Ask-Dr-Kirk

Tips On Teaching Adult Students

Dr. Brooks Doherty (Rasmussen College) shares several tips on teaching adult students. These include encouraging them to share their “real world” experiences with the traditional students, acknowledging that they may have a technology gap (and assisting in getting their skills up-to-date), and being efficient with assignments and class activities. You can read more here.

 

Amazing Use Of Dancers As Visual Aid Rather Than Powerpoint

John Bohannon uses dancers instead of powerpoint to discuss scientific topics and advocates that we all be more creative in our visual aids. Great thing to think about as we begin a new semester of teaching.

 

Classroom Management Issue: Cell Phones

 Dear Dr. Kirk,

My students think that I am just in another generation because I don't think they should be checking messages on their cellphones during class. Do you have any advice on this matter?

Dear Past Generation,

I tell my students that I am teaching them how to be successful in the work world. Their boss is not going to allow them to check for personal phone messages during a business meeting with a client. Thus, I tell them I expect that they come to class on time, turn off their cellphones, etc.  Checking cellphones during class is rude and disrespectful to both me and their fellow classmates.  I put all this on my syllabus and discuss it and why the first day of class. I bring my cellphone to class the first few classes and make an issue of showing them that I turn off my own phone during class.  I also tell them that if they anticipate an emergency call, they should tell me ahead of time (just as they would tell their boss) and put on vibrate.

Here and here are ways other professors have handled this issue.  Also, check out this video on how this teacher handles cellphone ringing during class (I have to think it was staged but I’m sure it got the students’ attention!) 

Just be sure to be consistent in how you handle any student that breaks your policy. I find using humor works for me:

        <Student phone rings>

Me: Stop lecture. Look at student. Say, "That better be for me!" Smile. 

Class: Laughs. Student looks sheepish and turns off phone.

And we then go right back to lecture or whatever doing in class.

If it's just a matter of them texting or checking messages, I'll go by the student's desk and quietly tell them to put the phone away during class. Or you might catch them after class and remind them what the policy is on the syllabus.

Anyone else out there have suggestions on cell phone usage in class?

Ten Tips For New College Teachers On That Crucial First Day Of Class

Each new semester as I walk down the hallway to my classroom, I am a little nervous, even after 30 years of teaching experience…and I’m okay with this. I think when I get to the point where I don’t feel this anxiety, I won’t be as effective a teacher. After all, I will be walking into that classroom for the next four months and it’s important to make a good first impression. Below are 10 tips to help you get off to a great start.

1. Develop your own routine before going to class. Take a short brisk walk beforehand. Twirl your wrists to gently shake the stress out of your arms. Relax your shoulders; people tend to “hunch up” their shoulders when tense. Do some deep breathing.

2. Check out your classroom before the students get there. Walk around and get familiar with the room, podium, how the seats are arranged, etc. Make sure you know how to work any technology you’ll be using.

3. The first few minutes are crucial. Your students are curious about you and the course. Everything (how you dress, walk, present yourself) are clues as to your personality and credibility. Walk briskly and with purpose into the classroom.

4. Chat briefly with the students as they come into the room to make yourself (and the students) feel more comfortable.

5. Act confident and enthusiastic about what you will be doing that first day. Don’t say that you are nervous as this makes the students uncomfortable and you will lose credibility with them.

6. Also, it’s best not to tell your students that this is the first time (if it is) that you have taught this particular course. You should know more about the topic than they do so they’ll assume you’re an expert.

7. Use notecards or form to gather information about your students (name, email address, past class experience with the topic, work experience, etc). This takes the focus off you and onto the task which gives you time to get comfortable.

8. As you begin, make eye contact with two or three people in various parts of the room. Learn their names and use them several times. You are essentially beginning to build a relationship with your students.

9. Be enthusiastic about being in the classroom so that they will be also. Don’t just stand behind the podium but move around and move toward them. Look happy to be sharing your knowledge with them.

