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

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

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

Faculty members don’t get behind in their grading until after the semester gets started, however there are distinct measures you can take BEFORE the semester gets started that will help you avoid getting behind. 1. Make sure that you have a planner (either paper or digital) that shows all of your major commitments throughout the [...]

Tags: grading, homework, paper, Productivity, professor, school, student, teach, teacher, Teaching, tips, tricks, writing

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

Here’s some communication from China- I love hearing from people across the world! Meggin, I really appreciate being able to view and plan to use some of your PowerPoint lessons. My husband and I are in Guangzhou, China teaching university students. My students are freshmen and sophomore English major students and while they have had 6-8 [...]

Tags: language, native, PowerPoint, Teaching

A teacher who’s a subscriber sent me this email: “I’m a teacher and when I think about everything that has been added to the plate of today’s teacher, I wonder if it’s ever possible to just be ‘just whelmed’ again.” It’s a reality that people’s plates are “too full,” and thus pretty darn heavy. Practice [...]

Tags: just whelmed, overwhelmed, stress, Teaching

When you teach in the college classroom, it’s hard to keep track of the time.  This is true during lecture, Q & A portions, learning activities with your students, student presentations, and yes…even breaks during long classes.  You may create any number of different timers for yourself or feel free to access the ones that [...]

Tags: concentration, focus, Speaking, Teaching, time, timers

Regardless of the age level of your students, you are teaching characterization of one type or another. It may be through traditional literature study or it may be through the examination and analysis of political figures. By using a list of 1001 Descriptors, some of which are shown below, you can open up words and [...]

Tags: characterization, descriptors, literature, Teaching, words