Student to Teacher: The Silent Transformation
Why did no one warn me? I was 25 years old, a second-year master's student, standing in front of 70-plus undergraduates with my heart pounding and palms sweating. I thought…
Motivational Force: Building a Foundation for Student Success
Eighteen students crammed themselves into a stuffy classroom assigned for my first-year seminar course on a sunny day in September. With desk tops touching and knapsacks piled high, we maneuvered…
The Power of Students’ Stories
The power of human stories is undeniable. Whether conveyed through music, art, writing, or oral storytelling—sharing one’s lived experience can have a profound impact. Stories connect people by tapping into…
Earning Our AI Literacy License
When my son started the fourth grade, his teacher provided a thick bound packet of cursive writing worksheets. She said that completing the packet was optional, but only if completed…
Running a Workshop: Guidelines for Engagement and Impact
Most of us have the experience of registering for a workshop only to discover that it is a lecture or (worse) an advertisement for the presenter. A genuine workshop aims…
Getting Started: A Basic 10 Point Guide to Launching an Academic Career
There are over 4,000 universities and colleges in the United States employing over 1.5 million faculty, over half of which are either tenured or on tenure track. The National Center…
How to Practice Equitable Empathy: What White Faculty Should–and Shouldn’t–Do
In our combined decades of experience with equity in public schools—first as urban teachers and now as professors of early, elementary, and secondary education—we often appeal to empathy. And in…
Effective Strategies for Sustaining Student Attention during PowerPoint Lectures
Despite debate and disagreement about how to define and measure attention spans, numerous studies have put student attention spans in approximately the 10-minute range (Bradbury, 2016). Attention is a so-called…
“How Are You Doing Today?” A Survey for Starting Each Class
This article first appeared in The Teaching Professor on January 22, 2024 © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. Try a FREE three-week trial of The Teaching Professor! Mental health concerns have…
Five-Minute Starts: Fifteen Ideas to Ignite Your Class
The first five minutes of every class in higher education holds far more significance than they might initially seem. These brief moments set the stage for active learning, focus, trust,…