Bonni Stachowiak [00:00:00]:

Today on episode number 539 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, joyful connections through intentional teaching practices with Teresa Thompson.Production Credit: Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.Welcome to this episode of Teaching in Higher Ed. I’m Bonni Stachowiak, and this is the space where we explore the art and science of being more effective at facilitating learning. We also share ways to improve our productivity approaches, so we can have more peace in our lives and be even more present for our students. I am so thrilled to be welcoming to the show today, Teresa Thompson. She’s enjoyed 17 years in higher education and as a tenured accounting professor at West Valley College in Saratoga, California. She discovered, first, her enthusiasm for teaching as a tutor at her community college where she assisted peers with subjects like Spanish, statistics, and, of course, accounting.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:01:16]:

Teresa always knew she wanted to return to the community college level to teach full time. Teresa loves being in the classroom and is known for her innovative and engaging teaching methods, which you’ll get such a sense of today from a Pokemon themed syllabus to a squid games escape room. She loves integrating pop culture into her assignments to make learning fun and memorable. She has received the excellence in teaching, service to the community, and program excellence award from her college, as well as being awarded the White House’s gold presidential award for community service. Beyond teaching, Teresa serves as the director of West Valley College’s Entrepreneurship Center. In this role, she collaborates with brilliant and passionate students, helping them turn their dreams into reality. In her spare time, Teresa loves traveling with her husband and daughter. She also enjoys snuggling up with her 2 toned, one eyed cat, Rex, to read mystery novels.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:02:24]:

Teresa Thompson, welcome to Teaching in Higher Ed.

Teresa Thompson [00:02:28]:

Hi. Thank you so much for having me, Bonni, and thank you for giving us a space to focus and reflect on our teaching practices.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:02:36]:

Since you are into pop culture, which I I am not always, but we both get our share of memes, I’m thinking about the beam where the record scratches because we’re all cheerful and happy right now. We just read about your incredible experience teaching and I can’t wait for the conversation we’re about to have. And I’m gonna do that record scratching moment, because I’m gonna ask you to take us to a little bit of something that was difficult to watch and difficult to experience, which, spoiler alert for listeners, has a happy ending in terms of what we can draw some lessons from this experience, but I know it was pretty painful for you. So could you take us to spending some time with your grandmother in a medical context?

Teresa Thompson [00:03:20]:

Yeah. She was the strong matriarch of our family, and she suffered an incident. We had to take her to the emergency room. I was there with her. We were we had a private room. She was consulting with her physician, the physician on call. And it was just surprising to see this strong woman kind of just go into a shell because the physician of how he was interacting with her. He didn’t really look her in the eye.

Teresa Thompson [00:03:46]:

He didn’t even look me in the eye being the person that was there to to care for her. He was just looking down at his notepad and kind of speaking to the notepad and I had just never seen my grandmother that way and it just it was surprising and it just made me realize how how important it is for those thoughtful, considerate interactions no matter where a person is or to treat them as a human, to recognize who they are and how we can help them.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:04:15]:

I don’t know how relatable the story I’m about to share will be to people who are outside of the United States. We have quite a medical system here in in the US, and so I I have there have been a number of work colleagues and myself who are trying to navigate a new insurance system. So many of us at wherever we work at the university, they might change insurance systems to try to, save money on health care costs. And so just people that I know with some real health health care difficulties, friends who for whom for me, I mean, I feel traumatized by having to switch doctors, but I also think, like, medically, I feel like I don’t have an excuse. But for friends who really, like, they need that specialist, people who have experienced cancer or experiencing it now. I mean, it’s just really, like, traumatizing. So we’ve had so many conversations recently just as friends and colleagues about going into these spaces where you’re bringing so much trauma, so much anxiety, and and trying to navigate things that the person on the other side, it’s can often feel like they couldn’t possibly understand. And like you said, just please look me in the eye.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:05:26]:

I’m a human being. I mean, I even took a friend to have surgery recently, and so I would just you’re you’re you’re telling the story with your grandma and me thinking back to that experience, taking her to surgery, and it’s like, she’s a human being. And it it yeah. So even if it’s not happening to you, it still can just feel that way. And so thank you for sharing that experience with us, and thank you listeners for listening to my trauma of medical stuff. I just think it’s stuff we can all relate to. We wish we didn’t have to endure that stuff, but I guess the one thing we can do is draw some lessons, and that’s why I’m grateful we can have this conversation today. And I wanted you to start with your guidance to us, the kinds of things we can do before a term even begins, starting with a welcome email.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:06:18]:

It seems so simple, Teresa, but it can be transformative. How can we take this simple act and actually, perhaps, meet our students in a different way through this kind of intentionality?

