[00:00:00] Bonni: Today on episode number 361 of the teaching in higher ED podcast, Donald Bullock joins me we talk about what we have learned.

[00:00:12] Production Credit: Produced by innovate learning, maximizing human potential.

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[00:00:21] Bonni: Welcome to this episode of teaching in higher ED. I’m Bonni Stachowiak. 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. On today’s episode, Donald Bullock is joining me.

He’s actually already here, and I’m going to tell you a little bit about Donald and then welcome him into the conversation. Donald Bullock is a current senior at Vanguard University, where I work in case this is your first time listening or that name is not familiar to you and he is going to be graduating in 2021 with a degree in business administration with a concentration in management.

Following his undergraduate degree he plans on attending law school and he’s currently holding leadership roles in our black student union, and also in our student government association. As you will, no doubt hear throughout this entire episode, he’s very passionate about justice and creating a fair and equitable society for individuals of any background and his hobbies– Actually, Donald, why don’t I have you take over on this part and what are some of your hobbies that you enjoy doing when you’re not doing the things I just mentioned?

[00:01:50] Donald: Some of my hobbies that I enjoy doing, I enjoy playing sports. I’ve picked up tennis recently. I used to play basketball. Doing that also running and I have become a really big advocate of reading and also listening to podcasts too.

[00:02:04] Bonni: Donald, I should probably have you shared this information. How do you, and I know each other, or for how did we first get to know each other?

[00:02:12] Donald: We, I am one of, instead of your classes. I actually, I’ve gotten to know you over through that. This is actually a funny story. I don’t know if you remember this, but this was like the very first time that I had seen you teach or I had been in the same room with you. It was during welcome weekend, my freshman year. They had each of the divisions or departments go into different rooms.

As like, Oh, if you’re a biggest business major, go into this bachelor hall, if you’re a kinesiology major, go to this lecture hall. I don’t remember exactly what the topic was, but we had done, we played a game and I remember it was like flashcards and there were a few other professors like standing on the sides. Then I was like, come over and play this. It was like this game where we were like, I don’t remember what the game was, but it was with like flashcards.

We were in a team and it was like the two people that were on-site with the professor would answer the question. Then after they would answer the question, the professor would like to speak for us. He’s like, you get points and whatever team wins. I remember going back and I was like, that was so much fun. I learned so much, like my first non-official day of college.

I was like, I have to take one of her classes whenever I get the chance to, and then four years, three years, four, three years later, I come back and now I’m instead of one of your costs.

[00:03:28] Bonni: I do not remember that. I remember doing events like that. I can’t even remember doing one with Quizlet though, but I remember one time I took a picture of myself in one of those events I’m going to have to go– How weird would that be if you’re actually in a picture and I don’t even read it.

[00:03:45] Donald: I wonder if I was, I even remember we had that there was like something on the wall. I was like, what are you the most excited for this year? What are you the most nervous for? Then I remember writing that. I was nervous just to be in college or something like that. I was just nervous for the whole experience of being inside of college. Then I remember there was one professor.

I don’t remember who it was, but their daughter, I believe had, was it girls was a girl scout and they’re like go give up but give them like some girl scout cookies. I remember this was so much fun. I was like, I know that I for sure picked the right major because I remember I felt so at ease, just going inside of there after playing a game, I thought, this is a really good major for me.

[00:04:23] Bonni: It’s funny that you bring up that exercise because I do– Had you had a class with me that wasn’t during a pandemic where we’ve only interacted, this way for the class, you would have seen even more of my love of sticky notes because they really are very versatile. I do love that thing where you’re getting people up and moving around.

In fact, I’m going to put in the show notes, a link to a new book that just came out about the research around when you’re moving around the educational benefits of it. I’m not speaking about it very well, but I did just get it in the mail from West Virginia University press and people listening might know that they have a wonderful series for faculty development.

I got the book, I mostly read digital books these days because I think those font sizes shrinking and my eyesight going the combination of those two things is not really good, but I do love getting to, just to be able to hold it in my hand, even if I can’t actually make it all the way through a book that way anymore. Anyway, I’ll put a link to that in the show notes, but I didn’t remember that story.

I’m so glad to know that it’s fun to know the ways in which we as faculty, even in those small ways can help people feel more comfortable in a new environment. I know both you and I know about these kinds of memes, but just for people listening in case you’re not familiar, there’s a very- at least I find it funny. There’s a very funny meme that goes around a lot and it usually has two photos on it. There’ll be a photo that says, this is how it started. Then there’ll be some photograph represents that. Then this is how it’s going.

