Embracing Neurodiversity in the Classroom

Embracing Neurodiversity in the Classroom

At January’s Friday Forum, we heard from a panel on the topic of neurodiversity (the range of individual differences in brain function and behavioral traits including autism spectrum disorder and dyslexia). Two students, Hannah Krohn and Harley Maxbauer; a...
Learner Centered Teaching Resources from January Conference

Learner Centered Teaching Resources from January Conference

We were honored to host learner-centered teaching guru Maryellen Weimer on Jan. 6 for our January Conference faculty professional development. She focused on the five characteristics of learner-centered teaching: 1) students are doing the hard, messy work of learning,...
New Global Lit Book Club Choice: The Line Becomes a River

New Global Lit Book Club Choice: The Line Becomes a River

Twice a year, the Global Lit Book Club meets to discuss books about life in other cultures. We try to read one fiction and one non-fiction book each year and try to choose countries that are in the news. Two weeks ago we met to discuss Blue Label by Eduardo Sanchez...
How Do You Think Predictions Increase Learning?

How Do You Think Predictions Increase Learning?

My final post about James Lang’s book Small Teaching focuses on using prediction as a way of engaging our students before they learn. Lang explains that by asking students to predict an answer or trend or result before they learn about it, they are more likely to...
How Do You Think Predictions Increase Learning?

Helping Students Remember

As I mentioned in my last post, this summer I read Small Teaching by James Lang and found it incredibly informative. Another interesting topic he writes about is how to help students remember course information. He calls this retrieval and says that if we want...