10. Start with something that is easy for you to talk about. Tell a story you’ve told often before, read something that is relevant to the class from the newspaper, share something from your days as a student or talk to them about why you went into teaching. Above all, picture yourself doing an excellent job. It’s going to be a great first day of class!

Source:  Kirk, Delaney J. (2009). 10 Tips for Dealing with Nervousness the First Day of Class. Faculty Focus, Magna Publications.

 

Should Teachers Use Humor In The Classroom?

I'm reading this post, Should Textbooks and Teachers Be Funnier? I would agree that humor is useful in the classroom as long as it is relevant to the topic being taught and the teacher is comfortable with using humor. Humor does seem to make the classroom environment more relaxed.

 

Related posts and articles:

Using Humor in the Classroom

Using Humor in The College Classroom to Enhance Teaching Effectiveness  in "Dread Courses"

Bringing Life to Online Instruction With Humor

25 Tips For Students On How To Study For Finals

Professor Barbara Nixon (Southeastern University) shares great tips for students on how to study for final exams.

 

Related posts:

Tips for preventing cheating on exams

My solution to problem of students leaving room during exam

Teaching Carnival 5.04

Lots of interesting posts on teaching at the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Teaching Carnival 5.04 complied by Mikhail Gershovich (Baruch College, City University of New York).

Tips On Structuring A New Class

I’ve been thinking about how I want to structure a new course for spring and am reading this post by Professor Mike Duvall (College of Charleston). He advocates designing each unit in a course around a series of questions that will stimulate your students' interest. 

I've done this in my Human Resource Management class. For example, when I teach employment law, I start out the module with questions such as:  

Why do we have Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws? 

What type of personnel records do employers need to keep and for how long? 

What types of questions should employers/managers avoid in an interview or on an application form and why?

 

I find the questions get the students thinking about the topic and lead nicely into some great discussions.

 

Related posts:

Are you managing your class prep time and resources wisely?

Developing a syllabus for a class you haven't taught before

 

Students: What You Can Expect From Your Professors

In my last post, I shared the student conduct guidelines that the faculty in the College of Business at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee developed and that are now posted on our website. The faculty thought we should also be held to a professional code of conduct and thus developed the following list:

 

What you can expect from your College of Business professors:

We will be civil, professional, and ethical in our interactions with you and treat you with respect and dignity.

We will be on time to class and fully prepared to teach using relevant and up-to-date pedagogy.

We will turn off our cell phones before class and refrain from checking messages, thus giving you our undivided attention.

We will follow the grading scale, course policies, exam dates, etc. listed in the syllabus and will not change these policies or dates during the semester without adequate communication.

We will respond to your email questions and grade assignments, quizzes, papers, and exams in a timely manner.

We will be available (and happy to) meet with you to discuss classes, assignments, career choices, etc., as needed.

Our goal is to help you learn what it takes to be successful in the business world. Let’s work together to make you as prepared as possible for your future careers.

 

Students: What Your Professors Expect From You

My colleagues and I at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee have been discussing the need for setting expectations in the classroom and I volunteered to put together some student conduct guidelines. After much editing, we've put together the following expectations that are now posted on our College of Business website.

 

Dear College of Business Student:

If we were to ask you why you decided to get a degree in business, you would probably answer that you wanted to get the best education and training possible in order to be successful in your future career. While that certainly means a working knowledge of finance, accounting, marketing, and management information, theories and tools, another equally important aspect to success is to learn and practice what it takes to be a professional. Thus, your professors will role model the business etiquette used in the workplace and will have high expectations that you too will practice these behaviors. We want you to be successful in your current role as student as well as in your business or service career.  As a result, future employers can count on our business graduates to possess the academic, time management, team member, and leadership skills they want in a new employee.

In order for your professor to do his or her job of helping you to learn through a variety of teaching methods as well as by bringing in real world applications to give substance to the theories being taught, the following will be expected from you, the student:

You will be in class, seated, and ready to participate at the beginning of the class period.  You will also stay in class until dismissed by the professor.

You will come to class prepared, having read the required materials or completed the assignments given. You are encouraged to bring up issues raised in the reading materials for clarification and elaboration in class.

You will take care of any needs for restroom breaks, coffee, returning phone calls, etc. before class begins so you can stay and pay attention for the entire class period.

You will turn off your cell phones before class and refrain from checking your messages during class (in case of an anticipated emergency situation, please inform your instructor before class and place the phone on vibrate)

You will be expected to do your own work for assignments, papers, tests, and projects and turn in your assignments in on time.

You will be expected to contribute your share of work to your team projects and to do your best to make the team experience a positive one for all members.

You will pay attention during class: no talking while classmates or the instructor is talking, no sleeping, no reading newspapers, no doing work for other classes. 

You will keep in mind that the course rules and policies, exam dates, and grading scale apply to all students equally, and will not ask for special treatment.

If you have to miss class, you will get the lecture notes from another student and will pick up any handouts you missed. 

You will keep an open mind and treat members of the class, guest speakers, and your professors with respect and dignity.  

 

Have we missed anything? I'm also curious whether other universities post student expectations on their websites.  

Teaching Carnival 5.3

Check out all the great info on teaching, advice for students, tips on using technology, and suggestions for professional development at the Teaching Carnival 5.3 in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

 

Call For Blogposts For Teaching Carnival 5.3

Do you have a recent blogpost related to teaching in higher education that you would like to share? Or have you recently read a useful post by another edublogger? Email me with the link to the post by October 30 to be considered for Teaching Carnival 5.3. And if you haven’t seen all the great information being shared at ProfHacker, check it out at Teaching Carnival 5.2 or go to the home page here.

 

8 Tips To Managing A Diverse Classroom

Universities have a much more diverse student population today than in the past. They come in with  a wide range of backgrounds, abilities, skills, and motivations.  Managing such a diverse student population is challenging even to professors who have been teaching for many years. Here are eight tips to help you make connect with every student.

 1. Watch for assumptions you might make such as thinking that all students come from traditional families or that all students have parents who went to college.

2. Use both the terms “he” and “she” in your lectures and correct your students when they make assumptions.  Not all managers or engineers are male and not all secretaries or nurses are female.

3. Call on your students equally without favoring any one gender, age group, race, or nationality. 

4. Use examples in class that draw from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures.

5. Address inappropriate comments made by students in class that stereotype others.  Take the time to make this a “teaching moment” to sensitize your students to the harm that their words and actions can do.

6. Get to know the name of each student and invite them to get to know you by coming to see you during office hours.

7. Encourage students with disabilities to see you so you can make accommodations that will allow them to fully participate in the class.

8. Ask your non-traditional students to share their work and life experiences with the other students in the classroom.

 

Tips On Flipping Your Classroom

If you’ve wondered what the flipped classroom was or how you might use it, check out these articles gathered by the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Flipping your classroom means you have your students view lectures at home (either podcasts or videos) and then use the class time for discussion, experiential exercises, student presentations, etc. Advocates believe it is a much better use of the classroom and leads to more collaboration and creativity. I'm curious if any of you have tried this yet in your classes...

 

Schoolsville by Billy Collins

Thought I would share this poem by Billy Collins (U.S. Poet Laureate 2001-2003) for those who haven't seen it. It seems appropriate as the new academic year begins...

                Schoolsville

Glancing over my shoulder at the past,
I realize the number of students I have taught
is enough to populate a small town.

I can see it nestled in a paper landscape,
chalk dust flurrying down in winter,
nights dark as a blackboard.

The population ages but never graduates.
On hot afternoons they sweat the final in the park
and when it's cold they shiver around stoves
reading disorganized essays out loud.
A bell rings on the hour and everybody zigzags
into the streets with their books.

I forgot all their last names first and their
first names last in alphabetical order.
But the boy who always had his hand up
is an alderman and owns the haberdashery.
The girl who signed her papers in lipstick
leans against the drugstore, smoking,
brushing her hair like a machine.

