
The inspiration your classroom needs…
We’re here to bring instructors and teachers inspiration, energy, and creative strategies that they can utilize in their everyday teaching. We hope the following tips, tricks, and pedagogy techniques give teachers and instructors an extra boost of creativity and motivation. These episodes are perfect for your drive to work or can be integrated as a ten-minute think session to get your wheels turning before stepping into the classroom or “zooming” onto the computer screen.
Check out our available episodes below!
EPISODES
Episode 4: Live with Ken Alford: Seeing Instructors as People, Not Just Textbook Reciters and Question Writers
In this episode, we sit down with Ken Alford to discuss how he’s kept the storytelling element within his online classes and what you can do to help students see you as a person.
“Share your story and let them know that you know life happens to everybody. We’re all in this human drama together, and I think the more we can connect with each other, the better it is. I think anything we can do to keep each other as people and not just textbook reciters and question writers, is helpful.”
Products featuring Ken Alford:
- What is the Best Teaching Advice I Ever Received?
- Creative Course Design: Yes You Can!
- Energize Your Lectures to Help Students Meaningfully Engage with Your Subject
- How Can I Be an Effective Mentor?
- How Can I Effectively Supervise Teaching and Research Assistants?
- How Can I Effectively Mentor Students?
- What are 10 Tips to Collaborate with Colleagues?
- Teaching Underprepared Students
For access to the episode 4 transcript, click here.
Episode 3: Using Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Is it Possible to "Let it Go?"
You became a beacon of light for your students and offered their lives some peace, stability, and encouragement. As we move forward, what techniques can we use to deal with stressors (small or big), and how can we implement trauma-informed pedagogy into our classes to help support students during a pandemic?
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Magna Online Seminar: Cultivate Resilience: Six Steps for Stress Inoculation
- Magna Online Seminar: Trauma-Informed Pedagogy: Teaching in Uncertain Times
Other resources:
- Teaching Professor article: A Memo to Students on Punching through the Pandemic
- Faculty Focus free report: 10 Tips for Designing an Online Learning Environment that Supports Your Students
- Faculty Focus article: Helping Students Create a Daily Practice of Self-Connection
- Faculty Focus article: Our Online Learners Need More Empathy and Less Criticism
For access to the episode 3 transcript, click here.
Episode 2: Asynchronous vs Synchronous: Engaging, Conveying, Injecting, and Building
Many have done quite remarkable things with both asynchronous and synchronous activities, and numerous instructors use a mix of both. In this episode, we’ll dive into specific techniques instructors are using that have the potential to build community, convey information, assess learning, and inject your personality.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- 20-Minute Mentor: How Do I Choose Between Synchronous and Asynchronous Activities?
- Faculty Focus article: A Reflection on the Sudden Transition: Ideas to Make Your Synchronous Online Classes More Fun
- Faculty Focus article: A Game a Day: Fun and Dynamic Synchronous Online Learning
- 20-Minute Mentor: How Can I Maximize the First 10 Minutes of Remote Teaching to Spark Student Engagement?
For access to the episode 2 transcript, click here.
Episode 1: Classroom Assessment Techniques: Does This Make Sense to Everyone?
In episode one, we’ll be taking a dive into different classroom assessment techniques that you can begin using in your own courses, both online and face-to-face. From application cards to a pros and cons list and even a polling system, there are numerous techniques you can use to make sure your students are following along, engaged, and learning.
Resources mentioned in this episode: