When I went to check my jam-packed mailbox today, amidst all the bills and Christmas cards from friends, there were two thick bubble-wrapped packages that all book lovers recognize- yay for new books! Naturally, after opening them up, I realized my winter reading plan might make for a good blog post. This winter as I…
You can go online and look up lists of essential items you might need when working from home (like I’ve done in the past), but I can honestly tell you that different things work for different people. Having said that, here are my general suggestions for anyone working from home, with some advice for making…
I used to write a list of between 3 and 10 things I was thankful for each morning, and it really made a difference in my day (sidenote: it seems like we all develop these really great habits and then abandon them at one point or another- why do we always do this when it’s…
As life moves forward and we all strive for simplicity and satisfaction with the day-to-day, I think it’s natural (and necessary) that we also start considering who we spend our time with, and who brings out the best, happiest version of ourselves. The other day I was thinking about the most meaningful friends or family…
I have to admit, I love Christmas movies, and the cheesier the better. I’m the person who starts watching Christmas movies in August every year, and no matter how hard I try to resist, I just can’t help myself. I use the excuse that I’m ‘grading papers’ (very inefficiently, I might add) while I watch…
As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I’ve been working on some face-to-face classroom activities (that I’ve also tried out with my online classes) to help my students answer and analyze questions/concepts more thoroughly in future assignments. After experimenting a little bit, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the results. Any instructor, regardless of what…
The dean at one of my local colleges goes through the trouble of sending out department-wide emails each week with school updates and interesting articles we might be interested in reading. As an online instructor, I probably appreciate these weekly emails more than most instructors since it keeps me in the loop, so I try…
Tim Ferriss has talked about how to cut hours from our busy schedules in The Four Hour Work Week, and I took some helpful suggestions to heart after listening to the audio book. However, I’m sure many people, like me, were still left thinking “I don’t know that I could apply this to my job/life.”…
Teaching as an online instructor at a variety of colleges has its advantages- one is that I get to see how different deans, department chairs, etc. run their departments, and most importantly, I can see where there might be some overlap in grading requirements among the schools without too much guesswork on my part. Recently,…
When I started teaching, I was constantly looking for blogs and websites with helpful tips for college instructors. I found plenty of blogs for secondary education teachers, and a number of stuffy, hard-to-read higher education blogs, but I wanted something more personal and relatable, and definitely not a blog that felt like work. Over time…