Teresa Thompson [00:06:32]:

Yeah. I have a lot of students that are are anxious about college. It might be their first time. We get a lot of foreign students and they’re not aware of how to navigate. And a lot of times they feel like they’re forgotten about. They’re their courted after in the admissions process. And then once they register, they they feel like there is no connection until the start of the semester. So I tried to do what I can to minimize that them feeling in limbo.

Teresa Thompson [00:06:58]:

I want them to know that I am looking forward to seeing them that I am a person like them. And I even tried to showcase a little bit of my personality in that welcome email. So it’s informative. But I also want it to showcase my enthusiasm, my personality. And I’ve had students share with me in the past that that was the reason they didn’t drop the class, they were considering dropping the class, they got that welcome email, and they thought, okay, this time, it’s going to be different. This instructor has taken the time to email me to let me know what I need that first day, I even tell them where they should park in terms of what’s the closest parking lot to our classroom, because it might be their first time at our campus, that first day of class. So, yeah, I try to send that welcome email out about a week, week and a half before our first, class session. I obviously wanted to include our class details, like our meeting location, the subject, the supplies that they need, the textbook that they need.

Teresa Thompson [00:07:57]:

And, again, I also try to include, you know, parking or driving directions or anything else that can help with any anxiety they might encounter that first day.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:08:06]:

I wanna remind listeners in case they missed this from the intro. You teach a subject for whom many of us bring a lot of feelings about. So how wonderful that they can start to see these glimpses of you and your humanity and your enthusiasm because maybe they haven’t always met people with that, or they, they just have some some stereotypes that they might subscribe to about the particular discipline in which you teach, so how wonderful that you do that. Talk to us a little bit then about how you approach the syllabus to create the same kind of intentionality.

Teresa Thompson [00:08:43]:

Oh my goodness. I love developing the syllabus. I do it fresh every semester. My husband thinks I’m crazy. He says that’s the benefit of of when he had college instructors. They just said it and forget it. They just would reuse it, and sometimes would have the wrong date from the past semester or the past year. So I take the time to do it fresh every semester.

Teresa Thompson [00:09:02]:

I try to integrate some of that pop culture that I just love that’s happening. So this past semester, I did a Barbie theme syllabus because I was on the Barbie train that Greta Gerwig, you know, phenomenon that happened last summer. So I just try to make it so fun. Wait. What class is it for?

Bonni Stachowiak [00:09:20]:

You just you threw me there. I’m like, that is awesome.

Teresa Thompson [00:09:23]:

It’s right. Financial accounting, I say every Barbie counts and it was all Barbie themed. I just in the week the semester before that, it was Pokemon themed. Semester before that was Stranger Things themed. So I it gives me great joy if I’m gonna rewrite it every semester anyways because I want the students to know I’m not just pulling something out of the trash bin and, you know, forgetting to update the date. You know, I want them to know every semester I’m looking at it with fresh eyes and I try to make it fun. So they’re more likely to want to read it, to want to come to that first class. Like I said, I had that student who who got the syllabus was like, wow.

Teresa Thompson [00:09:58]:

Anyone who puts this much time into their syllabus is going to put time into teaching the class. And so they went ahead and stayed enrolled, even though they were considering dropping the class. Because you’re right, people come into that class, financial accounting, with a lot of misconceptions. And so anything I can do, even before the semester starts,

Bonni Stachowiak [00:10:15]:

by making it unexpected and playful and

Teresa Thompson [00:10:15]:

joyful in their first interaction, unexpected and playful and joyful in their first interactions, I think is just gonna help lower that anxiety, right, and kind of perk their interest. So now you have my curiosity so peaked.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:10:30]:

I realize this is totally an unfair question, but what can you tell us about the squid games and the Pokemon inspired? Like, what were some ways that you approached that those particular themes?

Teresa Thompson [00:10:39]:

Oh, my gosh. The Pokemon was perfect. So if you’re familiar with the card game, I won’t get too into the weeds, but there’s obviously the Pokemon Pocket Monster cards that have different abilities and health levels. But there’s also supporter cards and one of the prominent supporter cards, they’re called professors. So it kind of was perfect. Right? There’s Professor Oak, Professor Willow that guides you on your journey, on your Pokemon journey. And so I thought that was perfect. So I made a Pokemon card for myself, professor Thompson, and my abilities.

Teresa Thompson [00:11:07]:

You know, it has, like, my office hours and I’m here to help you. And, there’s also different cards in Pokemon called supply cards, like tool cards. And so I made those into what they need for the class, for their successful adventure, their successful journey. They need their textbook. They need a calculator. Right? So I just kind of customized a deck of Pokemon cards to suit what they were gonna encounter or what they needed for the class.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:11:30]:

Oh, that is so fun. And then the squid games one, if you don’t mind.

