I did the unthinkable on Black Friday this year; I got rid of items I didn’t need. I didn’t do it intentionally, but the irony of this just occurred to me. Yesterday I woke up feeling a little out of sorts, which tends to happen when I don’t have any pressing work to finish, and…
I go through my phases. They usually last around 6 months, and then the addiction subsides and I enjoy this obsession as a casual hobby again. Currently I’m fanatical about reading. I’ve somehow become obsessed with reading any book about teaching, blogging, business, positive psychology, and happiness. I’ve gone through the yearlong ‘playing-my-guitar-until-my-fingertips-are-beyond-calloused’ phase, resulting…
This is the title of Peggy Liggit’s TEDxEMU talk about connecting with students and making a difference. Like every other thing I feel compelled to write about, I loved it. As the director of faculty development at Eastern Michigan University- and the daughter of a professor so dedicated to teaching that he instilled the same…
These are 3 things I try to practice daily, and I can promise that they really do make every day better: 1. Surround yourself with inspiring people Find friends who have great ideas and make you want to be better (watch How to find and do work you love: Scott Dinsmore at TEDxGoldenGatePark). 2. Learn…
Do your students know what their life goals are? At least once during the semester- normally during the beginning or middle of the term- I have my students do some sort of activity to evaluate why they’re really here in college, or more generally, what they want out of life. This semester I created an…
For some reason I can’t shake this question: What will they remember 10 years from now? I met a fellow adjunct instructor at the beginning of this term, and we’ve met up in the campus adjunct office quite a bit. This seasoned instructor mentioned to me that, realistically, most students won’t remember what they learned…
Olympia LePoint may be my new hero. Her talk about fear and overcoming it is pretty amazing: ‘Reprogramming your brain to overcome fear: Olympia LePoint at TEDxPCC’ When I stumbled upon this TED talk, I instantly knew I needed to show it in my Fundamentals of Speech class. The biggest problem students have in my…