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…
Have you ever asked students to ‘evaluate,’ ‘analyze,’ or ‘discuss’ a particular concept, only to feel deflated when you get back a (nearly) copy and pasted textbook definition from a number of students? First, you’re not necessarily doing anything wrong as the instructor; I felt at fault when I started seeing this pattern in assignments,…
I recently had a former student ask me how I stay motivated to work from home or coffee shops. I’m currently working from my laptop at the Panera down the street, so I thought now would be a good time to list 4 tips that are helping me stay focused at the moment: Focus on…
During the past few years that I’ve taught online, it’s been a lot of trial and error to figure out what schools and supervisors expect from online adjuncts. Generally, we get tossed into the online classroom without much guidance (and regardless of how long you’ve been doing this, different schools place value on different areas/assignments…
I don’t do this regularly (although I used to), but if you find yourself in a less than fantastic mood, I highly recommend this 10-15 minute exercise to get you out of your funk. Not to mention, it also helps you get more accomplished during your day (according to podcasters, authors, and famous entrepreneurs who…