Teresa Thompson [00:11:34]:

So that was I think we all know the phenomenon that happened in 2020, the squid games, pretty gruesome escape kind of game that it was in itself. And so I made that into a sequence of assignments. Some husband’s like, it’s not exactly an escape room. I’m like, I know, but it’s a series of puzzles that they have to work out before they have success in completing the assignment. Right? And so I I said that they were trying to do a cost analysis for this amusement park, which I made clear was where the squid games would be held. So they all kind of were a little wary. Like, oh, I don’t know if I wanna do a cost benefit analysis for this because they were familiar with it. Right? But at least it got them engaged.

Teresa Thompson [00:12:15]:

They picked up on what the symbols were. I don’t think I ever called it squid games, but I used the symbols that were incorporated in that show. Right? The different trials, each milestone that they had to do was one of the games that they had to complete in the show.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:12:30]:

When I started my master’s long ago, I had not taken one of the prerequisites. I had never taken an undergraduate statistics class. So I’m earning my masters, but also needed to go back and take a undergraduate statistics. And the guy who taught it was a junior high school teacher during the day, and then at night, he would teach as an adjunct at this at this university. And he was so amazing because he would make things so relatable, and I wanna try to explain this because I think that I can draw even out from your stories. He would make it relatable because it was fun. So in his case, he taught statistics by doing, the types of gambling games that you do. But I wanna say, I I have never really been a big gambler.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:13:16]:

So, I mean, yes, I have played slot machines and stuff, but, like, to to say, he he would have us go around the room and learn how to calculate the probability. Are you gonna win a roulette or that that kind of a thing? And and I didn’t know those games, but it didn’t hinder my learning. So it was still it was still fun. And so what you’re describing here for the squid games and the Pokemon and the Barbie, like, I don’t have to have seen the Barbie movie or to have even never played with a Barbie. I don’t even have to know who Barbie is because I’m gonna be able to tell that from your syllabus that it’s a character. I mean, so you’re inviting us in regardless of our knowledge about that particular pop culture reference. But then the second thing that I remember so distinctly about this class from such a long time ago is that he also allowed us then to relate it so much to our given context. So Mhmm.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:14:05]:

Yes, I learned about how to calculate probabilities in terms of games I don’t play. I’m not really much of a gambler, but then I also got to relate it to I was a vice president of human resources at the time. So all of the things that you could imagine, how many things would show up in a job like that to be able to apply some of the other statistical analysis tools to be able to do. So as you think through that, but you’re inviting them in through the pop culture, what comes to mind for you? What you do to try to allow them to bring their unique context in and connect it that way. So you’re helping us connect with the playfulness and the joyfulness. How about those unique contexts? Is anything coming to mind for you there?

Teresa Thompson [00:14:49]:

I think for me, it really helps with the initial connections because of the subject that I teach and because so many students are intimidated.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:14:58]:

Mhmm.

Teresa Thompson [00:14:58]:

If, you know, I make it very fun. It’s a journey here. I’m here to support you. But yes, you’re gonna have a textbook, but that’s here to support you on your journey. And so it it makes it a little bit right lowering the temperature, but also it helps them feel comfortable in approaching me. Right? Because maybe they’ll approach me and they’ll say, oh, what’s your favorite Pokemon? Right? Which is Jigglypuff for me. And they’ll say, oh, they’ll say, oh, mine is, Snom. And then we have a little bit of an interaction and then when they have a question about the material, they’re suddenly more comfortable just talking to me.

Teresa Thompson [00:15:30]:

Mhmm. So for me, I think it just helps lower the temperature about the subject, about talking to an instructor, especially if these students have not been in a college environment or even talked socially with someone in a while. Right? It just helps lower that anxiety they might feel.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:15:48]:

And I think we’re gonna return to this theme in a minute, but I wanna try to be chronological here. So we’ve looked at some intentional things we can do before a class starts, so let’s look now at some of the things we can do during the term. Please, please, please tell us, what should we know about class setup and the intentionality that you bring there?

Teresa Thompson [00:16:09]:

Yeah. I am one that wants to make sure that I’m getting in ahead of time. So I’ll usually go in, you know, the week before, the day before, just to make sure all my technology works, just to make sure, you know, I have whiteboard markers and all that because I don’t want anything to distract from making, a connection with students as they walk in the door that first day. I don’t want their first impression of me to be me quickly cleaning the board or freaking out because I can’t find a whiteboard marker that works. I want them to see me calm and ready and happy to greet them as they walk in. There’s something that presenters call the 60 20 rule, which says you should always get to your presentation 60 minutes before you give it. Just to iron out all the technical stuff, set up your equipment, and then you leave the last 20 minutes before you welcome in your audience. You just leave that to focus on the the audience members.