Their grades are sewn into their clothes
like references to Hawthorne.
The A's stroll along with other A's.
The D's honk whenever they pass another D.

All the creative-writing students recline
on the courthouse lawn and play the lute.
Wherever they go, they form a big circle.

Needless to say, I am the mayor.
I live in the white colonial at Maple and Main.
I rarely leave the house. The car deflates
in the driveway. Vines twirl around the porch swing.

Once in a while a student knocks on the door
with a term paper fifteen years late
or a question about Yeats or double-spacing.
And sometimes one will appear in a windowpane
to watch me lecturing the wallpaper,
quizzing the chandelier, reprimanding the air.

Source: Billy Collins, Sailing Around the Room: New and Selected Poems.

The First Day Of Class: Did I Miss Anything?

This morning I got an email from a student telling me he is on vacation and will have to miss the first day of class. He asked if we were going to do anything important in class today. I thought the following poem by Tom Wayman says it all.

DID I MISS ANYTHING?
Question frequently asked by
students after missing a class

Nothing. When we realized you weren't here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 percent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I'm about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 per cent

Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose

Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light suddenly descended and an angel
or other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring the good news to all people on earth

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human experience
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been gathered

but it was one place

And you weren't here.

Road Trip To Omaha, Nebraska

Today I will be facilitating a faculty development workshop at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha. We will be discussing how to set class expectations on the first day of class, how to "sell your class to the students," and how to handle challenging students.

I'm looking forward to it.

 

Icebreakers To Help You Learn Your Students' Names

One thing I have learned after 30 years of teaching is that it is very important to learn your students' names. After all, we expect them to learn the concepts, theories, etc, we're teaching so it makes sense that we should take the time to learn their names. Here are some tips on how to do this.

Use Common Sense In Managing Your Classroom

A lot of classroom management is just common sense. Professor Joe Hoyle (University of Richmond) agrees and shares the following tips:

The teacher should know what he or she wants to accomplish. How do you decide what you need to do each day if you don’t know where you and your class are going? How do you evaluate whether you are making the progress you want if you are not sure what you want to see happen? Seems like common sense to me. So, as an exercise, write down in (let’s say) 20 words or less what you want to see your students gain from your classes in the fall. I think this is a great way to start every semester.

I never expect students to do work unless they will eventually (sooner rather than later) see the reason for that assignment. If I ask my students to read a 5 page article for Monday, then on Monday I will question them about that assignment. “In the article you read for today, what did WorldCom do wrong, why do you think they did it that way, and how should they have operated differently?” If an assignment is given but not mentioned later by the teacher, students have every reason to believe they wasted their time.

If a student is given an assignment and it is not done properly, there should be consequences. Students are gamblers. They are constantly weighing out what might happen if they don’t do a certain amount of work. If you ask students to read Chapter One and they don’t and you do nothing about it, then you can certainly expect them NOT to read Chapter Two. That will follow as night follows day. They have now been conditioned (by you) to ignore what you ask them to do.

You can read more of Dr. Hoyle's tips here.

Impression Management The First Day Of Class

Research shows that people make assumptions about our credibility, professionalism, and sincerity within a few seconds of meeting us for the first time.  The way we present ourselves--dress, body language, attitude, behavior—all impact on how others perceive us. 

This emphasis on first impressions translates to the classroom as well.  Dr. Frank Bernieri (Oregon State University) conducted an experiment where he discussed his syllabus the first day of class and then had the students filled out a teaching evaluation form.  At the end of the semester, they completed the same form.  He found the rating the students gave him at the end of the semester was essentially the same as that given the first day.  According to Bernieri, if your students think the class will be interesting and useful and that you are a credible professor on the first day, they will tend to think that throughout the semester.  In fact, Bernieri states that people will make excuses and manipulate the data in order to reinforce their first impressions.