Of course, a lot of them and I know you know this Donald that a lot of them are related to the pandemic and I’ve seen people do that with their hair that just is growing out of their usual style and all of this. I wanted to ask you the question if you could visualize for us, what would your picture look like for your college experience, how it started, and then how things are going but actually even before we do that, Donald, let me back up just a second.

You made one of these that I thought was really, really funny. Would you just share with us the one that you made and then tell us your college one after?

[00:06:37] Donald: It had been two months ago and I was working on a paper that I was really struggling with coming up with any content for it. I had a very specific rubric, but I just did not know what I wanted to talk about. You have the simple MLA format, which you’d like your name, the professor’s name, the date or the class, and the date and the title of it.

I started out with my name and all the MLA format rubric, which was how it started. I think a picture of how it’s going. It was the exact same blank page of information that I was working on and had it been about two hours since I first started that. I sent that to a couple of my friends, because I thought that was a really good representation of I was struggling with that assignment.

I thought that was pretty funny that I hadn’t made that one. I think for me how I would have said how it started and how it’s going for, I think my college is, I don’t know if you’ve seen that meme where it starts out with the guy and he has like a drawn back face and then he goes into terms of blinking. He’s shocked that, like what happened? Then he’ll, I open his eyes back up again.

I would say that’s how I think for college because I feel like I just started in as easing my way through it and trying to get my footing and then turn around and then I’m graduating in December. I feel like by the time I believe college is already over with so, and it went by really fast and I was even starting the other day with one of my friends. I was thinking about back stuff.

I’m just even last semester. I was like, I feel like that just happened the other day. No, some of that stuff happened back last August. It was almost a year ago. I feel for me, how it started, how it’s going, it’s like you’re coming in and you’re shocked by everything you blink and then it’s over with. I probably would describe how it started, and how it’s going for college.

[00:08:27] Bonni: What do you remember about the early days of college?

[00:08:30] Donald: I remember coming into college and you’re always told when you’re in high school, is that you never get study guides in college. You’ll never like the professors won’t help you with anything. It’s very lecture-heavy. You have to write out like 30 pages of notes and just all of that stuff where there’s no grace for anything in college, you’re strictly on your own.

I came in with the fear of just like I’m not even sure, how I’m going to be able to do that was like, I can barely keep up with three slides in high school. I was like, I don’t know if I’m going to do this in college because I write slow. I remember I came onto campus my first day and then it was a really busy day because I was having trouble getting from class to class.

I was walking in the wrong classes? Thinking that this professor looks like somebody I know from back home and I’m like, “Oh, let me go and study here.” I’m like, wait, that’s not actually my class. Then so I’m like trying to check my schedule and like going back on like the school’s website where you can check all your classes. Then being really confused as to how to navigate and get around the classes.

I think even in terms of like work, so I had originally taken foundations of Christian life class and the professor like we got started on the workday one it’s like, I know normally it’s like you have a syllabus save sometimes. They don’t do anything the rest of the day but all my foster had on that first Monday, we didn’t do anything. We just have a syllabus day and they release you early.

I was like, “Oh, this will be such an easy week to get into college I’m going to get my footing.” I also was an athlete too at that time. I was like, “Yes, this will be a really easy transition.” Then, we get to this class, and then He’s like “Do you guys have your textbooks?” Then half the class said, “No.” Thankfully I have mine. He goes, “Okay, we’re going to read pages one through 75, which is chapters one and four. See you guys Thursday.”

I don’t remember the last time that I’ve read 75 pages for a class. I was freaking out because I went home and told her, my dad, and mom and I was, “I don’t know if this color thing is for me, they’re moving way too fast. I said I have to read 75 pages.” I was really nervous in terms of doing that. Then I come to class on Thursday and then he just recapped everything that was better than the book.

I like all that reading. We just went over the same thing instead of class. It was a little bit weird because I hit the ground running right away. I remember just like my early days in college was just trying to get used to the workload because most people for their senior high school don’t have that many bosses. I had four actual classes and three of them so it was like the electives are more it was like a TA for this, or it’s like a cooking class. It didn’t require much actual stress.

I came in taking 18 units my first semester, which was seven classes, I believe. I had a couple of in one unit courses. Then, so I felt really overwhelmed and just trying to be able to get my footing. Then I know I don’t remember the name. You might know it, but it’s called white something like a W curve of what college students go through. It’s like, you have that initial I’m finally in college and then you have that first like, “Oh, this is actually college and I actually have to work.”

Then you go back up and, “Oh, I’m starting to get my footing.” Then you get towards finals week and then it’s like, “Oh, I missed already to go home.” Then you come back. I don’t know all the stages for it. I can’t think of the name of it. I remember they showed a test at the welcome weekend. I remember for me my beginning was really excited. Then I hit that first initial phase, like, “Oh, this is college right away but then it took a couple of weeks for me to get my footing down.”

I feel like I was okay, I feel like I can finally do this instead of feeling so overwhelmed by just having to read a couple of shots.

[00:12:06] Bonni: Well, one of the things that we did in our class actually came out of a recommendation on this podcast. It’s coming full circle today, Donald. Someone named Brian Dewsbury, who teaches in the STEM fields way back when I’ll put the episode in the show notes. Anyone who wants to go back and listen to that one, it’s really good. I mentioned to you before we started recording, he teaches in STEM fields.

I just love that he wanted to prescribe that any slash all of us should use this I believe essay. These essays, of course, have been around for decades and decades in all different contexts. They have a curriculum that I did end up purchasing so that I could use it in our class. We’re going to talk a little bit about that. Then, this, I believe essay also, they have some podcast, episodes of people want to be able to listen to them instead of to read the text.

They also have advice for people who are going to write one, how to write it. Then also advise for peer reviews and things like that. Let’s start off talking about what do you remember when you first– I’m assuming maybe I was the first person to ever tell you about these, Donald? Is that true? That I was the first person.

[00:13:15] Donald: That was the very first time I’d ever heard about these.

[00:13:21] Bonni: What do you remember about that day? When we all went and just started checking some of them out?

[00:13:25] Donald: I remember we were going to the website. There were, I don’t even know how many topics there were, but I remember there were a lot of topics. I was just curious. I was like, I wanted to see I went and created like new tabs for each one of the things. If it was justice having to click on this, it was for eauality I’ll click on this. If it was for happiness, I’ll click on this.

Then, so I remember going through them and I was like, wow, this is, I know you had mentioned in class that this was something that I believe it’s like over 50,000, correct me on that number if I’m wrong, people have done. I was amazed that there were so many good ones. I remember going through this and I was like, I don’t know if I can even write something that’s nearly as good as some of the people that they created.

[00:14:07] Bonni: I’m trying to look at how many there were. It’s based on a 1950s radio program of the same name, hosted by an acclaimed journalist named Edward R Murrow, who many of us will have as familiar. It says I’m reading from their website, which I’ll post a link to in the show notes. Each day Americans gathered by their radios to hear compelling essays from the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, and Harry Tran, as well as corporate leaders, cab drivers, scientists, and secretaries, anyone able to distill in a few minutes, the guiding principles by which they lived.

We went and we looked at some ourselves, and then you started to write some drafts. Would you talk a little bit about the different processes that you went through as far as which, by the way, people, spoiler alert people listening? Donald’s going to read his final essay that I went through, but we did talk a little bit about the process that we went through to get to where the essay you’re about to read to us.

[00:15:12] Donald: I believe we started out with a 250 then we went to a thousand and then 500 to 600. When we initially did the Twitter and a 51, I had started out and then I had written it as I got ahead and I wrote it and then I was like, I think I want to for sure talk about, I don’t remember what my first topic was. I was like, “I for sure want to do this.” Then, so one of my friends instead of the class, text me about what he was thinking about doing for his, and then I was like, “That’s a really good topic.”

I was like, “You should do that one. Then I went back and he was like, “Oh, like, how did yours turn out?” I was like, “It’s good. I don’t know if I’ll be able to write 500 words about it yet, because I felt I could go on about this forever.” I was like, “I don’t know if I can really condense this.” Then I remember that I was like, “I don’t think I’m going to end up doing the topic that I chose.” Then I went back and then rewrote my second in 250 paragraph one.

Then I was like, “Okay, I know I can for sure. Talk about this with up to a thousand words and then condensing it back down.” When I wrote the original one, I knew that I was struggling with how I wanted to take it, because I was like, there’s a lot of different avenues that I can go down with this specific topic that I used. I was like, “Okay, well maybe it’ll just leave it a little bit generic at the beginning. Then I can figure it out as I’m writing a thousand words.”

