Bonni Stachowiak [00:00:00]:

Today on episode number 547 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, Teaching in Higher Ed 2024 gift ideas.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. Hello, everyone. It’s Bonni Stachowiak, and I was hoping to be joined by Dave Stachowiak today, but we both just are like 2 ships passing in the night right now. He was willing to record yesterday, and I was staring off into space and couldn’t just even bring myself.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:01:08]:

So here I am for a solo episode where I would like to share some gift ideas, perhaps for the holidays, perhaps for other reasons, and specifically to inspire, to encourage, to nourish someone that you know or perhaps even yourself who has a love for teaching, a love for learning. And some of these ideas are higher ed specific, but most of them would apply for any educator out there. First off, I want to say a big thank you to Kevin Gannon, who I saw wearing these incredible, uplifting, challenging, bold T shirts at the recent pod conference. And I had mentioned on a photo I commented that I I was hoping to hear where he got them from, and thanks to Liz Norell, and he also followed up and confirmed, they are from the Human Restoration Project store. My first idea for you for gift ideas are to buy yourself or someone that you love one of these T shirts. I will mention a couple of them. Trust students, change maker, dismantle oppressive systems, the future needs you, humanize education, restoring humanity to education together. You get the idea.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:02:34]:

I’m just listing a few of them. There are t shirts. There are sweatshirts. There is also a sticker. So that is my first idea. 2nd idea, I’m gonna go through a few books here. I purchased a actually, I’m gonna start with a puzzle, but the puzzle and the book goes together. Let’s start with a puzzle.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:02:54]:

This is the Bibliophile Banned Books puzzle, and this puzzle is perfect for people in your life who love literature and who do not love books that are banned, because this contains a bunch of books that have been banned. It’s showing them the sides of their covers, And I bought this for a friend of mine at work, and she said it was great. It is 500 pieces. She said she loved it. And I bought for myself the accompanying or similar book. Instead of being a puzzle, It is a book that contains snapshots of these various books that have been banned and has it’s, reads sort sort of like a I don’t wanna say a graphic novel, but has pictures of them, quotes from them, and a little bit of background as to why they’ve been banned. Either of these would be a great gift for someone in your life. Made by the same organization, I wanna recommend Bibliophile and illustrated miscellany.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:04:03]:

It is, I’m quoting from the description here, a love letter to all things bookish. Still quoting author Jane Mount brings literary people, places, and things to life through her signature and vibrant illustrations. It’s a must have for every book collection and makes a wonderful literary gift for book lovers, writers, and more. And what she does is she gives us some tours of the world’s most beautiful bookstores and has a little bit of tests for our understanding with some words and puzzles and quizzes and things like that and a little sampling of some of the most famous fictional works. So this is another suggestion that is book related. I have recommended this before on the podcast, but in case it slipped you by, the work of art is very similar to the Bibliophile and illustrated miss Saleny. It is and I’m quoting here from Ari Shapiro, are an all things considered a visual feast full of drafts, sketches, and scribbled notebook pages. Every page shows how an idea becomes a finished design.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:05:21]:

So many of us have been captivated for a long time now about that we typically only see when what things look like when they’re finished, and we don’t see the messiness and the thought process and the intersections of ideas that go along. And this is just a gorgeous look at behind the scenes how ideas come into the making. You’ll see examples of things like journal entries, napkin doodles. You’ll see sketches. You’ll see artifacts. It’s it’s an incredible book. I love it so much. It’s, I would say, what a perfect coffee table book.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:06:01]:

So this next one, I haven’t read, but I purchased it for a coworker. I mentioned to him, as soon as I heard the description, I thought this is the perfect book for him. I texted him, said, do you have this book? He did not, and I immediately purchased it for him. I also got a copy for me. I’m saving it for the holidays to read then. It’s in a format of a book I don’t read very much about 2 people I have not studied very carefully. It’s a graphic novel, and it’s called the mythmakers, the remarkable fellowship of c s Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. So if you’re either a c s Lewis fan or a J.R.R. Tolkien fan or, oh my goodness gracious, if you are both, you absolutely need to check out this book for yourself or if someone that you care about is the same.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:06:50]:

It’s wonderful, and I’m gonna read from the description here. It is from the New York Times I’m quoting here. The New York Times best selling, award winning creator John Hendricks comes The Myth Makers, a graphic novel biography of 2 literary icons, c s Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, following the remarkable story of their friendship and creative fellowship and how each came to write their masterworks. And my friend and colleague who I got it for said it was amazing, very moving at parts, and captivating, and I would highly suggest it even though I haven’t read it yet. But I think I can speak for my librarian friend and colleague that it’s got to be good, and I’m going to sort of give it to myself again in the holidays that are coming up to actually carve out the time to read it. And just some of the ideas here involve Tolkien’s world building. I’m quoting from the description here. The theology of creation linking their faith to their writings, the meaning of real friendship, notions of modernity and mythology, the value of fantasy, the power of a creative community, an exploration of the different kinds of storytelling in Narnia and in the lord of the rings, both relying on, quote, the myth, close quote, as a storytelling device, but differing in the use of allegory versus symbolism.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:08:25]:

Alright. Into a whole another category of things, I want to recommend something that I continue to find so much value in anytime either I travel or someone in our family travels, and that is flighty Pro. Dave and I have both talked about Flighty. It’s he’s he loved it from the very beginning, but I thought, I don’t really know if I need something like this, a flight tracker. It is incredible. It’s the flight tracker service that I didn’t even know that I needed, and I’m gonna recommend the pro version of it. You can try out the free one and and, but I would really suggest that the pro is well worth it. So everything if you wanna go all the way into the detail and you care about what what plane you’re flying and all of that, you know, Dave really gets into geeking out.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:09:18]:

I was telling him that when I was we both flew out with the kids to Chicago recently, and then I was attending a conference. So he and the kids stayed with our in laws and spent some time with cousins and the uncles, but then, I stayed there for a while. So I was traveling together on the way out and then traveling by myself on the way back. It’s got something for everyone in here. Do you wanna know when your gait changed before even the airline is likely to tell you through some kind of notification? Do you wanna know that your loved one has landed in New York? Do you wanna know that your flight is delayed, which our flight was delayed by 4 and a half hours on our way out? So so often, I’ll get a notice on Flighty before I even get one from other services or specifically from the airline. When you step off that plane, do you wanna know right away where your baggage claim is, what the number is going to be for it? And then you can set it up for notifications that are as specific or as nonspecific as you want for if you’re tracking somebody else who’s flying. And then you can share a flight with other people that don’t even have to belong to the service, and they can kind of track your flight and and be able to know that. I just cannot recommend it enough.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:10:34]:

So that’s flighty pro, something you could buy somebody a year long membership to Flighty Pro if you wanted to give that as a gift. Alright. Next up, and I’ve talked about this on an episode, and it is the gift that keeps on giving, the Hollyland Lark m 2 wireless microphone. It is so good that it’s hard to even describe. You just take it out of the box, and there’s the receiver that goes into plugs into either your phone via USB C. You can also, by the way, get an adapter or get one. If you’ve got lightning, you could buy one specifically with lightning connect connectors. And then, by the way, lightning would be the older iPhones that had a different kind of connector, and the more recent iPhones in the last year or 2 are plugging in with USB c, which is a becoming a more universal plug.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:11:26]:

So you could buy either one, and even if you got the USB c and just wanted to buy a adapter, those are really inexpensive. On Amazon, you could do that. And, literally, right from the factory, they pair them at the factory. So it comes, you plug it into your phone or you plug it into your computer, and you instantly have amazing sound, whether you’re recording a video for your class, you’re recording a course a course trailer to like, a preview to try to get people to be excited about your class. If you are on a Zoom call or a Teams call and you just wanna have superior sound, you can just plug it in and choose it as your input. It it they are amazing. So easy to use. I’m using it I mean, it’s almost like a daily basis now, so highly, highly recommend those still.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:12:18]:

Next up, we have AirPods. And if you have someone in your life or you yourself, I know this from our stats about the podcast, so many of you are iPhone users, The AirPods cannot be beat. There are different types. You could get the AirPods Pro, which are the ones that have a little bit of a of a more molded or or softer kind of flexible components that go into your ears. And it used to be that for those people who those just didn’t work and needed the plastic very hard, not gonna mold into your ears type of AirPods, couldn’t get noise canceling. And now AirPods 4 have noise canceling. By the way, totally worth it to pay. That just this is a light little bit more money to pay to get the noise canceling.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:13:08]:

It makes such a difference. So that’s my recommendation, especially for those who are iPhone users, those AirPods, whether it’s AirPods Pro or AirPods, the 4 ones that have the noise canceling really, really good. Alright. Next up, I’m kinda on a little bit of a travel, although this is my everyday carry bag. It’s the Evergoods access pouch 2 l, and I’m gonna put a link in the show notes to me showing this off, the everyday carry bag. I absolutely love having all of my tech components, like my plugs, my chargers, my cords, my Hollyland, mics, all in one very compact pouch that is incredible. I love when things have a place to go, and this definitely, allows that for exactly where the pouch where this specific charger goes, exactly the place in the pouch where the my 2 USB C cords go, one short and one long, exactly where my one that plugs my MAC in goes. It’s it’s incredible.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:14:14]:

So I’m gonna really recommend the everyday carry bag. I went up to their website. Looks like they’re sold out of a lot of colors. I have a black one, and the ones that are left as of this recording are brown, like a camel brown. They’re still really pretty. I hopefully, this means they’re gonna be coming back in stock soon. They’re incredible. Cannot recommend them enough.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:14:37]:

Dave is the one who got me excited about the everyday the Evergoods access pouch 2 l. He owns one for his travel items as far I forget what the there’s a fancy name for this, but, basically, his if he carries, like, his, razor with him, his, you know, shaving cream, his toiletries, that kind of a thing. There’s a fancy name. Anyway, he uses it for that, and then he has a second one that he uses for his tech. The one that he uses for his toiletries has it’s waterproof, so it’s really nice. And then I just have one for my gadgets, my little electronics. My my clicker, by the way, my PowerPoint remote, that kind of thing goes in there as well. Alright.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:15:17]:

Next up, a laptop pillow. So when you I I this every time I travel, I miss this is the one thing, comforts from home that I miss the most. It is a laptop easel. Some people call it laptop desk pillow, ergonomic laptop, computer desk, and desktop book stand with orthopedic wrist support. So it is it looks a little bit like a triangle. It’s hard to explain. That I’m sure that I’m embarrassing myself because I’m sure there’s a name for this shape. But if you look at it from the side, it’s a triangle.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:15:53]:

If you look at it from the front, it’s kind of a rectangle that’s on a on a slant, but it is perfectly designed to use your laptop or to use a I will even sometimes just set my phone there if I’m just going through it or or and it sits so nicely on your lap. It’s got a couple of pockets, one on each side. So if you had things that you wanted to be able to carry around, you want to carry the pillow around with you, you could. I even have traveled to San Diego and have taken it with me. That’s how much I love it. I’ll use it in the hotel room. There’s a place that I stay most spring breaks down in Carlsbad. I’ll take it down there and sometimes even use it outside sitting on the porch.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:16:33]:

I can look out at the ocean. It is amazing. So gonna suggest that. And while I’m on a pillows theme, I’m gonna suggest a travel pillow for your hotel room. So even when I’m going on a plane, this is one I’ll take with me. The one that I like, it will roll up, so it’s fairly portable, but I cannot do sleeping in a hotel room with a, quote, unquote, normal pillow. Can’t do it anymore. So I’ve got the neck pillow, which I just put on top of the hotel pillow, so it’ll lift it up high enough for me to be able to get the comfort.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:17:04]:

They work really, really well. Highly recommend. Next up, I’m gonna recommend another service. This is an Apple TV plus subscription. You could get this from someone else even just for a month to give them a month. Maybe it’s a month over the holidays or something like that to to catch up on some shows, or you could even splurge and go for a year. Just some of the shows that I have loved. Ted Lasso.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:17:30]:

My gosh. If you haven’t seen Ted Lasso on Apple TV plus, that’s one of the best in years. They have a wonderful comedy slash drama called Bad Sisters, and I watched the gobbled up the first season. And now as of this recording, they are in the middle of doling out the second season, and I’ve already watched, I think, 2 episodes. It’s so good. Severance is a dystopian work of fiction set in a workplace. We actually did an entire episode on Severance. It’s that good and, I think, so relatable, sadly, to some of the dynamics in workplaces and in our society today.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:18:12]:

There is a wonderful comedy called shrinking that I like, the bad sisters show is now in its 2nd season and having fun watching that one. And then just to one mention one movie, they do movies as well called wolves wolves, which, recently came out and is really fun and good and, enjoyable. A comedy with George Clooney and Brad Pitt. I don’t wanna tell too much, but they both help solve problems for people who are in a bit of a a mix, and they get competitive with each other and step on each other’s toes in some really funny ways. Alright. Next up, we have a photo printer in the Instawide. It’s Fujifilm Instax Link Wide. I really enjoy this for myself.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:18:58]:

I own one personally here at our home, but we also have one at work. And it’s great because you might take some photos at an event or do different kinds of things, and you wanna just share something analog with the person you can easily print out. They’re kinda like the Polaroids of our younger years for those of us that are in my age or older. What a and it does, by the way, just like a Polaroid, take a minute for the ink to actually develop after you print it. But when it comes out, they’re just a nice way to be able to hang in someone’s office or to hang up somewhere on a wall, bulletin board, and just have a fun memory that way. Nice to take our digital photos and put them into the analog world in this way. Highly recommend. Next up, I have kind of a nebulous recommendation, but there’s been so much research around gifts and how experiences are likely to be enjoyed more and to be more memorable for people.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:19:58]:

So maybe what you want to do is give a gift that is an experience. This is something that Dave gets really excited about doing with our children. There is a fox rescue center in San Diego County, and our son loves foxes. And so he has purchased, once for him and then once for both the kids, the experience to go down and see the rescued domesticated foxes. There’s a whole backstory, by the way. It’s a really, interesting story, and so they get to go there and spend some time with the foxes. And whenever we come together as a family and decide where we wanna donate money to, that is so often what our son will say that he wants to donate money to is this organization. Alright.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:20:46]:

And I I wanna recommend, similar to an experience, is something that may bring back a fun memory for you and somebody that you care about. So I met Carrie Mandelak, who has been on the show before at a Lily conference, and we told the story on the episode when she was on, but it was very, very funny. We hit it off right away and ended up talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk for hours and hours. And then we ended up meeting up again the next day, and we ended up walking out together after checking out of the hotel. And I was somewhat venting, and she was also venting about, oh my gosh. Can you believe this parking lot? Oh, goodness gracious. People today. What are we gonna do with people today? They’re parking so close to each other.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:21:32]:

And I said, oh my gosh. Yes. I had someone parking so close to me. Yeah. We were talking about each other. We, by random chance, were parked next to each other, and both perceived the other as having parked too close to our car. And, in case you’re wondering who was, quote, unquote, right in the scenario, it was definitely Carrie. Because when we got to our cars, I was definitely parked too close to her, and she was doing just fine in an otherwise small set of parking parking spots.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:22:03]:

I’m glad I didn’t go off more than I might have otherwise. We were still being pretty friendly to whoever these strangers were, just mild irritation. So it was nice when we recognized we were mildly irritated with each other. Alright. Next up, we have the Knapp ministries rest deck, 50 practices to resist grind culture. I had heard about this deck before. In fact, pretty sure it’s been recommended on the podcast before, but it came up again at the pod conference that I was at. I was able to attend a session where they had these all spread out on all of the tables.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:22:42]:

And as you were entering into the session, they had instructions on the screen, some quiet music playing, and an opportunity to reflect on the 1 or 2 cards that were in front of you. It was a wonderful way to start a session and got me to thinking of a friend who could really use the deck. And so I ordered it for her, and she already has shared that she just loved loved loved it. It’s like like I was sharing about my other friend from work who I knew would love that book. I knew that this friend would love the Knapp Ministries rest deck. Love, love, love that. So those are some gift ideas that I have for you and would love to hear from you what ideas you have for other people who teach in a higher education context. If you wanted to send me an email, you could send that to feedback at teaching in higher ed.com.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:23:35]:

Would love to hear your suggestions. And if I get them in time, I will be more than happy to share them out when I send out the email to people with, the show notes and everything like that. So if you’ve got ideas, please share them. And if you end up purchasing any of these things for yourself or for people that you care about, would love to hear that as well. And now I am looking back at my notes and sort of laughing. I told the story about Carrie Mandelak and our experience meeting each other and then finding out that we were already irritated with each other for having parked too close to each other. Sometime after that experience, she sent me a package in the mail, and it was of a car, and that was the same color and, I think, make of her the car that she had been renting, or at least it looked I mean, I’m not good with cars, so at least it looked the same to me. And with such a nice note about how much she cherish it cherishes our friendship and, remembering that times kind of like when we had first met, and I loved it.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:24:42]:

It was a so just this this memory that we have together of a shared experience, how we already started making each other laugh when we first met each other and make each other smile and challenge each other and encourage one another. Such a treasured friendship. And so that car, I keep up. I can see it all the time when I’m coming and going from my home office. And the other thing that I thought was kinda cool is that the car that she bought, it’s one of those that if you pull it back, it has the mechanism to go on its own. That was kinda fun. So, yeah, that was really fun. Our kids, when when it came in the mail, were very entertained too by pulling the car back and then letting it go.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:25:23]:

So I suspect that in the coming years, they may not be as intrigued by that, but I certainly will be at my in my fifties here enjoying the somewhat old fashioned toy that doesn’t require batteries and all of that. So but especially a a toy that, that brings back such a fun memory. So I didn’t wanna forget to go back and say, you could purchase something symbolic about a memory that you share with a friend. That could be a fun a fun thing. By the way, speaking of our colleague, David Rhodes, he’s been on the podcast before, and he has a whole set of figurines about all these leadership, things that are emblematic of leadership. And I’m he’s gonna laugh if he listens to this because I’m gonna forget what even some of them are, but sometimes he’ll leave Zoom camera and go off and come back with, like, a camel or an elephant or monkeys. And it’s always like some kind of leadership nugget that he’s got going, that always makes us smile and always brings such wisdom and challenge into the conversation. Alright.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:26:23]:

So this is the time in the show where I get to share some recommendations, and today’s recommendations actually come from a listener. I saw a post on LinkedIn from Louise Rees. She’s from Swansea University, and she was reflecting on the episode talking about curating resources that I did with Derek Brough recently. And she says in her post, quote, a recent episode with Derek Brough gave tips and outlined a fantastic way to collaborate and curate useful resources in their teaching hub, and she links to the resource. And then she says, quote, Derek commented on how difficult it was to cite or get recognized for your work. And Louise suggested 2 things. 1 is a book. The book is called evidencing teaching achievements in higher education.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:27:24]:

The authors are Grimwood and McCanwell, and it is exactly as she suggested, just a way that we can think about how do we provide evidence if those of you that might be in the process of pursuing promotion, tenure, and otherwise would like ways to document and provide evidence of your teaching effectiveness. Looks like a wonderful resource. And then secondarily, she suggested a website that’s the National Teaching Repository, and it says I’m looking at the website here, advanced higher education, good practice grant funding. And so this is a place where we can share our resources. She suggested to Derek that he may wanna share the resources there and to be able to collect some metrics as well, because Derek was talking about the oftentimes, there aren’t metrics available there, but then this would be a place, a repository where we might go to gather that information. So thank you so much for the encouragement about the podcast, Luis, and for these two resources. I always do enjoy when people can extend conversations and let us know that you’re listening and that an episode meant something to you and then to be able to contribute in this way. So I suppose in this case, my recommendation is to be like Louise and to do that, whether it’s for teaching in higher ed or to do it with colleagues that you work with and just the way that we can spread our learning and continue to challenge and encourage each other.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:28:59]:

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Teaching in Higher Ed. This 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 you know I’m gonna say it. If you haven’t signed up for the weekly updates, it’s time. It’s time. Now is your moment.

Bonni Stachowiak [00:29:24]:

Head to teachinginhighered.com/slash subscribe. You’ll receive the most recent episodes show notes in your email along with other resources that don’t show up in the regular show notes. So head on over now, and I look forward to seeing 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.