Life Of E's

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

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

 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

Toxic academic work environments are defined by many attributes including the following: Loss of good people Loss of good people In a toxic environment, you also start to notice that you’re losing good people. Either you lose them altogether or you keep them physically but you lose them mentally and emotionally. Administrators must pay attention [...]

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

Toxic academic work environments are defined by many attributes including the following: Effect on employees, students, public, &/or shareholders Effect on employees, students, public, &/or shareholders Another defining aspect is the effect that the rudeness, fear, or negativity is having. When it has a deleterious effect on the people who work in a department, in [...]

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

In preparing for a workshop I was doing recently entitled “Input, Throughput, Output,” where I used the metaphor of a conveyor belt, I found the greatest clipart!  It showed a guy sitting at his desk and the desk was a conveyor belt.  I want you to get that picture in your mind…and then ask yourself whether [...]

Tags: clutter, desk, educate, eliminate, organize, prepare, Productivity, Professors, reduce, teachers

Recently, a faculty member who had been in one of my workshops sent me this question: If you have any specific suggestions for resources related to keeping, managing, and using To Do lists, several people have also asked me for ideas in this area. Since this is one I struggle with, I haven’t been much [...]

Tags: gmail, planners, Productivity, Professors, to do lists

Thanks to Gina Hiatt of  The Academic Ladder for letting me include these tips:  I don’t know about you, but most academics find that they are simply exhausted at this time of year. It’s not just near the end of the semester, but the end of a long academic year. All you want to do [...]

Tags: Academic Ladder, academics, block, Gina Hiatt, Professors, writing

I am an introvert (and if you decided to read this post, you probably are, too). As introverts, we get our energy and ideas from being alone (whereas an extrovert gets energy from being with others). Another aspect of being an introvert is that it takes energy to interact with others – especially if there [...]

Tags: conferences, conventions, introvert, Marketing, Professors, speakers, trade shows