Then we go to the thousand words one, and then I remember that it was just like add as much detail, flush it out a little bit at the beginning. Then, I remember when I was writing this and then I was like, “I don’t even know. Some of this is important to the story that I want to tell.” Then, so I was like, I was going back and forth and trying to deleting things and taking them in and out.

Then, so I was like, okay. I feel I have a very solid, a thousand words that I like. Then I went back and then I read it. Then I was like, “Okay, this is good. I think I know exactly what I want to do with this. We get to that 500 words one.” I remember when we were going from the thousand to the 500, I was really struggling at the beginning because I felt like all of this is so good. I don’t want to take any of it out.

Then I was like, well what’s, and then I remember you had told us as like, “Take what the most important things in it that you thought they are?” I was like, “Okay. I feel I have to go through this and read it a couple of times and really figure out okay, this is what’s important. This is, what’s not.” Then I finally wrote the 500-word line and then how’s it. Okay. I really like how it is.

Then, so we did our peer reviews and then I know that there are some comments that we might get into later that my peers had left me about like, “Oh, you should try adding this or try adding that for your essay.” Then, I was like, “Oh, I can’t believe I left this part of the story out for why didn’t I add this in here? Changing the structure of it up.” Once I finally got to, I think I had written my finals or the 500-word one probably three times before I turned it in.

When I did the first one, I was like, “I feel like this is good, but I was like, I don’t know if I’m leaving anything out necessarily.” Then we finally got the peer review. I was like, “Okay, now I officially know that I need to add more stuff into it.” Then when we got to the 500 words one, I was like, okay, the official one, I was like, I turned out and I was like, I’m really proud of what I wrote in that.

Then I know that we had talked about just making some of it a little bit stronger or a little, or some, a bit, a little bit add this in here. Or it might not even be necessary to say certain things. Then once I looked back and I was like, oh, it really challenged me as a writer to say, what do I believe and keeping it very concise and very straight to the point instead of doing a lot of run-around, which I had at the beginning.

[00:18:36] Bonni: That language process where we make what we have to say more declarative. I remember emerging as a writer that way, but also as a speaker, I used to teach computer classes when I was first out of college and they would record us on cassette tapes. I still can remember being handed a cassette tape and said, the person I reported to my manager at the time said, listen to this and listening to myself on the way home and this.

This is me imitating it. You’re going to laugh at how little has changed because of course there are still was menus and things like that. I would say “Right now, we’re going to go ahead and click on the file menu, and right now we’re going to click on save right now, go over to the open menu.” Just, superfluous words, because it was very uncomfortable for me to give commands.

Click here, do this. That felt too forceful too. I don’t know too declarative yet. If you want to back then we’d have 24 people in a class, and this is not the way I would, by the way, ever advise teaching computer classes today, I would have an entirely different approach if I were asked to do the same job today, but back then, it really wasn’t teaching what it really was, almost like a demonstration, but a demonstration journey that you had people join you on. I found over time, much more comfort to just tell them what you want them to do. You don’t need to have the extra stuff in there, but as a writer, sometimes it’s hard to see the extra stuff until you really dig in, look at it multiple ways, and then you did have some feedback from peers. Then the other thing that they recommended that we do is read them aloud.

I don’t know if you’ve tried that. I promise you won’t hurt my feelings if you say no, but if you did read it aloud, was it helpful to you, or is that not something you’ve found the time to do?

[00:20:33] Donald: I’m actually an auditory learner. I actually have to read a lot of stuff aloud for me because it wouldn’t click. That’s why for some classes when we have open discussions, where it feels more like a conversation rather than just someone lecturing at me. I’ve learned so much better. It’s like, I can even look back when I was in elementary and middle schools, I had a whiteboard inside of my room and then whenever I was studying for a test, I’d always write down all the information on the board and say it out loud, teach it to myself again.

As I read this aloud and then I’ve even seen, in full honesty, I think I was like, “I thought I’m a great writer. I don’t really need to proofread any of my stuff.” Then I go back and read and I’m like, “Oh, I can’t even get through the sentence because it’s choppy.” Then reading it aloud helped me see, “Oh, maybe this could be worded a little bit differently,” or “Maybe this could be changed up in a sense where it made me look at it from like another perspective, not just from me seeing inside my head.”

Or if I’m like 400 words in and then I realized, “Oh, I’m getting tired,” and then if I’m writing it late at night or at a time where my brain is so freshest, and then I go, “Okay, now that I’ve went back and re-read it,” Especially hearing myself say it, then I realized like, “Oh, I probably should change up some of this.”