Professor Nalini Ambady (Tufts University) concurs with Bernieri.  She conducted a study where she showed students a ten second video of professors they had never met.  Their ratings of the professors in the videos were the same as those given by students who had had the professors in class for several months.  In addition, the students’ first impression of whether the professor was an effective teacher predicted how well the students themselves performed on tests. 

Think impression management when preparing for that first day of class...

Tips For The New Semester

As we get closer to the first day of the Fall semester, I thought I would share some of these tips for getting ready for classes.

Tips for the first day of class

What not to do in class

Develop a list of FAQs for your students

10 Tips for setting expectations

Reducing Incivility In The Classroom

The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan links to these articles on reducing incivility in the college classroom.  As their website states:

"Broadly defined, classroom incivility is any action that interferes with a harmonious and cooperative learning atmosphere in the classroom. Uncivil student behavior not only disrupts and negatively effects the overall learning environment for students but also contributes to instructors' stress and discontent. The articles in this section describe forms of classroom incivility and ways to reduce disruptive behavior in the college classroom."

Tips On Handling Disruptive Classroom Behavior

Professors Richard M. Felder and Rebecca Brent (North Carolina State University) discuss options on dealing with classroom management issues of late attendance, sleeping in class, and talking to neighboring students.

As they note, your response should depend on two things: Is the offending behavior distracting the rest of the class from your teaching and is it the first time or an ongoing problem?

Assuming the behavior is disruptive, they state you can react in an aggressive, passive, or assertive manner. The best approach?  Be assertive, not aggressive. “Calmly and clearly stating the problem and asking for what you want is an assertive response.”

You can read their tips here:

 

Research Shows Missing Class Leads To Poorer Performance

Many of us put attendance as a class requirement for our students. Here’s a research study by Professors Wiji Arulampalam, Robin A. Naylor, and Jeremy Smith (University of Warwick) that found that “there is a causal effect of absence on performance for students: missing class leads to poorer performance.”

Download Am I Missing Something.pdf

 

Bringing The Classroom Into The 21st Century

I’m reading this Time magazine article,  "How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century," which uses an analogy of Rip Van Winkle awakening today and being astonished by all the changes in the workplace. However, when he walks into a classroom, he knows exactly what it is because as he says, it looks like it did back 100 years ago except for the color of the blackboards.

The article goes on to discuss how education hasn't kept pace with other areas of society as students tend to be taught pretty much as their great-grandparents were...sitting while the teacher lectures, taking notes by hand, and using textbooks that are mostly outdated.  Thus, there is a huge gap between what is going on in the classroom and what is going on in the world outside.

The authors espouse that education in the future needs to cross disciplines, include global thinking, and put an emphasis on creative and innovative skills.  In addition, emotional intelligence or people skills will be seen as important for success in the workplace as any other skill.  As noted, "We have to emphasize communication skills, the ability to work in teams and with people from different cultures."

The article ends with:

"Teachers need not fear that they will be made obsolete.  They will, however, feel increasing pressure to bring their methods-along with the curriculum-into line with the way the modern world works.  That means putting a greater emphasis on teaching [students] to collaborate and solve problems in small groups and apply what they've learned in the real world."

And one more note: the authors mention skills that are missing in recent high school graduates entering the workforce such as showing "respect for others as well as [how] to be punctual, responsible and work well in teams." 

All good classroom management skills we can model and enforce.

Using Clickers In The Classroom

Professor William B. Wood (University of Colorado, Boulder) finds that clickers are a teaching gimmick that actually works in the classroom for improving attendance and participation. As he notes, some of the advantages for students are:

They are answering anonymously—no one has to worry about the possible humiliation of giving a “dumb” answer.

Those who did not “get it” realize they’re not the only ones. In a typical lecture situation, such students are often inhibited from asking a question by the belief that “everyone but me probably understood.”

The students are actively engaged with the topic at hand and, therefore, more likely to understand and retain it better than if they were only sitting passively and listening to the instructor.

As instructors, we can find out immediately if students are not getting a point we are discussing and then explain it in more detail instead of waiting to see this lack of understanding on the next exam.

