picture that captures the essence of your day’s topic. Share a personal experience and invite others to do the same. All these serve as "advance organizers" giving students "hooks" on which they can hang in an orderly fashion new concepts they will be gaining that day.Acknowledge and honor learning diversity. Two students make be equally intelligent, yet learn best in quite different ways. Realize that your class will contain auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners and make sure that each lesson makes students listen, look, and write or do. Nearly half of college-age students are quite concrete-operational meaning that they learn best when actions and objects are used in teaching, or when teaching is related to their own concrete experiences. Make presentations object- and experience-centered whenever possible. Use pictures, simulations, and not just words to convey concepts.
Create a Wave. To prevent student drift, alternate periods of high-intensity concept presentation and note-taking with lower-intensity periods of group discussion, audiovisual presentation, simulations, etc. You can easily sense by monitoring students’ facial expressions, body language, and response level when it is time for a change of pace and mode of instruction.Link lessons. If possible, make the end of one lesson be the start of the next. Present a question to which students are expected to bring an answer to the next session. Have students open a session by reiterating what was learned during the previous session and then show them how what is to follow will be an extension of what they have already learned. But still use a novel "Launch" at times. The best way to fight the bio-rhythm blues is through diversity.
Great advice for teaching classes at any time of the day!
Recently I was in a teaching colloquium discussing how to deal with students that engage in inappropriate behaviors. One of the participants spent 20 minutes complaining about the disrespect she receives from students. This included students calling her by her first name rather than Professor and treating her like a peer rather than a professional. She attributed this to the fact that she was young (in her mid-30s) and attractive.
However, this professor showed up at a faculty development workshop wearing short shorts, a top showing her midriff, and flip-flops. Granted she wasn't teaching that day but she was on campus and likely to run into current, past, or future students. In addition, it was my first time meeting her...what impression did she give me and the others attending the colloquium?
Earlier this semester I had a student in one of my management classes complain that he didn't understand why we had so many employment laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace. While I attempted to answer him as to the purpose of equal employment laws, I don't think he really "got" it.
Recently a friend emailed me a link to an article originally published in the July 1943 issue of Mass Transportation Magazine. The article was written for male managers that were supervising female employees during WWII.
The advice included:
hiring young married women as they were considered to be more responsible, needed the work, and were less likely to flirt with co-workers;
If forced to hire older women, hiring ones who have been in the workplace before as women with no work experience "have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy;"
Having a physician on sight to give an "special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit, but reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job;"
"Giving the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they’ll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves;"
Providing a number of rest breaks as "A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day."
This article should make for an interesting class discussion...
Recently I got an email from a high school principal asking for advice on how to deal with students who "continually show disrespect—sometimes to an extreme degree—to staff members, particularly their teachers." As I teach at the college level, I decided to contact an educational expert, Angela Maiers, for advice for those who work with high school students. Her response? The 5 R's!
Rapport: "Don't Smile Until Christmas!" This was the advice that I was given as a first year teacher. It was hailed as the strategy that would allow us to gain control of our classroom and show our students "who's the boss." Thankfully, we have evolved as educators recognizing how important feeling welcome, comfortable, and validated are to our learning success.
In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell makes the case that the rapport we feel in the first few seconds (two to be exact) of an experience or interaction, dramatically influences how we will respond to the person or event. I challenge us to walk into our classrooms and think about the first two seconds from a student's perspective. How can we find ways to set the tone for the experience, invite students in, and let them know they are welcome and valued? Taking only seconds out of our day, imagine how a smile, a pat on the back, a look that communicates "we're gonna have a great day" would mean to our students.
Routine: Being consistent in what you do and what you expect sounds easy, but we all know that schools (life?) are places with constant interruption and inconsistency. In saying that, we must realize that learners do best when they know exactly what is expected of them. Consistency in routine, behaviors and policies are the key ingredients for success...
Rigor: The brain needs challenge to thrive. When students say they are bored, we need to listen. Mundane, skill, drill, fill-in the blank tasks are an invitation for boredom and disengagement. When students are not challenged, they find ways to challenge themselves. On the other hand, rigor is not something that can be demanded or assigned. If we want students to engage in critical dialogue, solve problems, take risks, and attempt difficult tasks, then we need to show them how that is done. So, the next time we assign homework, ask students to complete a project, or engage in an activity, we need to ask ourselves:
- Would this be something real readers/writers/thinkers would do?
