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Make time for passion projects (just because)

When I started adjuncting over a decade ago it was simply because I was passionate about teaching and inspiring students (you know what they say, do what you love and the money will follow). But I don’t believe passions necessarily need to make money. For instance, I have a cheesy dream of writing holiday novels…

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What’s the Recipe for Success as an Adjunct Instructor?

I’ll ask the controversial question: What’s the recipe for success as an adjunct instructor? Do you have a plan for being successful as an adjunct instructor? I know I certainly didn’t when I first started out, I was in my early twenties, just going with the flow and not thinking too much about it. I’m…

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The Best Books I’m Rereading/Listening to in 2020 to Get Inspired

Being a mom to two tiny kids, who are home all day (and bored a lot of the time) during a pandemic, while I’m also working at home in the same home office as my husband, while also trying to remain an inspired and energetic person is really really hard (and that’s an understatement). No…

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Why Fall is My Favorite Season/Semester to Teach Online

I had a few other blog posts lined up to use this month, but I didn’t want to miss my opportunity to write a holiday-themed post (my favorite!). As online teachers know, sometimes the work we do at our computer year-round can get repetitive, but I like to break up the year by thinking about…

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Inspiration from My Online Students

I’ve written so many blog posts lately about how to teach effectively, how to get into online teaching, how to work from home, and I’ve written quite a few more along the same lines over the past two months, but I haven’t posted them yet because I felt overdue to write something much more inspirational….

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Tips for Being a Successful College Instructor

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…

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The Top 4 Reasons I Love Teaching Online and Working from Home

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…

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Happy Professors Series: Changing Student Perspectives about Writing

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…

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How to Effectively Teach Students (It’s Probably Not What You Think)

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…

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Helping Students Find Their Place in the College Classroom

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…