Additional information on how professors are using clickers in the classroom can be found here:

I am thinking of using clickers in one of my undergrad classes this fall. Anyone have any suggestions or tips to share?

 

 

Students: Tips To Getting What You Want From Your Professors

Professor Ellen Bremen (Highline Community College) offers advice to students in how to communicate with your professors. She states that using "you" language rather than "I" sets professors up to be defensive and less likely to help. For example, many times students will start an email or in-person conversation with the following "you's," thus indicating an external locus of control.

"You gave me a bad grade."

“You didn’t tell me I was missing an assignment.”

“Your lecture wasn’t very clear.” 

 

Professor Brennan advocates changing these statements to using "I" to illustrate taking responsibility for your own learning. Thus, instead of:

 “Your lecture wasn’t very clear.”

 Try: “I’m having trouble following the material. I’m scared that I’m falling behind and I don’t want that to happen. Is it all right if we take more time to ask questions either during your lecture or at the end of class?"

As she notes: "The good news is that your use of "I" will better equip your profs to identify your problem and help you out. Even better news is that your professors will likely have tremendous respect for you taking responsibility for your actions and owning your thoughts."

You can read her entire post here.

 

Managing Student Questions

I often have students ask me questions during class that pertain to information I had planned to cover later that class period. I struggle with whether to stop and answer these or to tell the student I'll be getting to the topic in a few minutes and then trying to remember to come back to the question by the end of the class.  

 

Dr. George H. Williams (University of South Carolina Upstate) has a great solution to this. He asks the students to write down all the questions they have during his lecture as they come up. At the end of class, he usually finds that he has covered most of their questions and he can then answer those few remaining ones. You can read more about his technique here.

 

Getting Your Students To Read

I think we all struggle with getting our students to read the book or articles we assign for class. I've tried tying to class discussion and even giving quizzes to ensure they are reading. Here are some great suggestions from Faculty Focus in this free ebook.  Download Report-11-strategies-getting-students-to-read

How To Avoid These Teaching Mistakes

FacultyFocus has a free report you can download on Teaching Mistakes From the College Classroom. The following are some of the topics included: 

• When Expectations Collide
• Don’t Assume a Student’s Previous Knowledge
• What Works in One Culture May Not Work in Another

 

How Can We Motivate Our Students?

I’m reading this interesting article by Alfie Kohn in which he reflects on motivating students. He states that:

 ...it is impossible to motivate students.

In fact, it’s not really possible to motivate anyone, except perhaps yourself.  If you have enough power, sure, you can make people, including students, do things.  That’s what rewards (e.g., grades) and punishments (e.g., grades) are for.  But you can’t make them do those things well -- “You can command writing, but you can’t command good writing,” as Donald Murray once remarked -- and you can’t make them want to do those things.  The more you rely on coercion and extrinsic inducements, as a matter of fact, the less interest students are likely to have in whatever they were induced to do.

What a teacher can do – all a teacher can do – is work with students to create a classroom culture, a climate, a curriculum that will nourish and sustain the fundamental inclinations that everyone starts out with:  to make sense of oneself and the world, to become increasingly competent at tasks that are regarded as consequential, to connect with (and express oneself to) other people.

You can read the entire article here. 

 

Website Generates Warning Signs

I found this site that allows you to generate and print your own warning signs. Now I'm trying to decide how I could use this in class. Any suggestions?

 

Handling A Difficult Situation In Class

I’ve been teaching for 29 years now and have always enjoyed talking to colleagues about teaching. It's the reason why I started this blog about five years ago. It helps my reflective process to hear myself tell the story of something that happened and to get others’ opinions on what they would do in a similar situation.

One of my ways of “coping” with challenging incidents in the classroom is to say…well I could always get a publication out of this. 