- Does this build students' ability to think critically, ask powerful questions, extend the conversation into real life application?
- Did I teach this or assign it?
- Have I explicitly demonstrated how the task will be done by modeling, providing guided practice with feedback, and giving them acknowledgment of jobs well done?
When students do not see authenticity and purpose in what they are doing, the residual effect will be off task behavior, distraction, disrespect.
Relationship: More often than not, when a student is disrespectful, it is because the student feels disrespected by the teacher. Perception, whether accurate or not, is still reality. Even the most well intentioned teachers are disrespectful in subtle and not-so-subtle ways:
- facial expressions
- body language
- forgetting students' names
- terse comments on papers
- ignoring some students while playing favorites with others
- not recognizing their "life" skills as learning strengths
But, most of all, we disrespect them by underestimating our students' intelligence and ability, by assuming that we not only know more about our subjects, but that we are superior to our students as learning beings. Teachers that set the tone of - we are ALL learners, sometimes I will lead and other times I will learn from you and follow your lead, are more likely to get the respect they seek.
Responsibility:There is no question that I desire and expect students to take responsibility for their behavior and actions. There is a responsibility on our part as well. We are solely in charge of creating the conditions for learning to exist..
Go here to read more from Angela's post and to add to the conversation. I would say that the 5R's are important to teaching students at any level!
Here are some tips for your students who are interviewing for internships or for jobs after graduation. Thanks to Sonja Hayes (University of South Florida-St Petersburg) for developing these slides.
Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow, Permission Marketing, and Small Is The New Big is offering a paid internship opportunity for students majoring in Marketing. Those interested can get more info here. Application deadline is April 2.
I wish I could apply! What a great learning experience for the students chosen.
Dr. Scott McLeod (Iowa State University) discusses how various portable devices that connect to the Internet have made it possible to get instant answers to many questions. He then asks:
As he notes, there will still be core knowledge that students need to know. But perhaps we need to rethink what that core is for the subjects we teach...I'm thinking about the prof in my graduate program who made us memorize all the formulas for his statistics class.
In the workshop on classroom management that I will be teaching this week at St Petersburg College, we will talk about setting expectations and building credibility on the first day of class. Some of the tips are:
Keep in mind that your students are trying to figure out what kind of teacher you are...what are your class expectations, do you have a sense of humor, do you care about their learning? By spending some time thinking about the message you want to communicate, you’re well on the way to managing your classroom!
As you start preparing for Spring semester, you might find this article by Dr. Arletta Bauman Knight (University of Oklahoma) of interest. She states that there are three dimensions for establishing your credibility with your students.
Competence is the perceived "expertness" of the speaker, i.e., their knowledge of the subject matter. Competence also involves teaching the course in a way that will truly be of value to the student. Descriptive adjectives include: informed, experienced, skilled, qualified.
Trustworthiness refers to whether or not the teacher has the best interest of the student at heart. A teacher who is trustworthy is one who promotes positive teacher/student relationships. For example, students are made to feel welcome as participants in the class, the teacher sincerely cares about the welfare of the students, and the teacher is sensitive to gender and cultural issues in the classroom. Descriptive adjectives include: safe, just, kind, friendly, honest
Dynamism focuses on the teacher's "passion" for teaching and his/her enthusiasm in the classroom. It also involves the presentation skills of the speaker. That is, a dynamic teacher is one who is more likely to be confident, articulate, and animated. He or she is one who "changes the pace" in a single class by using a variety of teaching strategies. Descriptive adjectives include: emphatic, bold, active, energetic.
Professor Knight goes on to make a number of excellent suggestions as to how to affect your students' perceptions of your teaching.
If you want to see if others are citing your research, go here and type in your name.
