Bonni Stachowiak [00:00:00]:

Today on episode number 538 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, lessons from the Teaching in Higher Ed Story Caravan with Dave Stachowiak. Production Credit: Produced by Innovate Learning, Maximizing Human Potential.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:00:22]:

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. If this is your first time listening into Teaching in Higher Ed, I am Bonni Stachowiak, and I’m joined by Dave Stachowiak.

Dave Stachowiak [00:00:57]:

Hello. Glad to be back.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:00:58]:

And, Dave, thank you for joining me for a big celebration. Would you like to share the momentous reason why we’ve gathered here today?

Dave Stachowiak [00:01:06]:

Yes. We are bringing to a close the Story Caravan, which we talked about. Oh, was it a couple months ago and kicked off a month or ago or so? And so many people have been involved with this. And speaking of which, if you are listening for the first time, this is gonna be a very different episode than is normally aired because we’re gonna be talking about some of the highlights from the story caravan and the stories and the snacks and all those good things that came out of this.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:01:30]:

Yes. And there is a lot to share. And they’ve just talked briefly about what our results were. I know we had we had at least I had some small goals, and they were all surpassed.

Dave Stachowiak [00:01:41]:

They were 78 total participants. Thank you to everyone who jumped in during August September. We’re really grateful for all of you who jumped in. 78 total participants, 51 were active, almost 800 submissions during that time, and around 40% average mission completion, which I don’t know the average stats on goose chase for mission completion, but that seems pretty high to me.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:02:07]:

I was surprised I had to do a double take and do one of those cartoon moments where I had to rub my eyes for a minute to see if I was looking at the right number. Well, I wanna thank to the the judges that helped us out. So thanks to Tolu Noah, Sarah Rose Cavanaugh, Adelmar Ramirez, Rob Park, Derek Brough, Janae Cone, Todd Zakrajsjek, David Rhodes, and Carrie Mandelak. And, Dave, I wanna thank you

Dave Stachowiak [00:02:31]:

Of course.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:02:32]:

And my friend and colleague Shannon Johnson for the behind the scenes help and the team over at GooseChase, Andrew Cross and Alyshawn Kara Verani. And it was just such a pleasure, and I wanna just briefly mention the top 5 winners. We didn’t even really say we were gonna have winners, but I can’t not mention these people. And, Dave, I I wanted to keep going down further in the list. It was really incredible, all the great stories that got shared. But in 5th place, we had Allison, and Allison introduced herself in the story caravan. She says, I’m currently in Chicago, Illinois dropping my son at college. So she was quite busy during the story caravan.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:03:08]:

Pretty amazing. She came in 5th place. She says she lives in Maryland, though, just outside Washington, DC, and she works in Virginia. The 4th place winner was Cindy, and she’s from Ventura, so not too far away from us, Dave. In 3rd place was Gary, and he’s in Oklahoma. 2nd place, Adrian in Ohio and 1st place. And she refers to herself, and this makes me laugh because we are totally going to mess up the AI tool that does the transcription for this. And we wanna thank Sierra Priest in advance for catching all of these because we have a the 1st place winner, her account name on Goosechase is another Bonnie, and it’s because she’s Bonnie with an I e, and I’m just Bonni with an I.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:03:52]:

So, congratulations, Bonnie, who regularly has contacted me over the years. I’m grateful for all the times you’ve emailed and been in touch, and, so proud and and happy that you worked so hard and shared so many amazing stories. And so congratulations, another Bonnie. So we’re gonna now start to share some of the stories. So it was a story caravan, and there was so much, as Dave mentioned, almost 800 completed missions. So there are 2 groupings of types of recommendations, and many people say this is their favorite part of the teaching in higher ed podcast because they just love how eclectic the recommendations are. So 2 broad categories Dave and I are gonna be sharing. There are recommendations, which are where people say, gosh, we we really think this should have been recommended in the past, but it hasn’t been.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:04:43]:

And then we’re gonna do recommended recommendations, meaning someone recommended this a long time ago or recently, but you really gotta check it out. So starting out with recommendations. I know, Dave, you’ve got a couple to share.

Dave Stachowiak [00:04:56]:

Alright. So here’s a few that we pulled that we caught our attention, Bonnie. One of them is from Bonnie. She said vote like your democracy depends on it. That was her recommendation. Good message for this season Yes. Here in the states. Also, recommendation from Jennie B who said nothing to do with teaching, but these are delicious because good snacks.

Dave Stachowiak [00:05:17]:

Again, back to our snacks theme, always important. Kirkland caramel s’mores clusters, which sounds corny.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:05:23]:

I know. It sounds really good. You can go

Dave Stachowiak [00:05:25]:

for 1.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:05:26]:

Alyssa B recommended shifts, and that’s an illustrated history of the future of work by the Washington Post. And she says, quote, I like the creative storytelling approach, and I liked it so much too that I actually recommend it in an episode in the future. And and I don’t recommend the whole thing. I only recommended one of the stories, so I can keep coming back to recommend more. It’s really, really good. People should go to the show notes or the recommendations page and check it out. And then there also was a recommendation of the Coaching for Leaders podcast, which if you’re not familiar with Dave and that podcast, he happens to be the host of.

Dave Stachowiak [00:06:03]:

I do happen to be the host of it. Let’s see. Doctor Sarah-Jane in Australia had recommended episode 696 of coaching for leaders that I hosted, not long ago. The title of the episode is the habits that hold leaders back. Marshall Goldsmith was my guest. He’s one of the top executive coaches in the world, and we were talking about his best selling book, what got you here won’t get you there, which is the best title of a leadership book of all time. And it is particularly helpful. I think it’s helpful for a lot of us as we move in our careers, but I think especially for those who maybe started in a particular role or in faculty and have moved on and have some administrative responsibilities as you did in your career, Bonni, and many others have too, particularly a helpful read for you and helpful listen.

Dave Stachowiak [00:06:48]:

So I think that episode I thank you, Sergei, for pointing that out. Also recommended the covenant of water audiobook was a wonderful listen. A great teacher, Abraham Verghese, I hope I’m saying that right, is a tremendous storyteller. That recommendation comes from Gary up on GooseChase. Thank you, Gary.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:07:06]:

And we have a recommendation from Heather Kreshmer, and she recommends community building classroom activities like tell us something good. And I’ve linked in the show notes to the community building activities on the one he, equity inbound, because that’s a great place, and you can find there a video with Heather and some of her collaborators there from Myfest 22, where they look at some of these community building activities. Also, Judith had recommended Scribe. ScribeHow is the tool that lets you record what you’re doing on your screen and be able to easily create documentation. And she suggests trying the free Chrome extension to get started and says it has saved her hours and hours. And, finally, in the recommendations that we’re starting with here, as opposed to the recommendations recommendations. Oh, boy. It’s getting interesting, isn’t it, Dave?

Dave Stachowiak [00:08:07]:

The the transcript work is gonna be amazing on this episode. It’s gonna be amazing.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:08:12]:

So the last category is a graduation speech that Kim T says is intended for students, but equally impactful for instructors and everyone, and it’s called this is water by David Foster Wallace. And it starts out with that classic where 2 fish are swimming together, and one of them asks, how is the water? And the other one says, what the heck is water? So kind of a a good thing for us to be thinking about at different points in our life. So next, we have recommend recommended recommendations. These are things that have been recommended before that people really wanted to bring to light again, including another Bonnie. This one with the I e at the end suggests getting things done, which is a book I have revisited in a system that I at least attempt to, follow fairly rigorously on a a a regular basis. And then we have Karen Costa’s scope of practice chapter, and she came on and talked about it. Claudia wanted to call it back to our attention and said it’s something that she’s kept coming back to. And I really have found myself too, Dave.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:09:21]:

This was the whole idea of what is mine and what is not mine. And sometimes it’s not mine because I’m not an expert in it, but sometimes even if I am an expert in it, it’s still not mine. And her voice does rattle around in such a lovely way in my head, and it sounds like in Claudia’s as well.

Dave Stachowiak [00:09:38]:

Also recommended from Cindy in Ventura. She, really zeroed in on the quote, ask a student how they’re doing, that invitation in episode 379 with Ian Wolf. And she says, this has been especially helpful in my asynchronous courses. Students love knowing that I care. Thank you, Cindy, for that reminder. Allison mentions TextExpander. Full disclosure, they have sponsored the podcast, before, A wonderful tool Bonni and I both use. Allison, we’re right there with you.

