Life Of E's

Although most faculty use many high tech innovations in the classroom, let’s not forget the necessity for some of the basic accoutrements. After a couple of years of hearing frequent requests for some basic office supplies and also recognizing that there were times I wished I had some sticky notes or whiteboard markers in a [...]

Tags: college, Professors, Teaching, Toolkit

One of my “colleagues” got very angry with me one day (we taught courses that tended to share the same students). He said, “Students don’t put out much effort in my class to get their assignments done because they say they have so much work to do for your class. You convince them that what [...]

Tags: college, grades, Professors, school, students, Teaching

Over the years, I got smarter about keeping up with my students and their assignments. Once I figured out that numbers were easier – and faster – for recording grades and returning student work, I refined my system. Here are ten tips to help you if you are ready to do the same.     [...]

Tags: assignments, college, grades, Professors, students, Teaching

To be productive as a writer, you need to actually write. I know this doesn’t come as a shock, yet I also know how easy it is to let other tasks, projects, people, or any number of other distractions take us away from our writing. Consider using the following words to describe your writing time [...]

Tags: Productivity, Professors, success, tips, work, writing

Here is a question asked by one our the Life of E’s members. Q.What “end of the day/debriefing” strategies do you recommend?  As a follow-up to that question, what do you recommend doing when you are finished teaching a class (a single-day lesson)?  I mean end of class techniques to bring closure to the class [...]

Tags: educators, feedback, Professors, teaching tools

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