Life of E's

Regardless of whether students are in middle school, high school, or even college, we cannot assume that they know how to maneuver through and use their textbooks effectively. Particularly at the beginning of the year, it will be time well spent to begin to teach your students how to do so – especially regarding the [...]

Tags: reading, strategies, students, teachers

Homophones, homographs, homonyms…there’s always a bit of confusion, so let’s start right out with some definitions so we know what we’re talking about (and how to help distinguish them for children). Homophone: One of a pair (or more) words that are pronounced alike but that differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling (e.g., to, too, [...]

Tags: school, students, teachers

Are you a math teacher?  Are you a parent of a child or teen who is taking a mathematics course?  If yes to either question, then I’m sure you’ve seen students struggle with word problems.  It’s so frustrating to watch and we want so badly to help them. A perennial complaint of mathematics teachers is [...]

Tags: math, problems, Professors, questions, teachers, words

See if this question sounds like something you might ask: I have decided that if I am going to keep doing my job (I work at a local college), I need to get some additional help – and it needs to be more than just a student worker who I have to train each semester. [...]

Tags: assistant, college, grant writing, Professors, teachers

Some semesters end – but don’t really feel as if they have ended. We have vestiges of them still lying around our physical and mental space. Here are 5 tips to help you really close out your semester so you can focus on whatever is coming next for you. Newsflash: Let’s say it’s the end [...]

Tags: Productivity, Professors, students, teachers, Teaching, tips

The phone is a wonderful invention, and it’s supposed to be a tool. Too much time spent on the phone can easily divert you from tasks at hand. This is true at work and at home. To help you manage your time productively, implement one or more of the following: 1. Keep a phone log [...]

Tags: calls, distractions, energy, focus, Productivity, Professors, saving time, teachers, Teaching, telephones, time, tips

Why in the world would you have ‘class sets’ of dictionaries?  Because that’s what everyone else does?  You are  smarter than that, right? To explore that further, please answer the following questions: Do all of the students in your class read at exactly the same level?  Does any dictionary have ALL the features, words, tools, and [...]

Tags: dictionary, school, students, teachers, Teaching, vocabulary

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

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