Teaching in Higher Ed

Getting to zero inbox

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Managing email using the Inbox Zero approach.

ZERO INBOX

Podcast notes

Getting to zero inbox

  • Be strategic about what times you check email
  • Use email like a real mailbox with physical mail
  • Leverage a to do list / task manager
  • Make use of snippets for commonly-asked questions (TextExpander or Breevy)
  • Schedule meetings with doodle or the best day
  • Create a hub for committees and other collaboration

Merlin Mann's video on Inbox Zero

Recommendations

Bonni recommends:

 

Approaches to calendar management

with Dave Stachowiak

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Bonni and Dave Stachowiak talk calendar management.

Approaches to Calendar Management

Podcast notes

Guest: Dave Stachowiak

Dave shared about his “Wayne's World” moment, coming back as a guest on the show.

Chart on Twitter about service hours invested by gender/race:

Keep the calendar’s purpose central

Exceptions to only having items calendared that have to happen at a particular time

  • Grading, as a means of budgeting time

See the big picture

My/our set up

  • Mac Calendar (BusyCal)
  • Exchange / Outlook
  • Planbook
  • RSS Calendar Subscriptions
  1. Preschool
  2. TIHE from Asana
  3. US holidays

Make it easy for your students and other stakeholders

  • TimeTrade for office hours and podcasting appointments
  • Time blocks

Support collaboration through scheduling tools

Review and reflect

  • Weekly review – each of us goes through a review each week to help us reflect on priorities and commitments
    • Look back to last week
    • Look forward next two weeks
  • Monthly review – the monthly review allows for a bigger picture view of how we are tracking toward goals
    • Look at next month

Recommendations

Bonni recommends:

Dave recommends:

Finding meaning in our work

with Jonathan Malesic

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Jonathan Malesic on finding meaning in our work.

finding-meaning

PODCAST NOTES

Guest: Jonathan Malesic

What typically doesn't show up on Jon's bio: The Parking Lot Movie

I learned a lot working as a parking lot attendant. I think it's made me a better worker and a better person. – Jonathan Malesic

jonathan-malesic-quote1

Don’t search for “purpose.” You will fail. by Jonathan Malesic in The New Republic.

Pursuing “purpose”

The components of finding “purpose”

  1. You love it
  2. The world needs it
  3. You are paid for it
  4. You are great at it

The intersections

  • 1/2 = Mission (you love it and the world needs it)
  • 2/3 = Vocation (the world needs it and you are paid for it)
  • 3/4 = Profession (you are paid for it and you are great at it)
  • 4/1 = Passion (you are great at it and you love it)

The often unlabeled overlaps in the Venn diagram

  • Please don’t be a physician (you love it; the world needs it)
  • Burnout (the world needs it; you can be paid for it)
  • Kardashian (you can be paid for it; you are good at it)
  • Exploitation (you are good at it; you love it)

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Pursuing “success”

The best productivity tool we have as faculty is not a technology; it's our personal self-investment in our work. It's our commitment to students. It's our commitment to research. It's our commitment to our institutions. – Jonathan Malesic

We can be so committed to our work that we eventually start to hate it. We have identified ourselves so strongly with it that it becomes too much of  a burden for our work. – Jonathan Malesic

Students' evaluation of us and student learning doesn't necessarily match up very well with our evaluation of ourselves. – Jonathan Malesic

That's still something worth hoping for… But, it's important to tell students that [the center piece] isn't always attainable. There's a lot of meaning to be had in our work, even if we don't hit that “sweet spot.” – Jonathan Malesic

Article: Job, career, vocation, life by Charles Matthews in Inside HigherEd

Other articles suggested by Jon on this topic

In the Name of Love, by Miya Tokumitsu

A Life Beyond Do What You Love, by Gordon Marino

No Time: How Did We Get so Busy?, by Elizabeth Kolbert

jonathan-malesic-quote3

Recommendations

Bonni recommends:

Jon recommends:

 

Peer instruction and audience response systems

with Peter Newbury

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Peter Newbury joins me to talk about peer instruction and using clickers in the higher ed classroom.

tihe53graphic

Early experiences with clickers

The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative

Achieving the most effective, evidence-based science education
(effective science education, backed by evidence)

The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) is a multi-year project at The University of British Columbia aimed at dramatically improving undergraduate science education.