The Journal of Management Education has recently published an article that discusses a difficult situation I had in a class on Managing Diversity. Here's the abstract for the article:

The assignment for the students was to write honestly about how they felt regarding specific current events dealing with diversity. However, what resulted was a kairos moment for the professor—an instance that called for her best response even when she did not know what that was—when a student crossed the line in terms of respectful communication. Our story picks up there and follows us through our own emotions and dialogues as we worked to make sense as to why the student responded as he did and how the emotionally charged issue could be turned into a teachable moment around language, boundaries, understanding, and acceptance.

The two things that I took from my experience and that I teach my students in approaching awkward diversity issues today are:

When you see differences, look for similarities. When you see sameness, look for differences. Thus, if the person you are talking to appears different from you (race, age, gender, social background, etc), look for things that you have in common. If the person seems the same (both of you are management majors), look for things that make each of you unique.

When topics get too emotional, look for theory to explain why this happens. As noted in the article, by stepping back to look at the theory behind what is happening, you can rationally defuse the situation.

I would like to thank my co-author, Dr. Rita Durant, for her wisdom and expertise in both addressing the situation in my class and in working with me to write up what happened in this article in order to help others cope with these moments.

The article is:  Kirk, D. J., & Durant, R. (December, 2010). Crossing the Line: Framing Appropriate Responses in the Diversity Classroom. Journal of Management Education, 34(6), 823-847. 

You can download the entire article here: Download Kirk & Durant Crossing the Line

 

What A Difference A Generation Makes

Marc Prensky coined the term, digital natives, in his article, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, first published in 2001. His follow-up piece, “Do They Really Think Differently?” goes on to discuss how our students are different from most of us who teach them. As he notes,

Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.

If we have any doubt that we've come a long way in less than a generation, check out this two minute clip from the Today Show in 1994 as Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel ask the question, "What is the Internet?"

 

 

10 Ways to Tick Me Off

Professor Kenna Griffin (Oklahoma City University) shares her pet peeves in the classroom.

I do the same the first day of class and ask my students wouldn't they want to know the pet peeves of their new boss? They always smile and nod their heads yes.  

 

Advice For New College Instructors

If you're new to teaching, Dr. Paul Hummel makes some insightful suggestions here.

 

Telling Your Students What You Expect From Them

Here's a great idea from Professor Barbara Nixon: Share your pet peeves with your students so hopefully they'll understand what not to do in class.

 

Tips To Help You Have A Good First Day Of Class

Are you new to teaching? Anxious about that first day of class? Here are some tips to help.

 

Handling Student Behavior Issues In The Classroom

Dr. Patrick J. King shares his powerpoint slide presentation on "Maladaptive Classroom Behaviors."

 

The More Evals, The Better?

I'm reading about Professor Robert Talbert's experience in giving four course evaluations during the semester. I've been giving midterm evals the last couple of years with positive results and am thinking about using his approach.

 

Hurtful Teaching Evals-How To Cope?

I had a friend call me a few weeks ago in tears. She had just gotten her teaching evaluations from spring semester and there were a number of nasty, hurtful comments made by the students. I did my best to reassure her that she is indeed a good teacher and has been for a number of years. I then went online to see if I could find any suggestions for her on dealing with negative, non-constructive evaluations.

 

I'm curious how others handle this hurt?  As for my friend, she found comfort in some of the comments and feedback on this Chronicle of Higher Education forum. 

 

Teaching Students How To Evaluate Your Teaching

I found this suggestion by Professor George Williams (University of South Carolina) on how to debrief a class before giving evaluations. As he notes:

 

I dedicate the entire final class period to a discussion about the course. We go through the syllabus, day by day, and they give me comments. I start them with readings and what we did in class, then move to supplementary media and activities, and then turn to assessments. I end with a discussion about classroom atmosphere, my pedagogical approach, and general comments about the course. Then I distribute the forms, and I ask them to summarize their thoughts in light of our conversation.

 

After an hour of discussion, during which I press them for details (e.g. why did you like that activity, in particular?), I get much more thorough, detailed, and reflective comments in the forms. I find this helpful for getting more thorough and thoughtful evaluations, and I also have all of their suggestions and ideas in hand early enough to implement them for the following semester.

