Greetings in Higher Ed – Increasing Warmth & Sincerity
Personal Acquisition and Private Possession
In 1933, John Dewey, wondering how an alien race might see the American educational landscape pondered, “The Utopians believed that the pattern which exists in economic society in our time affected the general habits of thought; that because personal acquisition …
Fall Conference PD
During this fall PD, I had the opportunity to attend some amazing sessions. I especially appreciated learning from my peers in other departments. I discussed a book (The Power of Moments by the Heath Brothers-I recommend it!) with human resources, public relations,...
Instincts
We have had Border Collies on our sheep farm since 1993 when a student gifted me with his 9-month-old Border Collie, Doyle, who was not going to transition well to an apartment when he moved up to Houghton. When Doyle moved in we tried to be careful to keep him...
They Dissect Fetal Pigs in A&P!
Okay, so I guess I should have thought about the fact that Anatomy and Physiology would involve, you know, anatomy--and physiology. It should have occurred to me that one does not learn how the body looks and functions just by reading books or listening to lectures....
Would You Please Start Arguing? Part 1 of 4
I thought for this first week, I’d share a bit of the talk I gave at the TYCA Midwest conference in Indianapolis earlier this month called “Would You Please Start Arguing? When Academic Argument, ‘Mere’ Opinion, and Comments Section Culture Collide”. In the talk I...
This is B%llSh!t
At what point do kids lose their interest in school? It happens, let's not fool ourselves. How do we take a human, that is intensely curious of the world and grind that out of them? Watch any growing up and you can see them performing experiments constantly. The poke...
I Teach Because I Get the Summers Off
“I always ask them why they want to teach,” Mark shared in a meeting. Before he could continue, I glibly tossed out “I’d say because I get my summers off, for sure.” “That is not a good answer,” he retorted sharply and we both smiled. Glib my comment was, but I found...
Moodle’s No Video/Audio Fly Zone
If you have spent some time with Moodle version 3.5 this fall, you may have noticed two new icons located at the far right of the text toolbar. These icons allow users to record audio and/or video directly into a text editor for display to in your Moodle courses....
You’ve Done It Again!
Thank you so much, colleagues, for all of your work presenting and learning at last week's 2018 Fall Conference! I hope you all learned new things and then had a chance to reflect on what you learned and how you could apply it to your own teaching or learning. As is...