Edward A. Snyder, Dean of the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, disagrees with the current trend of treating students as customers. As he notes, "Do we really want to tell them that they are customers―and that they are always right―when we are in the last, best position to influence their overall academic, ethical, and professional development?" He goes on to say, "Instead of the customer is always right, we ought to go with a version of you get what you put into it." Thus, we should encourage our students to put more into their education by setting high expectations, recognizing when they reach these (and when they don't). You can read his thoughts on the topic here: Download students_as_customers.doc
Thanks to Professor Brooke Stanley (University of South Florida-Sarasota) for sending this article to me.
I've addressed the issue, along with others, as to whether professors should allow the use of Wikipedia as a source for student research papers. Seth Godin weighs in on Wikipedia and makes some interesting points:
"Selecting the facts is an important part of the process. Finding them shouldn't be. I don't know about you, but when I hire someone, or go to the doctor or the architect or an engineer, I could care less about how good they are at memorizing or looking up facts. I want them to be great at synthesizing ideas, the faster and more insightfully, the better."
Twenty years ago when I was teaching Operations Management classes, we had the students work problems by hand. Today we teach them how to do problems using computer software. The emphasis now is on interpreting the answers generated by the computer.
As professors, we need to examine how useful our teaching techniques are in preparing the students to be successful in the future.
In a recent post, I brought up the issue of what faculty should do if a student is dressed inappropriately in the classroom. Now Universities and Deans are starting to examine the issue of student dress. The University of West Alabama has published "a set of guideliness on what students can't wear and in what situations they should dress more formally." As noted by their President, Richard Holland, in response to complaints by interviewers at on-campus career fairs, "I don't think [the students] know how to dress..."
Paul Quinn College and Illinois State University's College of Business have also instituted dress codes this fall. I think more schools will adopt dress guidelines in the future...
An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses the issue of whether professors can and should be friends with their students. I agree with the author's statement that "Students learn professionalism from us." I think this is especially true with undergraduates who need our guidance and modeling of what it means to be an adult in the work world. When I teach my students management tools, one thing I stress is how difficult it is to do performance appraisals and make tough decisions about someone who is your friend.
I believe we can create a culture in the classroom where students feel free to ask questions or bring career issues to us. However, it's very easy to cross that line between being their teacher and mentor and being their friend. They have friends. We shouldn't be on Facebook or hanging out every week at student bars doing shots (yes, one of my former colleagues was doing just that. Note the word, "former"). This is not the type of role model I want to be for my students.
Other advice in the article?
If students come to your office hours, do you keep the door open? (Most faculty members do.)
If students want to talk about their personal tragedies, should you try to solve their problems? (Probably not, but offer sympathy and the name of a good counselor.)
If students send you very passionate or suicidal e-mail messages, what do you do? (Tell someone, quickly.)
The author ends with the note to "Be friendly, but be a grown-up." I agree. On the other hand, I do have a number of former students that keep in touch and let me know how they are doing now that they have graduated.
Southwest Airlines has been in the news recently for objecting to how their customers were dressed. On September 30, a man was told to change his t-shirt that was described as being obscene and in very poor taste. In another case, a young woman was told to cover up her mini skirt and skimpy top. In both cases, Southwest later apologized and employees were informed that the airline does not have a dress code. However, according to one article, Southwest "has language in its contract of carriage [that] it reserves the right to deny service to customers who are abusive or threatening, or whose clothing is "lewd, obscene or patently offensive" and they were considering "giving employees more specific examples of offensive and allowable dress."
I was thinking about this in connection to how students dress for class. Back in the early 90's I had a male student in the classroom who wore a t-shirt with the F-word on the front of it. I didn't know how to handle the situation and ended up ignoring both him and the shirt. Since then I have had to talk to students (mostly female) about inappropriate clothing worn during formal presentations...skirts too short, midriff showing, even one woman with a see-through top.
Part of our job as professors is to teach our students how to be successful in the workplace. I'm curious if others say anything to students who come to class dressed inappropriately...
If you haven't had a chance to see this, click here to read about the last lecture given by Dr. Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor. Dr. Pausch has end-stage cancer and his lecture addressed the issue: "What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance?"
Some of his advice:
"Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want things." (in response to numerous rejection letters he's received over the years).
He also encouraged faculty to be patient with their students. "Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you."
He ended by noting that he believed that "helping others fulfill their dreams is even more fun than achieving your own."
What piece of advice would you give if it were your last lecture?