Dave Stachowiak [00:10:07]:

Love TextExpander. And then Jennie B recommends small teaching by James Lang and says, I don’t know if I first heard about this from the podcast, but it has come up many times, and I recommend this book to new teachers I meet, as do we, Jennie. Thank you so much.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:10:22]:

Alright. The next category came from another mission on the story caravan, and it was actually, I guess, there’s a couple of combo combined ones here, books that teach or books about teaching.

Dave Stachowiak [00:10:35]:

And we’re gonna, by the way, have all this listed in the episode notes. So as we’re going through these, if you’re hearing something that’s grabbing your attention, just go over to teaching and higher ed.com/ what’s the episode number again, Bonni?

Bonni Stachowiak [00:10:47]:

Slash 538.

Dave Stachowiak [00:10:48]:

There you go. So that’ll get you this full list. So as you’re as you’re listening in, listen for what you may wanna grab here later. Pedagogy of Kindness by Kate Denial, Allison recommended. Recommended by doctor Sarah-Jane in Australia is the undergraduate experience focusing institutions on what matters most. And Sarah-Jane writes so many options, but this one is excellent. Recommended by Kathy in Wisconsin. The end of average, how we succeed in a world that values sameness by Todd Rose and Ogi Ogas.

Dave Stachowiak [00:11:19]:

Hope I’m saying that those names correctly. And, let’s see. Recommended by the other Bonnie. Again, small teaching, invisible learning, connected teaching, mindset, inclusive teaching strategies for promoting equity in the college classroom.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:11:34]:

This next category of ideas came out of a mission that was called your change moment. And, Dave, I found these stories to be so powerful. This first one is from Cindy. She writes, I was evacuated from my home as were my elderly parents due to the Southern California Thomas fire. I put so much pressure on myself to still go to every meeting and keep up with my online classes, but I couldn’t. I realized, with the help of my dean, that I had to extend grace to myself the same way I do for students. So powerful, Cindy. Thank you for that incredible reminder of just being gentle with ourselves.

Dave Stachowiak [00:12:20]:

Allison wrote up on the GooseChase Forum, first day, new job, new school, 1st time on stage with a mic in charge, 300 eager faces. All was well until afterwards an email. I dropped your class because I couldn’t get past the back row. This was from a wheelchair user. Nothing has been the same since then. Thank you, Allison, for sharing that. From Adrianne. The experience of going back for my master’s in EdD really drove home how important clear instructions are in assignments, especially case studies and paper based assignments.

Dave Stachowiak [00:12:56]:

Students want to do what we’re asking, and they can if we provide useful guides. Indeed, Adrianne. Thank you for that reminder. And Jessica in Nashville writes, a student challenged me about a grade on an assessment I helped to create. Her challenge helped me dive deeper into the importance of communicating rationale and expectations. We are not just doing this to give you a grade. We’re doing this to make sure you are ready for the work.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:13:21]:

Alright. Kathy has this story of her change moment. Watching nervous, anxious, stumbling students give class presentations with PowerPoints, it occurred to me that the activity didn’t match the learning objective. Now I have them present to small groups of students sitting around a table. They are confident and relaxed and share mastery of content. That was Kathy in Wisconsin. And I think so much about this, Dave, just in terms of challenging. And this I got this sense from her that this isn’t the first thing that she’s reconsidered in her teaching, but really thinking about the context in which students are gonna use the skills and the knowledge that they’re gaining in our classes, and I just commend Kathy for that work.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:14:10]:

So next, we have the mission was all about preparation. What do people do to prepare? And we heard from Cindy. She wrote, if my classmates in person, I always bring snacks for the 1st day. I find that eating together helps to build community, conveys the message to students that I want them to feel welcome, and also helps to support students who may have arrived to the class hungry. And, Dave, I was gonna share that I’m teaching, once again, a class called personal leadership and productivity, and I had them do an attention audit this time. It’s the first time I’ve done this assignment despite having taught this class many times before, and I decided to do it with them. And that was I’m actually doing all the assignments with them this class, and it’s going so well just because to go through the same exact thing that I’m asking them to do is a really powerful thing. But, anyway, just a couple students when they write about in their case, it doesn’t sound necessarily like a food insecurity thing, but so many of them practice so early in the morning.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:15:11]:

They’ll have 6:30 practice, or maybe some of the sports might have 6:30 weights, and then they’re sitting in that 8 o’clock morning class hungry, and they just noticed. I thought that was really powerful, that that attention audit helped them to notice the the feelings of hunger and how that gets in the way of their learning. So thank you, Cindy, for that great reminder to us all. Another preparation story comes from Adrianne. Enter all assignment due dates so my students can stay on track. And I just heard a story the other day about someone who hadn’t understood that just because you type the dates in for assignments, that students aren’t gonna see them on their calendar. So we can never just always rely on that. People will naturally know that, and it’s just so important to have those dates in there so they can see them across all of their classes.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:16:00]:

And then we have someone named Georgia, and she’s from Long Island, New York. And she writes, I draft a spreadsheet of all student due dates and my personal due dates so that I know what I need to do, which days, and the longer term progress for the work of the class. And, Dave, that’s something that I aspire to. I I’m being better this time around about putting blocks into grade, but people like Georgia really inspire me to do even more where it’s based on the assignment. You know, they turn it in on 12th, and so I’m gonna then block out some time, for example, on 13th to do that. I really like these these inspirations and aspirations. And, finally, I I just had this note because I I was when I was capturing all these missions, Dave, I I was going way out of order. Guess I would go down so many rabbit trails.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:16:54]:

And I just want you to know that Georgia said, and I quote, recently, I got a Bird Buddy bird feeder camera, and I’ve gotten into the details of birds. I can’t read this writing. My it’s Dave and I are recording this late at night, and my glasses are I can’t really see them from far away. And Dave and I have been having these long discussions. We live in Orange County, California. People’s yards are not usually that big, so we don’t have a large, like, expanse to, have a bird feeder. And he tells me that if I put a bird feeder up in our backyard, those squirrels are just gonna come jump on the bird feeder and eat all the seed, and it’s gonna cause a a big mess. But I’m so intrigued by these motion activated bird feeder cameras, but I’m gonna let it go, though.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:17:38]:

I think I know that you’re right. If I didn’t think you were right, I would maybe push a little harder. Anyway, I am still intrigued, and thank you, Georgia, for the story. I will live vicariously through your experience.

Dave Stachowiak [00:17:48]:

So some video.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:17:50]:

Oh, gosh.

Dave Stachowiak [00:17:50]:

Send us some bird video.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:17:52]:

That would be so fun.

Dave Stachowiak [00:17:52]:

That’d be great.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:17:53]:

So the next set of stories that Dave is gonna share come out of a common mission. These are all people who were celebrating the victories that they have had through doing something consistently for a long time. I think I said 10 years or more.

Dave Stachowiak [00:18:08]:

Adrian sent or posted rather a photo of her and her husband on a beach and said, we’ve been we’ve been friends since we were 14, married almost 20 years. How sweet. And Cindy writes, my relationship with my husband, the first 13 years of our relationship was long distance because of our jobs. 13 years. Wow. Impressive, Cindy. Well done. Gary writes, in addition to being a program director and teaching, I continue clinical practice as a pediatric physical therapist.

Dave Stachowiak [00:18:35]:

This is my 40th year. Wow. Let’s see. Next one is from, doctor Sarah-Jane in Australia. I’ve been a scout leader in different roles. Joey’s scouts and Queensland stem commissioner for nearly 15 years. Wow. Cool.

Dave Stachowiak [00:18:51]:

Another Bonnie writes, I’ve maintained my Homestead Kitchen certification for more than 12 years making chocolate covered caramels and baked goods. See?

Bonni Stachowiak [00:18:59]:

Bonnie show is just getting that so hot.

Dave Stachowiak [00:19:01]:

You could do the Kirkland Yes. Clusters from earlier if you want the easy, like, you know, quick route.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:19:07]:

Yes.