[00:21:47] Bonni: Speaking of this, would you share your, I believe, essay with us?

[00:21:52] Donald: Yes. I’ll go ahead and get started. My heart and passion for justice started at a very young age. After moving back down to Northern California reunited with my family, all seemed normal in the world again. That wasn’t until I learned about injustice when I was just nine years old. My cousin, John, who is significantly older than most of my cousins, John was starting to get his life together.

On a Friday night, he decided it would not be a bad idea to go to a party with a group of friends he had known for a long time. John did not know that this party was going to change his life forever. Things began to get contentious and people who were not a part of the friend group also came to the party to cause trouble. As things began to get out of control, word spread that someone at the party had a gun.

As my cousin was getting ready to leave and grabbed his coat, the police showed up. My cousin found out that a gun had been placed inside of his coat without him knowing. He pleaded with the police that the gun was not his. His friends did not speak up when the time came knowing that someone had to take the blame for the gun and the drugs as well. Dr. King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. To be silent about injustice is to be complicit in injustice.

When we see things that are not right, we have a moral obligation to speak up about these issues. While we may have fallen short of this at times, we can strive for a just society.” John then went on to spend three years of his life in jail, but that was not the end of the story. While my cousin, John, was in jail, news came out that he was wrongfully convicted for gun possession and threatening individuals.

Once the news came out, he was then released from jail. Family did not believe it was John in the first place. Finding out this news is very tough for all of us. Being that his life would be changed forever, showed me that injustice can happen to anyone at any time. At a young age, this was my first real sense of injustice happening. When justice was not served in the situation as someone who was wrongly convicted, justice was served thereafter many years for individual who actually owned a gun and placed the gun.

Following the situation, this sparked my heart passion for justice. In experiencing injustice in many forms has shaped my passion for justice. As Dr. King stated in his letter from the Birmingham Jail, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It is not easy to speak out, but as Dr. King also states, “This time is always right to do the right thing.” When we choose to speak out one step at a time, we together can create a more just, fair, and equitable society.

[00:24:35] Bonni: Thank you for reading that.

[00:24:36] Donald: Thank you.

[00:24:37] Bonni: When you think about that essay, to me it’s so emblematic of who you are and also who you are becoming. I would love to have you share a little bit about what that was like to share it with our class and to get both the feedback along the way. You didn’t have to read this with the class, but you decided that you wanted to read it. Would you share a little bit about that day when everyone was sharing their essays and just what that was like for you?

[00:25:04] Donald: Yes. This was probably one of the first times that I’ve actually shared the story out in public with more than– the entire class have heard it for those who were there for the synchronous class, but it was the first time even sharing this story with my roommate who I’ve known since I started college and I had never really shared this story with him.

This has been something that was really in-house for a lot of my family even though none of it was a secret. It was just never something that I normally talked about. When I was thinking about how I wanted to really craft this essay and how I wanted to talk about how it’s been affected inside of my life, I was thinking about a lot of different things that I could talk about and I wanted to talk about me watching it and rather than seeing a little bit of my own experience with it.

This is my experience, but when I see it happening in front of my own eyes and be exposed to that so young. Sharing this with the class, I also felt that it make it people a bit more perspective of who I am because I know I speak about if anyone follows me on social media, they’ve seen how often I talk about things about justice and creating a fair society, et cetera.

I know that I’ve even talked about that in some discussion boards and even mentioned that to send some of my personal world view. I think sharing that also helped me open up to the class and let them see another side of me that people may not see and also see that this is why I’m so passionate about what I am passionate about. When I read it instead of class that day, I knew that I was a little bit nervous.

I think I read it towards the end of class actually and I was a little bit nervous to actually share it because we had three people I believe do our peer feedback and grant all the people who reviewed my essay gave me really great feedback and all really gracious, but I was still just a little bit nervous because I hadn’t even shared on that large of a scale. Once I finally shared it and then even seeing people’s feedback of jets like how they felt from the essay, from hearing the essay was really powerful to me and it really touched me.

I feel like I gained a lot from just being able to talk about that in my essay and my topic and a little bit of my story. I thought it was like an incredible experience just being able to learn and see, learn from others on how I could even flush out and be more intentional in telling my story, but also help bless others from hearing my story too.