Just got the following email from one of my students from last spring semester:
Dear Dr. Kirk:
I hope you are doing well. I wanted to drop a quick line and say that I really did enjoy your class very much last semester. I really learned a lot and unlike many classes where I learn a lot of information, I think I retained quite a bit instead of doing a brain dump at the end of the semester.
I am still on target to graduate next May with only 4 classes left so I may be looking into a career in Human Resources. It just seems to be work I would enjoy, so who knows. The really nice thing is that due to your HR manager interview project I have a great contact in the department who is willing to help me out.
I hope you are well, and thank you again for everything!
<Student>
This letter made my day!!
One of the best ways to manage your classroom is to know your students' names. Your students will be impressed that you made the effort and will be less likely to engage in disruptive behaviors. Also, we expect our students to learn our subject matter so it's really not fair of us to say we can't learn their names.
Some tips to help you:
There's a great article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that examines the statement that your syllabi make about you as a professor. According to Professor Monica D'Antonio (Temple University), looking at a professor's syllabus for a course allows a student "to get to know professors in the college without ever having to meet them or attend their classes...no need to do either to figure out what kind of a faculty member they were. Their syllabi said it all."
She goes on to say, "Students can deduce how a class is going to shape up simply from the elements of the syllabus itself...For example, if a professor's grading policy puts a heavy emphasis on class participation, group work, or written assignments, then that professor probably wants students to be creative, to engage in dialogue, and to interpret texts freely. If the grading system is simply an average of two or three test scores, with no emphasis on participation or interactivity, then one can assume that professor would almost rather the students not show up for class and get the notes from a friend."
One more point to consider when we write our syllabi: it's important that we make sure to proofread and use spellcheck if we expect the same from our students.
Dr. Leslie Madsen-Brooks commented on my recent blogpost on "How to develop a syllabus for a class you haven't taught before" with three comprehensive questions:
Great questions to ask yourself as you prepare for the new semester.
Last week I had a chance to meet on an informal basis with several students from one of my classes last spring at the University of South Florida-St Petersburg. In addition to talking to them about their career aspirations, we talked about teaching and learning. Afterwards, I asked them to email me with some of their advice for teachers that I could share with other faculty. Specifically I asked them, "how do you know the first day or so of class that this is going to be a good class? That you want to be committed to coming to class, doing the work, etc? Especially if it’s a class with a lot of work, what does it take to really motivate you?"
Here are some of their responses:
I thought the students' comments were interesting and great advice for all of us who teach!
I asked the students in my Managing Diversity class at the University of South Florida-St Petersburg to share three "Aha" moments from the semester on our class blog. Here's one student's comment:
"I actually remember this moment. I was giving my opinion about a race issue, I think it might have been the video we watched from Primetime Live on racism. But as I was commenting I heard what I was really saying. And it sounded like my father. I love my dad dearly but I am not always happy with the things that I have learned from him...I feel as if some of his prejudice has rubbed off on me.
I feel like this class has given me the chance to re-evaluate my subconscious thoughts. I said last week that this class has meant alot to me because tolerance is kind of different from intelligence. My "lightbulb" moment came when I realized that my intelligence would not make me do well in this class but that I would have to start rethinking how I felt about other people. That day I went to lunch with a friend and I remember how I could not stop talking about our class, I just got "it".
These moments are why I have loved teaching for the past 26 years...
In a recent blogpost, I mentioned that recruiters were checking out job candidates' blogs in order to get information on education and experience that can't be determined from a one page resume. Here's more technology to help your students get that first "real" job out of college. Workblast.com allows job seekers to upload their video resumes for free. The site gives students the chance to "sell" potential employers on why they should be hired. As noted on the website, "Imagine an Employer's reaction if you follow up a face-to-face meeting at a career fair or networking event by Blasting Your Resume to them!"
I'm sometimes asked if I have ever taught an online course. My response is no, that I do use the internet as a resource both in and outside the classroom but haven't used this medium to completely replace the classroom experience. I'm not sure my teaching style would lend itself to online teaching but would be willing to try at some point. Although I don't think all classes will be taught this way in the future, I do see more and more universities offering some of their courses online.
