Well, at least many students think they are very cool. I have slowly moved my courses to a quest-based assignment system. I have taken my regular assignments and tests and broken them up over the semester so students are doing many small things rather than a few big...

Free Affordable Community College for All Making college more affordable is a hot topic right now. Student loan debt is soaring into the trillions of dollars and 4.7 million borrowers are in default on their student loans. We all know that the cost of college today is...

My last post was about going gradeless for part of a communications class. The experience was rewarding. Needs tweaking, but valuable. 

Here are some further thoughts on the process and results:

1. Having students self-assess does not mean less work. …

When was the last time you greeted your class in a warm and sincere way?  Have you ever said “I’m glad you’re here today” or “I’m really happy to see you! How was your …

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 …

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,...

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...

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....

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...

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...