The CWSEI helps departments take a four-step, scientific approach to teaching:

  • Establish what students should learn
  • Scientifically measure what students are actually learning
  • Adapt instructional methods and curriculum and incorporate effective use of technology and pedagogical research to achieve desired learning outcomes
  • Disseminate and adopt what works

The Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative resources on general teaching, clickers, and peer instruction

Today's use of clickers and other audience response systems

Whether we are using physical devices, such as clickers, or we are using more of a bring your own device / smart phone /tablet option, it's really just a tool.

“I certainly don’t want to say that in order to use peer instruction, you have to have this piece of technology. It’s not about the clicker.” #peerinstruction

“Peer instruction is not a shiny thing that comes with clickers. Clickers are one tool you can use to facilitate peer learning.”

Peer Instruction foundations

Peer Instruction Fundamentals

How People Learn (free ebook) states that experts must:

  • Have a deep foundation of factual knowledge
  • Understand those facts and concepts in a conceptual framework
  • Organize the knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application

peter-newbury-quote2

More on peer instruction basics:

  • “If I’m not making your brains work, then I’m not teaching hard enough.”
  • “We need to schedule time into the class where students can stop and think, and start to learn.”
  • “Just stop talking for a while and let the students start to think.”

peter-newbury-quote4

 

Effective Peer Instruction Questions

Experts vs novices

“The expert has the same content as the novice, but it’s organized [and more easily retrieved]…”

Recommendations

Bonni recommends:

Peter recommends:

peter-newbury-quote7

 

Respect in the classroom

with Kevin Gannon

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Kevin Gannon shares ways how to respect our students in our teaching.

Respect in the classroom with Kevin Gannon

 

Podcast notes

Guest: Kevin Gannon

Kevin shares the “behind the scenes” backdrop of the photo with the alligator (above and on his blog-about page).

Book mocking college students that Kevin mentions has been retitled, it appears.

Ignorance is Blitz: Mangled Moments of History from Actual College Students

Kevin quotes Maslow:

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. – Abraham Maslow

On our perceptions of students

Our students are our allies, not our adversaries in higher ed. – Kevin Gannon

tihe52-quote1

Movie dance compilation video (mentioned by Bonni): Shut Up and Dance

I didn't go to grad school to be the behavior police. – Kevin Gannon

Daniel Goleman – Social Intelligence

tihe52-quote2

“Dear students” blogs on The Chronicle

Jesse Strommel’s response
http://www.jessestommel.com/blog/files/dear-chronicle.html

Everyone that comes into even casual contact with Vitae’s “Dear Student” series is immediately tarnished by the same kind of anti-intellectual, uncompassionate, illogical nonsense currently threatening to take down the higher education system in the state of Wisconsin…

Giggling at the water cooler about students is one abhorrent thing.

Publishing that derisive giggling as “work” in a venue read by tens of thousands is quite another.

Of course, teachers need a safe place to vent. We all do. That safe place is not shared faculty offices, not the teacher’s lounge, not the library, not a local (public) watering hole. And it is certainly not on the pages of the Chronicle of Higher Education, especially in Vitae, the publication devoted to job seekers, including current students and future teachers. – Jesse Strommel

tihe52-quote3

Kevin’s revised “Dear student” post:

Dear Student:
You’ll get better at this. So will we.

Faculty (a.k.a. former students)

tihe52-quote4

Recommendations

Bonni recommends:

Kevin's Blog, including these posts:

Kevin recommends:

Learner-Centered teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice, Maryellen Weimer

Discussion as a Way of Teaching: Tools and Techniques for Democratic Classrooms, Stephen Brookfield and Stephen Preskill

(Bonni suggests/adds): Stephen Brookfield on Episode #015 of Teaching in Higher Ed

The Skillful Teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom, Stephen Brookfield