Thus, I was interested to see this article stating that all students at Northwest State Community College are going to be required to take at least one online course in order to graduate. Administrators there state that they believe online education helps students to develop skills in independent research and discovery. In addition, “businesses are moving toward online training, and students have to learn to be self-motivated,” according to Linda Carr, chief learning officer at the college.
It makes sense to me...
Sarah Needleman writes about how recent college grads can use a blog to attract employers in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. As she notes, corporate recruiters are surfing the internet to "unearth job candidates, expanding their talent pool and gaining insights they say they can't get from résumés and interviews." Recruiters also check out candidates' blogs to determine their writing skills as well as additional information on education and experience that can't be determined from a one page resume. In addition, putting on a blog that you are job hunting allows you to network with many more people than just telling your friends. Many companies are now googling their job applicants and savvy students can use the internet to "sell" themselves.
However, the downside is that "indiscrete bloggers can derail job opportunities. A candidate for an entry-level sales job...was knocked out of the running...after [the potential employer] read his blog. "My jaw dropped," he says. "The person started to make disparaging remarks about the people he interviewed with." The employer "was also put off by instances of foul language and comments about getting drunk. "This was a character problem," he says. "Whether you're writing about people you interviewed with or you're making a public statement that can be construed as immoral, these are the types of things an employer is going to look at and consider in their assessment of you as a candidate."
Many of my students are graduating in May and I make a point to caution them about the types of information that can be obtained on them by searching the web. Impression management is key!
Back before the beginning of this semester I asked for suggestions of business books to use in my Organizational Behavior class at the University of South Florida-St Petersburg. I decided on the following list and last week the students began their team presentations on these books. The students have been very excited about reading the books and talking about them. Here's our list:
Ken Blanchard, The One Minute Manager
Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, Now, Discover Your Strengths
Daniel Dana, Conflict Resolution
Steve Farber, Radical Leap
Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference
Daniel Goleman, Working With Emotional Intelligence
Patrick Lencioni, Five Dysfunctions of a Team
David Lorenzo, Career Intensity: Business Strategy for Workplace Warriors and Entrepreneurs
Bob Nelson, 1001 Ways to Energize Employees
One student told the class that he hated to read but he loved Steve Farber's book as he felt it made a real difference in his life. His face just lit up as he discussed the book. Another student called Dr. Daniel Dana and interviewed him about conflict management so she could share his insights with the class.
Thank you to Liz Strauss, Mike Sansone, Tim Johnson, Carolyn Manning, Kent Blumberg, Ann Michael, Kenneth Davis, Phil Gerbyshak, Michael DeWitt, Mike Wagner, and Francie Stirling for your book suggestions. (BTW, Francie, I used your suggestion of the Stephen Covey book in another class).
One of my goals this year is to read a current book on teaching each month. This month's choice was The Joy of Teaching: A Practical Guide For New College Instructors by Dr. Peter Filene (The University of North Carolina Press, 2005). The book contains 133 pages of text and another 22 pages of research notes and an annotated bibliography. It is extremely well written in a conversational tone and can be easily read in a few hours. He also uses the "show, don't tell" principle by including quotes, rubrics, and materials from other outstanding teachers. I especially liked his assertion that he isn't dictating "right answers" to teaching. As he notes, teachers vary in their values and teaching styles as well as in their subject matter, size of classes, and types of schools. He acknowledges that "one best teaching style" won't fit all. His point is to bring up issues to think about such as understanding the type of student you have and defining what you are trying to accomplish and how you will measure this.
The book is a good starting point for new teachers or even those of us who have been teaching for a while as far as developing our philosophy of teaching. He presents some ideas for building a "promising syllabus" to set up what you want your students to know, understand, and then be able to apply.
Dr. Filene goes beyond just the classroom to discuss the difficulties for a new teacher of balancing teaching, research, and service. He ends with some excellent tips such as not expecting to be perfect at teaching and the importance of putting some constraints on how much time you spend on preparing and grading.
I would definitely recommend The Joy of Teaching.
Dr. Spencer Overton (George Washington University Law School) is currently researching generational differences and poses the question, Are Baby Boomer Profs Better than Gen X Profs?
