The title of this article immediately caught my attention: She sent 1 email. Grades increased 25%. (Here’s the link: https://www.eab.com/daily-briefing/2018/08/20/she-sent-1-email-grades-increased-25-percent? As someone who likes to produce results in simple and efficient ways, I was engaged immediately. To summarize the short article, if you email students in an encouraging and non-judgmental way after doing poorly on…
As the fall semester approaches, I thought this article should be a must-read for us instructors. If you’re just starting out as a college instructor, or you sometimes wonder if you’re doing the best job that you can, check out the following article from Faculty Focus: Six Things That Make College Teachers Successful It’s a…
The other day I was reminded that what I do is very different from the usual 9 to 5 job. Someone made a reference to someone else having a “case of the Monday’s” (does Office Space get all the credit for that saying, or did that movie just popularize it?), and I realized I haven’t…
It’s been a long time since I included a post for the Happy Professors series here on the blog, but recently, college professor, published author, and vlogger, Deb Kabwang, sent me a quote about why she loves teaching writing classes- and the timing couldn’t have been better! As I’m wrapping up the final edits on…
When I learn something for fun in my free time, I tend to skim through books, websites, online articles, watch some YouTube videos or TED talks on the topic, share what I’m learning with friends, write down my thoughts and feelings about it, and take some sort of action to incorporate it into my daily…
(*Note: This isn’t an ad for any of the companies mentioned in this post, and I don’t get anything for mentioning them, I just think their services sound helpful!) From time to time I peek in on the conversations within the LinkedIn adjunct groups I belong to, and find some really great advice. There’s actually…
(Fair warning- this post isn’t all that inspirational, but I think it may be very helpful to some of you out there working from home! :)) When I first started teaching online and working from home, the pros definitely outweighed the cons (great income, relaxation, flexibility, etc.). However, I didn’t necessarily like sitting at my…
How does one begin making their online college course ADA accessible? Oh boy. This was a new experience. I’ve been teaching online college courses for a few years now, but for the first time ever I was responsible for making my upcoming summer course shells ADA accessible at one of my schools. Talk about scary. Some…
What it means to be a work-at-home parent.. I used to love living the ‘laptop lifestyle,’ being ‘location independent,’ and ‘working remotely’ (all those trendy phrases you’ve heard way too much in 2018). I still have the same job, and technically I have the same opportunities, but with a baby, I’m living more of the…
A faculty development lesson in helping college students succeed.. In a faculty development class I took a while back, we discussed the importance of ‘Six P’s’ in determining student success, and I thought it might be valuable to online instructors to see how these can help out in not just the face-to-face classroom, but also…