Life Of E's

As a leader, there are certain qualities and characteristics of lions that you might find useful to consider – for yourself and your “pride.” Let us just take a few minutes to explore these and as with all metaphors, we aren’t going to beat this one to death. 1. Protective You don’t have to watch [...]

Tags: boss, employer, leader, leaders, leadership, lion, team, team members, teamwork

Student evaluations are a part of every faculty member’s life. Some consider them to be a positive part of the academic life and others dismiss them as a meaningless exercise (or even worse, as a detriment to good teaching). You might as well know that I come down on the side of student evaluations being [...]

Tags: positive, Professors, students, teachers, teaching, tips, work

Perfectionism runs rampant through the professorial world. Let me acknowledge up front that I am perfectly familiar with this, having lived with it for 56 years at this point, but having learned a great deal in the last 25 about how to deal with it so that it’s not debilitating. Here are ten tips for [...]

If you teach at the college level (or any other institution for post-secondary education), your students are going to complete course evaluations at the end of the term. That is a given. And, I believe it is a worthwhile way to determine one aspect of how well a professor or instructor teaches. The point of [...]

Mason, Mary Ann & Ekman, Eve Mason. Mothers on the Fast Track. Excellent book based on the “Do Babies Matter” study (by Mason & Goulden) as well as additional research conducted by the two authors (mother & daughter).   

Tags: book review, Eve Mason, fast track, Mary Ann Mason, mothers

One of my Life of E’s members sent in this question for today’s Email Extravaganza: When I teach, I often want to use supplemental material (or even need to because the text I use doesn’t cover something). What guidelines must I follow to ensure I’m not violating copyright? If it’s just a section of a [...]

Tags: avoid plagiarism, classroom, college, copyright infringement, fair use, guidelines, Professors, teachers

As Lynne Ford says, ‘failure is a comma, not a period.’  This is the theme of this series of posts.  As you observe the failures that you have experienced (and that you will again) consider the truth of this statement:  2.  Some failures are major reliefs.  Let’s say you submitted a proposal for a large [...]

Tags: academia, failure, federal grant, projects, stress, success

“Failure is a comma, not a period.’  Lynne Ford What a great quote!  You’ve failed before…and apparently, if you’re reading this, you’ve lived to tell about it.  This series of posts will give you 5 ways to think about “failures.”  Consider these as you observe failures that you are experiencing (and will again!). Some failures are [...]

Tags: choices, control, decisions, failure, lesson, Lynne Ford, relief

 Toxic academic work environments are defined by many attributes including the following: Persistence Persistence A defining aspect of a toxic academic work environment is whether or not the behavior persists. Are you experiencing a situation that even after talking with someone about particular behaviors, attitudes, or something else, the person persists – or it even [...]

Tags: academic bullying, Professors, stress, toxic work environment

Toxic academic work environments are defined by many attributes including the following: Severity Severity The severity is a key issue to take a look at. When someone murmurs “Oh gosh, I can’t believe we’ve got this meeting again” or, “Who made her queen?” or similar statements that sometimes people make, that’s not that the end [...]

Tags: academic bullying, Professors, stress, toxic work environment