Students Are Giving Thanks for All You Do! Welcome to the fifth year of our Thank-A-Professor Program! Students have submitted almost 900 tributes so far this fall, and their outpouring of gratitude feels especially welcome this year. Students expressed their heartfelt appreciation for your kindness and understanding in response to their difficulties, and they found […]

Considering Cognitive Load If you were going to teach someone how to drive, would you rather start in a large, empty parking lot or on a busy interstate? The answer is obvious, but the reasoning is worth exploring because of the implications for teaching other things. Experienced drivers know that driving on a busy interstate […]

Setting Priorities for the Last Few Weeks Believe it or not, there are only two and a half more weeks of regular classes left in this semester. With days off for holidays toward the end of the term, sometimes the fall semester can feel like a long climb followed by a steep downward slope to […]

Building a Teaching Community Sometimes teaching can seem like a paradoxical “alone together” moment: We’re in a room with maybe hundreds of students, but there’s only one of “us.” Much of the behind-the-scenes work of teaching also tends to be done in isolation: writing syllabi, selecting course materials, planning activities, writing feedback, grading. Working alone […]