Dave Stachowiak [00:19:07]:

If you want the homemade route, you go with another Bonnie here. Either way, we’ve got you covered. And then Heather in Germany writes, worked here at the University of, Gautengen for 10 years. I’m sure I pronounced that wrong, Heather, but, for listening for all this time.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:19:27]:

Alright. The next category are people who shared tough stuff as in the tough parts of teaching. And Adrian shared that for her, tough stuff has been helping students through unsafe domestic situations, unstable housing, food scarcity, etcetera, and she says, I want a magic wand. Kim T wrote that the struggles of students trying to make space in their lives to learn, And she shared 2 screenshots of emails from 2 different students in a single week, and they were saying, sorry that they had to miss class. And one of them was offering to provide a doctor’s note. Another one offered to share their time sheet or something like that that showed that they had some work things. And she said she doesn’t need to see the doctor’s note or the time sheet, and and that now I’m quoting from her here. Just let me know what you need and how I can help.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:20:24]:

Alison wrote and shared a screenshot of the announcement that the course evaluations, otherwise known as the students evaluations of teaching reports are ready. And, Dave, that was, I think, the first time I had ever cried. It was the what I call the ugly cry, but it was in audio form was the episode that we did about course evaluations. We know how hard those can be. And Heather Kretschmer also mentioned the difficulties with grading. And, finally, doctor Sarah Jain just talked about treating yourself with compassion and how hard that can be. And she’s drawn so much information from Sarah Cavanagh’s work and applying that both to students but also to ourselves. And, Dave, on a happier note, we have some suggestions for a teaching and a teaching in higher ed playlist.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:21:17]:

And so someone went back and recommended a Sesame Street song. When our kids were little, I used to collect. I had all the playlists of all the Sesame Street songs. This is not one I had ever heard before. So this was Janelle Monet, the the musician, and she’s saying the power of yet. And so the person who shared it, and I, unfortunately, didn’t this is, I think, the only person whose name I missed writing down. But the person who shared it said the song beautifully reflects a growth mindset and the importance of practice, effort, and encouraging feedback in learning. Allison said that the teaching in higher ed playlist should definitely have the teaching in higher ed intro outro, and she says the opening tune would be a great walk up song, and I loved that.

Dave Stachowiak [00:22:06]:

Oh, nice. And we

Bonni Stachowiak [00:22:07]:

had a recommendation from Jessica in Nashville. She suggested the five stair steps, and I was glad that they also include the other name for the song. Oh, child. Do you remember that one? Oh, child. Things are gonna get better. Yeah. I wouldn’t have gotten it just from the name of the song because I didn’t know that’s what it was called. So Jessica teaches in nursing, and she says that helps her encourage nursing students that all the information will start to click into place eventually.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:22:43]:

And, finally, on the teaching and learning playlist is from Rob Morgan, and he says, with a little help from my friends by Joe Cocker is his recommendation. Alright. Speaking of airing things, people really had episodes that have aired in the past that resonated a lot with them. Dave, do you wanna share some of these?

Dave Stachowiak [00:23:04]:

Indeed. Cindy mentioned episode 314 and said especially memorable was rewarding a while hoping for b. It changed my course as a result. Famous one of the most famous management articles, Bonnie. If, you haven’t read it, it’s, that episode great, but you can find it online. Great read. Episode 525 was also recommended by Adrian for common arguments against DEI and how to dismantle them. Also recommended by Gary was episode 230, teaching with compassion, mentions Peter Kaufman.

Dave Stachowiak [00:23:36]:

Rest in peace, Peter. And also recommended by Mark Sutton, episode 40, developing metacognition skills in our students with Todd Zakrajsjek. And then finally, Alison recommended episode 422, the new science of learning. Hard to pick just 1, but Todd Zakrajsjek has always among the top. His story and spirit resonate for me. Thank you, Alison, and thank you, Todd, for all you’ve contributed to our community over the years.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:24:04]:

I had so many missions that I kept thinking were my favorite, and then I would switch them. No. That one’s my favorite. No. That one’s my favorite. So among my favorites, Dave, was the category of mission called nerds unite. So here we have a few nerdy nerds uniting. Another Bonnie says, in addition to being someone who thinks math is fun, I’m also a cold fusion web programmer, an s SQL nerd, and I love databases and spreadsheets.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:24:35]:

And, Katie, I’m I’m you know that I know this is surprising to people who’ve listened for a long time, but not always the first, on the science expertise over here, but I kinda wanna get myself a bunch of science T shirts. So you gotta hear some of these, Dave. So Katie

Dave Stachowiak [00:24:49]:

you’re better on science than you think you are, though. You’ve gotten more into it over the years. Astronomy and space stuff here, like, a little more into it than used to be.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:24:56]:

So so Katie says science t shirts, my students always ask if I have one for every unit, and she says just about. Always on the hunt for more. So here’s some examples, Dave. I think you’re gonna love these. Think like a proton. Stay positive.

