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How to Make the Most of a Flexible Work Schedule During the Holiday Season

Somehow the semester flew by, and somewhere around the beginning of November I started realizing that for the past few months I hadn’t fully taken advantage of the fact that I work from home, make my own hours, and can go do fun things with my little one whenever I want. I was working a…

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3 Canvas Tricks Every College Instructor Should Know About

If you teach online, or even in the classroom, you’re probably familiar with the popular learning management system, Canvas (it seems to be every college’s go-to LMS these days). It’s pretty intuitive and easy to use (which is why most instructors tend to prefer it over Blackboard), but there are a few Canvas tools that…

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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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How to Start Teaching Online with Minimal Experience

(*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…

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How to Survive Working from Home When It Becomes Too Routine

(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…