Teresa Thompson [00:17:03]:

In this in this case, our students. And as they walk in, I say good morning. You know, if we can connect on something, when I go, I like your backpack or, you know, what classes did you just come from? Whatever we can connect on. So I want them to see me focused and not that anything else is more important than they are when they walk through that door.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:17:21]:

I know for many of us teaching, we might be teaching back to back, which is why I love this advice to get in there before the class even starts because sometimes that might be a better opportunity to really get in there. Tell me a little bit more specifically, when you say making sure the technology works, what are some of the tests that you go in and run on any learning space that you might be teaching in?

Teresa Thompson [00:17:42]:

Yeah. So we have smart classrooms. So I go in usually, like, the weekend before, the week before, and I’ll just make sure that the bulb works in the overhead, projector. I’ll make sure I know how to get the screen to lower and raise. Just really simple things because you’ll be surprised. I’ve gone to set up and a bulb has been burnt out. Teresa,

Bonni Stachowiak [00:18:04]:

at the risk of oversharing, no. I would not be surprised. Sorry. A little bit, yes. It happens. It happens. So, yeah, not surprising at all that it happens. How about you checking for sound? You checking for your bandwidth? Like, how if you’re gonna show a video or something like that?

Teresa Thompson [00:18:21]:

Question. Yeah. If it’s a, synchronous class or an online class, then definitely run. Right? I’ll run, like, a speed check on my Internet, just to make sure that I have enough bandwidth, make sure my Zoom login is all up to date. I don’t have any new updates to load. So, yeah, if it’s online synchronous class, then, yes, I am checking my, my technology and my programs. Yeah.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:18:42]:

I love it. I would suggest even people doing a speed check even in the classroom, where I teach. There’s a lot of difference depending on the building that you’re in, depending on the classroom. And And the other thing that comes up for us I don’t know, Teresa, if this is where you’re at, but but you people listening may have where you’re able to cast to the system. And by that, I mean, instead of having to plug it in and bring all the dongles with you to see which one is gonna connect, being able to just have that whatever is on your screen, be able to wirelessly be presented. But that takes a little bit sometimes of getting used to that. What is that room called in the system? That kind of a thing. How do you if you teach 2 times in a row, but maybe it’s 2 different classrooms, how do you switch from one classroom to the other? You know, these are the little seemingly fine thing fine tuned things that can really be easy once you’re used to them.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:19:35]:

But if you’re a nervous I get nervous still 20 years. I’m still nervous every time. So to let some of the jitters get worked out just by knowing I know this room. I know any idiosyncrasies of this space can be so, so helpful. So this is such great advice for us. And then I wanted to come back. So we we’ve been looking at the idea earlier about how you help students bring their unique context in, and you were talking about that and connecting with that. I know you like to do icebreakers.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:20:06]:

I don’t even like to ask people about icebreakers because I wanna warn listeners that a lot of students that I work with real and faculty too, really don’t like the word icebreaker. So we’re not gonna call them icebreakers. We’re gonna call them something else, but tell us about the things that you do to attempt to build that community and trust and vulnerability early on as what some people call icebreakers.

Teresa Thompson [00:20:33]:

Yeah. You’re right. I avoid the term as well. I’ll either call it like student questionnaire or, partner interview. So I have them I post 5 questions on the overhead on my PowerPoint slide, and they’re basic things. Right? Your name, your major. Right? I want them to see what they have in common. And then I always go with 2 just kind of fun questions.

Teresa Thompson [00:20:55]:

It’ll be what’s the farthest that you’ve traveled? And, you know, one of my favorite responses is when students say the US, That is the farthest that I have traveled. Right? And then it opens up the conversation of, oh, where where did you come from? Or what’s the farthest you’ve traveled? And then they’re they have a lot in common, and they can talk about that. And then it’s always, I end with what is the last movie you saw or show that you binged? Because again, I just love pop culture. And then I have them introduce their partner after they’ve asked those 5 questions. So they will introduce them to the rest of the class. And then we see common themes. Right? A lot of it. A lot of people are watching whatever the the hot show is of the time.