Dave Stachowiak [00:25:12]:

Nice.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:25:12]:

Next, you have a picture of a periodic table on a t shirt, and the text reads, wear this shirt periodically. Next, we have a t shirt that says never trust an atom. They make up everything. And finally, the rotation of the earth really makes my day. Don’t you just love these T shirts from Katie?

Dave Stachowiak [00:25:37]:

I think Katie and I would get along just great.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:25:39]:

And speaking of Todd Zakrajsjek, which you did quite a bit in the last little bit, Todd submitted a picture of not one, but 2 humongous puzzles, and mentions, he says, quote, I like to put together very large jigsaw puzzles. These are 3 family members helping me with a puzzle that has 20 4,000 pieces.

Dave Stachowiak [00:26:06]:

That’s a lot of pieces.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:26:07]:

That’s a lot of pieces. Alright. The next mission we’re gonna share about is must have teaching accessories. So we heard things like Canvas, the learning management system, markers, index cards. Greg has a little review card and it’s laminated, and he carries it with him everywhere he goes. And it says, I don’t have to be the center of attention in my classroom. I can do experimental things and fail. I can get out of the way of my students.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:26:37]:

I don’t have to be in control of everything. I don’t have to worry what people will think of me. Heather recommended Post it notes. Jennie B had a picture of her ear as in listening is a most must have teaching accessory. Katie says the Logitech remote clicker. And this one was interesting to me. So poker chips. She likes to Kim T likes to have poker chips with numbers on them, and when students come into her class, it’s they grab a poker chip and that’s the number that’s on the poker chip is the number that’s the group that they’re going to go join.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:27:15]:

Fun. I thought that was super fun. Cindy loves breakout rooms. She wants them to be able to connect with each other and share ideas. Rob Morgan, who is going to be on a future episode, I should mention, recommended Catchbox, which are these catchable microphones that especially if you teach in large classes.

Dave Stachowiak [00:27:35]:

You’ve used those before, haven’t you?

Bonni Stachowiak [00:27:36]:

We we own them. Using them is the problem, but, yes. Yes. We have a little a little bit, not as much as I would like. And then, finally, we have from Jessica in Nashville, erasable pens and markers.

Dave Stachowiak [00:27:52]:

Erasable pens is still something that fast speaking of science Yeah. I feel like we should have an episode teaching our end about how the erasable pen works. I get the pencil. Even the markers I get, but the pen, I don’t know. Just seems like that shouldn’t be possible, and yet somehow it is.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:28:06]:

And then our daughter kinda takes it for granted, I think. I think she just like, they’ve always existed, and she doesn’t question it like we do.

Dave Stachowiak [00:28:13]:

It’s like the Internet. Yeah. They don’t question it, but we’re like, wow. This is amazing. We talk into these microphones, and people hear us on devices. It’s incredible.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:28:20]:

And I can hardly ever talk about the Internet and not reference things going through tubes. Yeah. Well, there’s something even remember which politician it was that said that years ago, but I know he’s from Alaska. And I know that it was quite the memes for years years, and here I am probably decades later, and I still talk about a series of tubes.

Dave Stachowiak [00:28:38]:

It does go through cables under the ocean. Like, they’re you know? It’s actually Yeah. When you go across continents, it’s not entirely wrong.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:28:45]:

Yeah. Alright. This is the time in the show where each get to share our recommendations. And someone in the last couple of months, Dave, had recommended your podcast as a whole, and she thought that she was the first person to do that in all of these years, and she was right. I’m pretty sure. So So I kinda feel I feel like I have to make it up a little bit. I wanted to also recommend episode 696, which was the episode we spoke about earlier in the episode, the habits that hold leaders back with Marshall Goldsmith. I just really found him of course, I had read his stuff before.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:29:21]:

We read it when we were in getting our masters and our doctorates, but I hadn’t heard him speak, I don’t think. It was just really lovely. He’s a he’s a lovely person with so much wisdom to share. And then the second one I wanted to recommend is episode 691, bringing your strengths to a big job with general c q Brown junior, and he is and I always get this wrong. So he’s the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Did I say it correct?