He quotes NAS Recruitment Communications as reporting:
“Generation Y is expected to get along better with the Baby Boomers than those belonging to Generation X. . . . Generation X thinks that the Yers do not want to perform menial tasks and entry-level positions. The feeling of ‘I had to work to get there, why don't they?’ is one of the major obstacles between members of Generation X and Y.”
As he notes, "Conventional wisdom has it that students (Gen Y) relate more easily to younger professors (Gen X)—but the statement above seems to suggest that older Baby Boomer professors may have an edge."
What is your opinion on this? Do Baby Boomer profs relate better to this current crop of Gen Y students? Should we adapt our teaching styles to the generations that we find in our classrooms?
Mr. David Sherman (Principal of South Park Elementary School in Deerfield, Illinois) is fascinated by Wikipedia. As he notes, "The ability to have real-time information at the click of a mouse button is a tremendous resource for teachers and students." But he goes on to say that not everyone agrees with him, that the local high school in his town blocks their students from using Wikipedia. He believes a better approach is to teach the students how to use this resource responsibly and appropriately. As he notes, shouldn't we be preparing our students for success in the real world? Obviously, they will be exposed to many sources of information, none of which will be blocked, and so their job will be to evaluate which sources are credible.
A fellow principal on his weblog shares this link where Jon Udell examines how an entry in Wikipedia changes over a two year period, including how the editors handle spam or incorrect material. If you've wondered about what Wikipedia is or how it could possibly be accurate, watch this video.
Does anyone have a policy or guidelines for students on how to use Wikipedia that they would like to share with other teachers?
Every semester I have several undergraduate business students ask me about my thoughts on getting an MBA. Some I think see the graduate degree as a way to avoid getting into the work world for another year or two. Others think the MBA will give them an edge when they start interviewing for jobs.
Rajesh Setty offers a free ebook on "When You Can't Earn An MBA...Thoughts on Getting Ahead Without An MBA." He quotes Seth Godin who said in March 2005 that "actual experience combined with a dedicated reading of 30 or 40 books" could be an effective alternative to getting an MBA degree.
Rajesh does discuss what he sees as the positives to getting an MBA which include:
"Networking--with faculty, classmates, and professional contacts
Access to brilliant minds--through lectures and other events
Awareness of powerful concepts and tools--it's good to know these resources exist
Seal of approval--the degree is an entry-requirement for some places and professions
Structured thinking--as compared to 'on-the-job learning'
Time and resources--to test concepts in a controlled environment."
Rajesh goes on to say that if one doesn't have the time or money to do an MBA, there are other ways to get some of the same benefits. Some of the suggestions he advocates are:
Acquire knowledge at a breathtaking speed--read books, blogs, magazines, newsletters, watch podcasts, and talk to friends and colleagues.
Belong to powerful networks--such as professional organizations in your field, respected non-profits, golf clubs, alumni networks, political and religious affiliations.
Build great long-term relationships--make sure these are two-sided so that both parties are benefitting.
Lead a volunteer effort--organize a charity fund-raising event within your organization or start a company club such as Toastmasters.
Get a good mentor--someone who cares about you and your future success.
He also presents a sample one year plan with suggested books and activities. His advice is great, not only for our students but for all of us who struggle with keeping current in our field. Get the free ebook!
Yesterday I attended a lecture by Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, at St Pete Beach Public Library. Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, and is a free content, multilingual encyclopedia that anyone can edit or add to. As Mr. Wales emphasized though, "it is not a million people adding one sentence each; in fact, a community of around 1,000 people are responsible for half of the edits done."
Wikipedia has been in the news a lot lately. CBS News did a story in December 2006. Nature did a study of Wikipedia and Britannica and found "numerous errors in both encyclopaedias, but among 42 entries tested, the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three."
College teachers are concerned about students using Wikipedia as a source for research papers. Jimmy Wales stated that there was a right way and a wrong way to use it. According to him, "If you're in college, you shouldn't be citing Britannica, much less Wikipedia." But he also noted that "telling your students not to use it would be like telling them not to listen to rock music...and with the same result." He sees Wikipedia as a possible starting point but no excuse for not reading the original documents on the topic you're researching.
I suggested to Mr. Wales after his presentation that he address this issue on his blog. Give teachers some suggestions on what to tell their students about how to use