Teresa Thompson [00:21:34]:

Right? And the Game of Thrones, House of Dragon. Right? And so then maybe I’ll try to weave some House of Dragon references in as I write assignments or quiz questions later on because I know a lot of students are enjoying. Right? Yes. I call it a student questionnaire.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:21:50]:

The thing I love about it’s sometimes we miss the subtleties, and I had never thought about asking people about the show that they binged versus just asking them about a TV show. And I have to share because some of this, it’s gonna be current. Right? Like you said. So so you just said names of shows I haven’t watched yet, but I know they’re really hot right now. But I will tell you, I went back. So I went back. My husband and my kids are really into the Star Wars universe, and I just I’m very far behind. I had really only watched the movies that came out when I was a girl, and so I just watched Andor.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:22:26]:

And who was I in for a serious treat? And then they did have Disney plus came out with I’m forgetting oh, The Acolyte. I watched that too. And then, yeah, I just watched Rogue 1. So, I mean, those of you that know the Star Wars universe are, like, how she has missed out on decades right here, but the reason I’m bringing it up is because you can see that how animated I am right now. If you asked me just what TV shows, I’d be like, well, there’s one on Apple TV plus, but I didn’t really like it. I mean, so versus you asked me what I binged, where I literally just could not wait to watch the next episode. That is a subtle distinct difference that I imagine pays dividends in your classes.

Teresa Thompson [00:23:09]:

You are so right. It gets them excited. And I love what David Franklin wrote in his book about, Dan Levy about how you take that energy once you’ve you’ve made it. Right? And you use it to push forward your sales because you know there’s rough seas ahead. Right? We’re gonna get to accounting. But if we have some positive energy to keep us moving forward, that’s gonna help us. Right? That goodwill is gonna help us.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:23:31]:

Oh, I love that so much. Another really distinct thing has to do with your next bit of advice for us, and that has to do with stressing the class importance. And I know I’ve shared this on the on the podcast previously, but I’m just gonna briefly say it again in case anyone would have missed it. I used to ask students, why are you taking this class? Crickets, Teresa. Crickets. And now I shifted it very slightly. This is in my welcome email, by the way. And I say, why are you taking a class about business ethics? Or why are you taking a class about personal leadership and productivity? Sometimes they don’t even know why they’re taking a class because they I just ran into one of our, I’m a really big fan of, I’m not a big sports person, but my gosh, you can get me so excited about our basketball teams.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:24:17]:

And so I I just ran into a young man on campus yesterday and hadn’t met him before. It’s because I found out he’s a business student, so I should have met him, but he had been injured last year, so I hadn’t had a chance to meet him yet. I I still, like, cheer him on on the on the I almost said on the field. Yep. They don’t play on a field. No. They do not. But, anyway, for him, he is one of our international students.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:24:39]:

So when I asked him what classes he was gonna be taking, I wanted to know, you know, when am I gonna get to see you, or are you taking any of our other amazing faculty? And he didn’t know yet, because, of course, he has to navigate his basketball games and practice and then also his own unique academic goals, and it’s you know, it gets complicated no matter who you are or your context. And so sometimes they don’t know why they’re taking a class, and sometimes it’s cause it was the only thing that worked even though this is a very stellar. I could tell he’s a very, driven student. It’s not like, you know, that our our school academics first. And that and in fact, he was telling me a story about our basketball coach always talks to the family members, because he wants the family members to understand if you’re gonna have your son or daughter come to our university, academics first. And we’re not a prestigious university, but he believes, I mean, the value of a higher education degree. He believes in that so much. He wants to make sure everybody’s on the same page there.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:25:35]:

So all this to say, what do you do to approach this idea of the importance of the class? Because I imagine you have tons of lessons learned too.

Teresa Thompson [00:25:43]:

Yeah. I, one of my favorites comes from Peter Newberry, who I think you’ve referenced before or maybe have even had on another show. And he does the observation activity where he just puts something, a picture or a little bit of information and just puts it up there, gives the class time to think about it, reflect on it, and then he just asks them, like, what do you notice? What do you observe? What do you wonder? Do you still have any questions? And it just gets that critical thinking going. Right? So for me, I might do, like, a financial excerpt from a company, and I try to either pick a company that’s doing really well or really poorly. And I get them to kind of individually reflect on it. And then I might say, okay. Now turn to those partners that you were just talking to a second ago and see if you share any of the same observations. So it becomes an individual observation activity and they also get a chance to chat and start to form that community.

Teresa Thompson [00:26:35]:

Right? And then we talk about it together. Right? And so financial excerpts that I’ve done in the past have included FTX, the now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange that some of us might remember, or WeWork or Theranos or any of those really big debacles that they may have heard about in the news. And it always just gets them talking about it like, oh, this company is in terrible shape. Why would you ever invest in that? And then, you know, I’ll have them guess who do you think it is. Right? And sometimes we’ll get the right answer. I’ll sometimes I’ll put up very profitable companies and we’ll have fun guessing which company it is. So it helps them see like this. These are decisions which company it is.

