Bonni Stachowiak suggests strategies for ending well.

Podcast notes

Ending well

Guard against student fatigue

• Sleep deprived
• Focused on the short term
• Challenged by their context

Thinking a lot about context, especially after speaking with Steve Wheeler on episode #038)

Beware the temptation to vent

• Josh Eyler reminded us of this on episode #016
• Research shows it doesn’t help
• There was that research that said cursing helps, though

Recognize their achievements

• Demonstrate how the learning objectives have been attained
• Have them articulate the value they have received

Administer the course evaluations professionally

• All sorts of concerns over evaluations
• Students don’t realize the gaps that occur in the evaluation process in higher ed
• We wonder if they are in a position to properly evaluate our teaching (recent thread on the POD listserv re: what even to call course evaluations; student experience of teaching (Debra Gilchrist from Pierce College in Lakewood WA, Ed Nuhfer wrote about the importance of separating assessment (various ways to assess student learning) from evaluations of people who strive to facilitate learning.

Take more breaks

• Apple Watch – standing alert
  • Penn state experimenting w/ Apple Watch to measure student learning this Fall
  • Frasier Spiers on presenting with an Apple Watch
• Set timers
  • Natalie Houston spoke about this on episode #034

Recommendations

Bonni recommends:

We all love Ella: Celebrating the first lady of song

In particular: You are the sunshine of my life: duet with Stevie Wonder…

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Aaron Daniel Annas and I converse about how we have calibrated our teaching over time.

Podcast Notes

Calibrating our Teaching

Aaron Daniel Annas

Assistant professor of cinema arts

Faculty Director of the Vanguard Sundance Program

Reflections on year one

Bonni reflects on her first year

Taking things personally (a good lesson on how to avoid this is to hear Cheating Lessons author, James Lang, on episode #043)

Aaron Daniel reflects on his first few semesters

You're not giving someone a grade; they're earning a grade.

Calibrating your teaching

• Importance of setting expectations
• Stressing the whys as you raise the level of challenge
• Realize they aren't likely to thank you during the process of being challenged
• Bonni's post: The Dip
• Atherton J.S.'s post: Course of a course
• Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less, by Greg McKeown
• Determining what hours to have direct contact with students should be allowed
• TextExpander  (Mac) |  Breevy (Windows)

Recommendations

Aaron Daniel recommends

Kindle First, for Amazon prime members

Kindle first newsletter for amazon prime members. One free book from their editor pics each month

Get in touch with Aaron Daniel on Twitter

Closing credits

• Please consider writing a review or rating the show, to help others discover Teaching in Higher Ed
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