Dave Stachowiak [00:29:50]:

You nailed it.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:29:51]:

And I really thought I I wasn’t sure that I wasn’t sure that he was going to be the guest where I would just think about the episode pretty much every day since I listened, but I have not really heard someone in that level of power with that vast degree of humility. He I’ve thought many times about the things that he shared there, and I thought, what an incredible life to have achieved what he’s achieved and still be learning and growing so much every single day. I he just exuded that. And I and, again, I didn’t anticipate that would be an episode that would just continue to reverberate.

Dave Stachowiak [00:30:30]:

This may be a slight tangent, but just on that point, I have been struck, and I’ve had the privilege a number of times in my career to talk with top military leaders in the United States. And I don’t think it’s oftentimes the place we think where the the leadership development people have done is just extraordinary. Like, the the US military is unbelievably extraordinary with leadership development, and the people who I’ve talked to in senior roles, including him, are so well read, thoughtful, caring, disciplined. I mean, it’s really so remarkable, and he’s an amazing example of that and a a lesson we can all learn and look to our military as inspiration for what are some of the ways that we teach and learn. And so for those who haven’t done that before, I think it’s a it’s a fun avenue to go down.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:31:17]:

And one thing that I think is so funny to anybody listening to this story, Dave and I get the weirdest emails, the weirdest emails. I mean, we could there could be the whole show, and we would just be getting star started. And so the number of times that we have each thought that we’re being punked and, like, that is some kind of a trick. Someone from the Pentagon reaching out today, I’m gonna say, yeah. Yeah. Sure. Sure you are. This is definitely not a real thing, but it was a real thing.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:31:45]:

So congratulations to you. Yeah. Yeah. You did an excellent job interviewing both of these individuals and bringing out their strengths. And one of the other missions that we talk I can’t we didn’t really talk about it, but was, what do you have with you always? And I just, as a side note, I’m so glad that I get to have you with me always, Dave. And this is I’m taking some really funny turns here because I’m being very serious when I say that I have you with me always, but another thing that you and I always have with us is our Apple Watches. And Kathy in Wisconsin also mentioned in the always with me mission that she always has hers with her, but I know you’ve got something that you wanna recommend related to it.

Dave Stachowiak [00:32:25]:

Well, I was inspired by Kathy, so my recommendation, way less serious than the ones we were just talking about and and deep, but Apple did just, push their software updates. And they have this new little app on it’s on the App Watch. I think maybe it’s on the iPhone 2 called tides. And if you click on it, it just shows you when the tides are up and down. And it’s a beautiful visual interface, and I I have found myself many times in life. We live near a beach. We’re like, oh, is it high tide, low tide? When is it gonna be? What’s the water temperature? And it’s a beautiful and delightful little simple app that just works. And so for those who live near a coast like we do or maybe you go on vacation near a coast, it’s a great little app to try out.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:33:02]:

You went to the beach today. In fact, with our children, did you look at the app?

Dave Stachowiak [00:33:06]:

I did. Yeah. That’s what is making me think of it because I took the kids and their friends down to the beach for a few hours this afternoon. And, at one point, our daughter asked, like, what the tide was, and I was like, oh, saw that new app. And we looked at it, and it made sense to both of us immediately. Both me at age 47 and her at age 10, we looked at it, and we’re like, that totally makes sense.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:33:25]:

It’s awesome.

Dave Stachowiak [00:33:26]:

There we go.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:33:27]:

Well, thank you, Dave, for joining me for today’s episode and celebrating the end of the teaching in higher ed story caravan, or maybe I should say the end for now. Dun dun dun.

Dave Stachowiak [00:33:39]:

Is there ever an end to a road trip, though, really? It just makes wanna go on another one. And I’m so glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me, and thank you especially to everyone who jumped in and participated in all the stories and suggestions and wins and struggle and ideas that were shared. It was really fun to read through them and to engage in the community.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:34:00]:

Every time I logged into GooseChase, I would have the biggest smile on my face and just felt so connected with people all around the world and the stories about their own teaching and learning and just really felt such a such a great fellowship with people.

Dave Stachowiak [00:34:14]:

Me too.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:34:17]:

Thanks so much for listening, everyone. 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. And if you’ve been listening for a while and have yet to sign up for the weekly teaching in higher ed update, head on over to teachinginhighered.com/subscribe. You’ll get all of the most recent episodes show notes, and these show notes this time have a lot of links in them. And you’ll also receive some other resources that don’t show up in the regular show notes. Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you next time on Teaching in Higher Ed.

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.