Teresa Thompson [00:27:10]:

So it helps them see, like, these these are decisions you’re gonna have to make in the real world. You’re gonna have to be given this data, and you have to say, do I wanna invest my money, my retirement plan in this company? Right? So they have to wonder and see if they still have any questions. I know what those questions are, what the significance is of that.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:27:28]:

I totally missed that distinction. And maybe you said it because my head is exploding in the best way as possible over here. But so you they don’t know who it is they’re looking at.

Teresa Thompson [00:27:36]:

We don’t. They just come

Bonni Stachowiak [00:27:38]:

in and they’re seeing a bull market or a bear market or per financial performance or results or what have you, like and then they’re having to guess, because that’s bringing into me, yes, the Peter Newbury wonder and and what do you notice? What do you wonder? But, also, I’m thinking about James Lang’s research and work on prediction. You’re combining to those things so beautifully.

Teresa Thompson [00:28:00]:

And they have fun arguing about it, you know, going back and forth. Then I’ll give them hints. Right? If they’re off, I’ll tell them, like, the industry or something like that. And it’s just this fun, robust back and forth, and it’s it really and then when I reveal it, oh, it’s FTX or whatever it is, then they just have a riot.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:28:18]:

So I am so intrigued by this next one. Tell us about the art of the check-in.

Teresa Thompson [00:28:24]:

I love to do this, and there’s so many different ways that you can do the check-in. What I do is they have homework. Right? And it’s due at the beginning of class. And then sometimes instead of reviewing it as a group or instead of turning it in, I will go to each person, you know, the first 10 minutes of class maybe. And I’ll just say, how did you do? Did you have any questions or can I see? Oh, good job there. And so I will take time with every single student. It’s about a class of 25, 30 maybe. And I will spend 1 minute or so or less than 1 minute.

Teresa Thompson [00:28:56]:

And sometimes I can do 2 people at once, you know. But that way, they’re getting my individual eyes to look at them so they know that I am looking at their their papers, and that I want to see if they have any questions. And a lot of times you’ll get questions when you’re standing right over their shoulder, as opposed to them asking them in front of the whole class, right? So I found that to be really helpful way to check-in. Also, just walking through classes, they’re working on in class individual work or group work, just making yourself physically accessible by walking through the rows, taking your time, even starting conversations that have nothing to do with what they’re working on. You know, I love your shoes, or, oh, my gosh, I like your phone case, whatever it is, right? Just to engage them. And then they feel more comfortable. We’ve already started a conversation, I might as well just ask her what I’m thinking about why I can’t start this problem or whatever it is. So just making yourself accessible physically and then just giving that olive branch to start the communication.

Teresa Thompson [00:29:56]:

And, again, doesn’t have to be on the particular assignment. Just having something to get that conversation going.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:30:03]:

I’m thinking back to the story about your grandmother and how you had shared that she hadn’t been given that eye contact.

Teresa Thompson [00:30:11]:

Mhmm.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:30:12]:

And I’m thinking about the ways in which your presence so a lot’s been written in the scholarship of teaching and learning about the idea of instructor presence. But sometimes when I read the literature, it just kind of falls flat because it’s very difficult to describe that in as powerful of ways as actually experiencing it. And so just hearing you tell that story, I it’s screaming at me at me presence. And since I had shared a story about about our ongoing challenges and trauma around changing, yet again, you know, medical providers and needing to find new physicians and specialists and all that things, I wanted to share a happy story, and it has to do with one of our as we close out this part of the conversation. But I went to get a vaccine the other day, and I arrived. And before I had gone, actually, Dave really oftentimes will help me, like, because people perceive me as being way more detail oriented than I actually am. So he’s really good at, like, the details and everything. So he had actually made the appointment for me.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:31:10]:

He’s so nice. And so so there had been some conversation, and he had emailed me and said, hey. You know, you if you ever want to, here’s a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of my vaccines. It was very nice of him to do it. He didn’t realize how overwhelmed I would feel by it though, because I was literally like, Teresa, how would I ever find this information out? How would, like, how would I even know that? So I had been really feeling stressed. You know, I feel even since COVID, haven’t really been up on as many medical appointments. There’s all this, like, stress and trauma of, like, oh, I gotta do this. So it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:31:43]:

I walked into the pharmacist. She called me in to get the vaccine. I’m sitting there. And before she even gave it to me, she hands me a piece of paper. And on it, it says, it’s every vaccine that they have in my records. And I was just, I didn’t even know such a thing existed. I was like, because so many times, even still today, doctors’ offices can be really paper based. You know, we haven’t really all completely transformed to electronic medical records yet.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:32:06]:

So I was like, I just instantly felt the stress of, like, not only do I have a spreadsheet, but I’ve got I mean, it just was so amazing to have that information. So all this is coming to an end of class summary, because we know how much stress that students can bring. We know about the mental health crises that are just so pervasive. What can you tell us about how something as seemingly simple as an after class summary can help, especially with students from marginalized populations and from students who are experiencing mental health crises, some other form of trauma? How does this help us?

