During my third year of college, another student that many of my friends interacted with, who tutored some of us, died. While I wouldn’t call him a close friend, he was an acquaintance, and his loss was felt deeply. I remember wanting to cry, but
“When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You),” first published in 1928 by Shay, Fischer, and Goodwin, has been recorded by many artists. My favorite is the 1929 version by Louis Armstrong. “Oh, when you smilin’, when you smilin’, the whole world smiles with
“Who’s ready to read some poetry?”
My voice echoed off the beige walls, an octave too enthusiastic. None of my students so much as stirred in response: not a blink, not a fidget, not so much as an at-least-she’s-trying smile.
In 1936, psychologist Muzafer Sherif reported a landmark study on the creation of social norms. Sherif made use of an optical illusion called the autokinetic effect. When people view a stationary pinpoint of light in a dark environment, they will perceive the light to move
I’m hopelessly unathletic, which means I’ve usually observed the rituals at the so-called sports school where I teach from a distance—until recently, that is, when a student invited me to something called “tailgating.” My takeaway? The sense of belonging and excitement that I witnessed during
I teach psychology to students who are largely from rural and low-income areas. In my courses we discuss a wide range of topics that have the potential for controversy, such as sexuality and gender, best parenting practices, racism and implicit bias, and the neuroscientific
While teaching and working from home during the pandemic, I developed a new respect for staying active and getting outside; new studies prove how much physical movement and nature matter to human wellbeing.
This is a takeaway worth applying to campus environments: academic spaces tangibly
The academic year may be underway, but it is not too late to make our classrooms and our campuses truly inclusive and safe places for transgender and gender nonconforming students. Making meaningful change (not just talking about it) sounds like a daunting task, but at
Do you remember where you were when the masks finally came off in your classroom? We do! Something was different. For the past two years, we had floundered in a swirling cauldron of new teaching technology as we were asked to sink or swim in
For all the talk in faculty development circles about transforming our classrooms, there is very little guidance for faculty attempting to navigate the mindset shifts necessary to approach their work differently. We each want to create a classroom where our students feel included and able
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