I teach first-year writing at a small liberal arts college, and on the first day of class, I like to talk about dessert with my students. No, really! Sure, we (eventually) get into the nitty-gritty of the syllabus, but first we talk about dessert.
The start of a new semester is an emotional experience. As a former kindergarten teacher, I vividly remember spending much of the first day of school making students feel welcome and comforting them while they cried. Whether you are teaching five-year-olds or 25-year-olds, the need
Mental health concerns have emerged as a heightened concern, gaining recognition among faculty members and becoming an integral aspect of academic discussions. This shift in focus has been particularly notable in the wake of the ongoing pandemic, prompting educators to find ways to support student
There is a conundrum in teaching. We hold a stereotype that an excellent teacher is kindly, approachable, and openly supportive of students, yet some of the best teachers I’ve had have been aloof, unapproachable, and cantankerous. Let’s take some fictional examples. In the 1970s,
The first day of class is a big deal. Just as there is only one chance at love at first sight, teachers like us only have one chance to demonstrate of each class. As Sarah Rose Cavanagh (2016) writes, “On the first few days
Experience shows that online courses naturally lend themselves to more self-disclosure on the part of faculty and students than face-to-face courses do, possibly due to the increased quantity of discussion. Most large lecture courses have little if any discussion, and while smaller classes may have
Online faculty tend to assume that all student communication needs to go through the learning management system (LMS). But the LMS is not designed for the more spontaneous synchronous chat that you might get in a campus hallway or coffee shop, where someone might say,
Online community is an important part of an effective online classroom, but it can often be difficult to establish. This is true regardless of the modality. One of the most commonly used frameworks for building an effective online community is the Community of Inquiry framework
When my institution closed because of the pandemic, I was asked to teach an entirely virtual organic chemistry course (class and lab) in the 2020 summer semester. This was the first entirely virtual organic course at our college and my first entirely virtual course of
Students connect with professors, not only as teachers or content experts but also as persons, and that causes some discomfort. Our relationships with students need to be professional. Because we evaluate their work and have a responsibility to treat them equally, we need to keep
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