Teresa Thompson [00:32:48]:

Yeah. I think we have to recognize that our students have a lot going on. And sometimes even despite their best intention, right, they may not be able to be a 100%, attentive during our classroom. Right? They might miss something or have to leave or a few minutes earlier, whatever it is. And so I got the idea of I call it recap and reminders, and I send it out after every class. And it might be a recap, a very short one sentence recap. Today, we covered chapter 9 on bonds payable and talked about the importance of long term financing and, you know, the financial stability of a company, something like that. Very just one sentence.

Teresa Thompson [00:33:23]:

And they’ll link to resources. Here was your chapter 9 reading. Here’s some slides if you want to look at it. Reminder, here’s what’s due before the next class. And here’s some resources. Here’s my office hours. So it’s all in one spot and so many students have said that that’s been their favorite thing because sometimes they get caught up in the excitement of class or just thinking about other things. They leave and they go, oh, what was the homework? Or she said this great resource.

Teresa Thompson [00:33:49]:

I didn’t write it down. But for them to have it like you were just saying how it can just help take that stress and melt it away. Oh, I have it all right here. I still have to follow-up and go to all these resources and check them out. But I’m organizing it for maybe students that, again, maybe English isn’t their first language, so it’s hard for them to write down everything as fast as I talk. So I have that end after class summary report for them that I post to our learning management system. And like I said, it’s been what students say they have liked the best.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:34:22]:

And speaking of the best, I feel like we saved the best for last, a kind of gift that you can give yourself and you can give the learners in this learning community that you’ve built that will last for far beyond the class. Tell us about last day thank yous.

Teresa Thompson [00:34:39]:

I do. I you know, I enjoy teaching all of my classes. All my students are amazing and they love being there and I I love being there as well. And I let them know that in the last class. If we have a student TA or, supplemental instructor, teaching assistant, whatever you call them at your institution. I, pass around a thank you card for the whole class to to sign and we give that to them because I want the TA to know that, we really appreciate the support that they they give. My tutors go above and beyond. I also invite students to keep in touch with me.

Teresa Thompson [00:35:12]:

I wanna hear about all their wonderful successes after they leave the classroom. I invite them to connect with me on LinkedIn so they can start their professional networks. I remind them that they’re part of a bigger community. So if they want to be a business student or an accounting student, there are a lot of professional organizations out there that offer student membership for free. And so I let them know, Hey, your journey doesn’t have to end here. There are other communities out there for you to still be involved with and that will support you in your, journey ahead of you.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:35:46]:

This is the time in the show where we each get to share our recommendations, and I wanted to recommend a news source that I came across in the last 6 to 12 months. I taught a business ethics class, and, like you, Teresa, your husband would be shaking his head at me too because I can’t let well enough alone. I really, really can’t. So I like to be I use the expression leveling things up, and so I was looking to have them we do some work around digital and information literacy in there because it cannot have us reading stories about business ethics if we have no rootedness in being able to evaluate the credibility of those sources. So all this to say came across one that was new to me, and what it is is rest of world. So for those who may not be familiar with it, rest of world is a nonprofit publication that challenges, and I’m reading from their website description, that challenges expectations about whose experiences with technology matter. We connect the dots across a rapidly evolving digital world through on the ground reporting in places typically overlooked or underestimated. And they talk about their vision is to become an indispensable source of information that captures people’s experiences with technology outside the west by producing stories that connect the dots, empower local journalists, hold the powerful accountable, challenge stereotypes, and focus on the experience.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:37:22]:

And I have found ever since subscribing on my RSS feeds, it’s almost like I mean, I love how targeted they are with their vision, but I’m telling you, go check this out. Check the website out. If you use the RSS reader, you know, whatever or follow them on social media, it’s an excellent source with lots of different types of ways of looking at the news. And I’m not this is not a super narrow in terms of the kinds of things they talk about. I mean, because technology connects with so many things. We were talking about the cryptocurrency, and they certainly have a big broad range of their, news that they share that has to do with crypto. Every kind of technology you could imagine intersecting with the economy, intersecting with society, marginalized populations, and so on. It’s a really, really cool resource.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:38:06]:

So that’s what I wanted to recommend today, and I’m gonna pass it over to you, Teresa, to whatever you’d like to recommend.

