I’m challenging myself in 2026 to revisit (and read some new) books that I genuinely believe can help students (or anyone) thrive. About once a month, I’ll be sharing an announcement in my online classes highlighting a few key takeaways from a book that’s worth the read (and if you just want to read my…
Here we are at the beginning of another semester! I’m not sure if other online instructors get that familiar ‘back to school’ excitement during the first week, but I’m definitely feeling it. I’m excited to use my new planner, pens, and Post Its, and I’m ready to start ‘meeting’ my students as each college starts…
This school year I was pleasantly surprised to find a Mindulness Tools for Educators course offered to faculty at one of my schools. It was such an enjoyable and eye-opening class, and took just two hours to complete. As someone who is already familiar with meditating (I’m a big fan of walking meditations and the…
Recently I created an assignment for my online speech classes that I think is simple and light, yet at the same time inspiring and valuable. Here it is (short and sweet): Assignment: Journal Entry about Managing Anxiety This assignment has 3 steps: After I created it, I kind of fell in love with it. I’m…
Have you ever been grading online assignments or replying to emails when it just felt like you were saying different versions of the same thing over and over again? I feel that way a lot of the time, and I know I’m not the only one. It turns out there’s actually a solution for this…
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…
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…
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…
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…