 

Preventing Cheating

You've all probably heard about the recent cheating incident at the University of Central Florida. I can empathize with the pain experienced by Professor Richard Quinn as I too have had students cheat in the past.

Dr. Grace Ann Rosile (New Mexico State University) tells about her experience with having students cheat in the October 2007 issue of the Journal of Management Education.  She ended up flunking almost 25 percent of her class when they were caught cheating by having other students text message them the answers during the exam.  She tells a compelling story of how she felt and how she ended up making the experience a teaching moment. You can access her article here: Download Rosile

Here are some of my tips for being proactive and preventing cheating in the classroom.

 

Teaching Students How To Take Risks In The Classroom

I'm reading this article by Dr. E. Shelley Reid (George Mason University) on encouraging students to take more risks in the classroom. As Dr. Reid notes:

Many of my writing students are conservative learners: they worry about grades and want to “play it safe,” they don’t take time to imagine alternatives, or they have low skill or confidence levels that reduce their abilities to try new things.

Recently I took a pad of large sheets of white paper and a lot of colored markers to class and instructed my students to get into their teams and to draw a visual of how the various motivational theories we had been studying fit together. At first, they all said that they were not creative, that they couldn't draw but I told them that didn't matter. They were to come up with a way to visually illustrate the theories and then use their drawings to "teach" these to the rest of the class. After a lot of laughter, they came up with great models which they agreed helped in remembering the material we had been discussing.

I'm thinking about other classes where this might be a useful method. Any ideas?

Wordle As A Classroom Learning Tool

I’m looking at some of the many ways Wordle can be used in the classroom. As noted on this website:

Wordle is a [software program] for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share...

Here are 48 interesting ways to use Wordle in the classroom.  Rodd Lucier shares 20 more tips to using Wordle here.

I plan to have my MBA students use Wordle as an ice breaker for the first day of class in the spring. Each student will put together and make a one minute presentation using Wordle as a visual aid with key words. I think it will be a great way to use technology to start the semester. 

Dr. KirkCat Teaches Diversity...

 

Twitter Usage Increases Student Engagement AND Success In Classroom

 

Interesting video on Dr. Reynol Junco (Lock Haven University) and his research on how Twitter increases student engagement. In his study, he found that the group of students who used Twitter had a .5 point increase in overall GPA that semester over the control group that didn't. Wow.

 

Teaching Students To Pilot Their Own Helicopters

Have you experienced the helicopter parent yet? 

President Marvin Krislov of Oberlin College gives advice on how to encourage college students to 'pilot their own helicopters', in other words to take responsibility for their own success or failure.

As he notes:

Balance is the key. Parents should support their child, but not serve as their gofer or administrative assistant. They can do this by urging their son or daughter to learn how to navigate the college bureaucracy and campus life on their own. This is a vital part of the educational process. It includes allowing the student to handle issues relating to classes, housing, dining, roommates, and extracurricular activities such as athletics, clubs, and student organizations.

A good body of research indicates that college students have a better chance of succeeding academically and socially when they themselves discover and initiate contact with the campus offices and departments that offer services and resources for students.

We also know that the problem-solving skills students develop during the formative years at college are an important part of their education. Parents should encourage students to take responsibility for their own financial planning, for managing their time, and for setting limits on their personal behavior.

Good advice for parents sending their child off to college. You can read the entire article here.

Using Wikis To Do Team Research Papers

In one of my classes this semester, I've assigned current topics and have instructed the students to develop their research paper in wiki format on Blackboard. This way I can watch the process and give feedback along the way. I can also build in accountability to make sure the students don't wait until the last minute to do their project.

Here's a site that discusses 50 uses for wikis. You can also read how other instructors are using wikis here.

Is anyone else using wikis for class projects?

 

Using Facebook As A Class Tool

I’m looking at these instructions on how to create a group for your class on Facebook. According to Richard Byrne, students are more likely to look at Facebook than Blackboard or a class blog.