Teresa Thompson [00:38:12]:

Well, thank you. Just like I like to remind my students that there are professional organizations to support them. I think it’s important for us as faculty members to know that there’s that for us as well. I know you you’ve mentioned quite a few, Bonni. The one that I like because it’s geared towards accounting teachers is, Tactic Teachers of Accounting at 2 year colleges. So if there’s any accounting educators out there, it is a great, nonprofit organization. They’ve got resources. They have a conference, and you’re not alone.

Teresa Thompson [00:38:43]:

It’s I’ve been with them for 16 years and especially when I was a new faculty member. The practical, tips that they gave us to use in our classrooms in person and online were just invaluable. So whatever your discipline is, there are professional organizations out there to support you. So I encourage you to check those out. My second professional recommendation was Lance Eaton, who I know you’ve had on the show before. He, has a repository of different AI policies because that’s the world we live in now. And so as I’m drafting my syllabus for the new semester, I’m thinking about what is my policy gonna be for my acceptable level of use of AI. And he has created this repository of different syllabi policies that allow the use of AI, and he’s collected them from all different syllabi examples right now.

Teresa Thompson [00:39:41]:

So if you’re worrying about what your policy is going to be, maybe peruse that and see what other educators in your field are writing in their syllabus. And then kind of a personal recommendation, I just have not been able to get her songs out of my head is, the singer songwriter. My daughter’s like, you can’t recommend her. Everybody knows about. Chappell Roan Chaperone. And yes, I’m sure they do. By now, I’m just discovering her. But just her, backstory of the ups and downs that she had to go through in terms of losing her record label and losing her manager and COVID and just all the up and downs, the perseverance that she had to show.

Teresa Thompson [00:40:19]:

And she really finally came into her own and starting getting getting good recognition was when she just started having fun and doing her own type of music. And her music has been described as unbridled enthusiasm with a personal twist. And I just thought that was such a good phrase for how we should all approach our classes is just show unbridled enthusiasm and just put our own personal twist on it. And you will have fun. Your students will have fun, and it should be memorable for both of you.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:40:47]:

Okay. You can tell your daughter I have never heard of this person.

Teresa Thompson [00:40:50]:

Yay. Oh my gosh. She was so mad. She’s like, I’m too fucking in it. Everyone’s heard of that.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:40:55]:

No. And I suspect even if we had all heard of it, it’s still fun to be just like the binging question that you asked earlier, it’s fun to talk about things that you love. Unbridled enthusiasm with a personal twist. Who wouldn’t love to even revisit that? They might wanna pull it up on their playlist and bump that up in their play mix, so I love that.

Teresa Thompson [00:41:13]:

I’ll send you a link of her tiny desk concert.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:41:15]:

I would love that. I’m cracking up because if you saw my spelling, Yeah. I’ll I’ll look forward we’ll be sharing some links once we stop recording because if you saw my spelling, you’d be like, nope. You didn’t get it. Nope. That’s not her name. That’s too fun. Well, thank you so much, Teresa, for today’s conversation.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:41:32]:

Speaking of unbridled enthusiasm, you have more than lived up to joyful connections through intentional teaching practices. Anyone who’s listening that wants to share with Teresa or I any ideas or something connected that Teresa shared that’s something that you’re doing or trying, I know we would both love to hear from you and hear about your own experimentation because this is just it’s so fun to have these kinds of conversations. And thank you for these really practical ways that we can take that intentionality, matching up our values with a desire to really equip students well. So thank you so much for today.

Teresa Thompson [00:42:10]:

Thank you.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:42:13]:

Thanks once again to Teresa Thompson for igniting our imaginations the way that you have today. Today’s episode was produced by me, Bonni Stachowiak. It was edited by the ever talented Andrew Kroeger. Podcast production support was provided by the amazing Sierra Priest. If you’ve yet to sign up for the weekly updates from Teaching in Higher Ed, I invite you to head over to teachinginhighered.com/subscribe. You’ll receive the most recent episodes show notes as well as some other resources that don’t show up any other way but through that email. Thanks so much for listening and being a part of Teaching in Higher Ed. I’ll see you next time.

Teaching in Higher Ed transcripts are created using a combination of an automated transcription service and human beings. This text likely will not represent the precise, word-for-word conversation that was had. The accuracy of the transcripts will vary. The authoritative record of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcasts is contained in the audio file.