[00:27:27] Bonni: Donald, thank you for sharing the story and a little bit about the process. It was a fun experience. I really do feel like I learned along with everyone in the class and this process since that was the first time that I was trying this. I’m definitely going to try it again. It was really great to see people be able to bring their relevant stories into an environment like that.

I also really liked that. I felt that we had a really good balance going of things that I got to know about you and each student just through that that we definitely had that connection that we got to know each other really well. Then we did have a module about discrimination in the class. When I’ve done that one before, sometimes the people who maybe aren’t as far along and understanding some of these issues–

When you’re in a learning environment like this, sometimes all of us, myself included, are going to say things and if it’s the first time we’re trying out new set of language or trying to understand a certain idea that it was always, I remember when this has come up in the past in this class, or I would just have cringe-worthy stuff where I’d go, “Oh, gosh. Maybe we could have just kept that for yourself to think through.”

Again, every time you do this, it’s a little different, different group of people and all of this, but this time I felt like some of the people trying on new language and new ideas that could happen a little bit more one-on-one but it felt to me safe enough that we could have the harder conversations. It’s hard to explain. I know I’ve told you the stories before the topic.

It’s just, “Oh, my goodness, gracious theses are things that just wow.” One specific thing that I recall, this idea, it’s a flashcard, by the way, among in our discrimination set of flashcards in Quizlet. You probably remember one of them talking about colorblindness.

[00:29:29] Donald: Yes.

[00:29:29] Bonni: I felt like in the past when I had taught this class, I don’t even know if that came up, but I felt like this time explaining to people, because it came out in that when we were talking about microaggressions and then different types of microaggressions, and then that, I felt just such a better appreciation for the people in the class who were not people of color, that they were really able to see like, “Oh, I’m not the hero because I claim that I’m colorblind.”

I believe this time I was just glad that I felt in some ways I could be more of a buffer for that so that not everybody had to listen to everybody’s learning, [chuckles] no matter where they were on a whole spectrum of being able to understand the difference and understand discrimination and where and how it shows up. I don’t know if you have any thoughts about that particular aspect of the class?

[00:30:20] Donald: Yes, I thought it was really conducive to a lot of our learning where there was a good mediation and there was a good appreciation for talking about the topic. There was like you were saying that we didn’t have to kind of have where some people were a little bit, seeing how far along the queue or saying some people were. I really enjoyed kind of going through that.

It’s always is a little bit eerie to only have this discussion because I know there might be some cringer, the stuff that’s going on. I’m really terawatt’s facial expression so it’s what might happen is, I might not be able to keep a straight face, it might be a frown, or, even if it’s just so crazy to me, it might be a laugh sometimes. I was really glad that the conversations progressed the way that they did.

I would hope that everyone was really receptive to what we were talking about, but from what I can tell, even when we talked about it on the last day, it’s what is some stuff that I brought you for the examine stuff I took away, and I some of the stuff that people were saying was that we realized that some of the stuff is so prevalent, and they were happy that we had a safe environment to talk about it.

I thought it was really cool for me that we were able to have that safe environment where we were able to talk about a whole range of issues from microaggressions to racial colorblindness.

[00:31:41] Bonni: Yes. Well, Donald, I’m so glad that we got to have this first part of the conversation, I’m going to spend just a moment talking about today’s sponsor, but then we’re going to get to the recommendation segment. Today’s sponsor, I just want to take a moment to thank them, it is SaneBox. I’ve talked about them many times on the show before.

Before they were a sponsor, they were a service that Dave, my husband, and I subscribe to that helps us keep our inboxes sane. One of the ways that does that is by reading the headers of your email through their artificial intelligence and sorting them in really smart ways to folders, read later, or newsletters, really obvious things that you don’t need to read the newsletter right when it comes in and it’s better to group those things together and process them and they’re not as urgent and so SaneBox helps you do that.

You also can train it, if it doesn’t sort things which 99.9% of the time, it sorts it really well for me but if it ever didn’t, I can just drag an email from where it went to where it belongs. If it’s sorted into one of those later folders, I could just drag it back into the inbox and it’ll remember it from that day forward or if vice versa if it went into the inbox, but actually, I want it to go into one of those different inboxes I can just sort it that way.

Then also you can even have it where if you email someone and say you’re expecting to get a reply back within three days, and you want it to come back pop up into your attention again, you can just blind carbon copy the same box special email, and it’ll remind you of that. It’s got all kinds of ways to help us manage our email, I highly recommend it and they’re also a sponsor of today’s episode.

If you head on over to sanebox.com/ti as in teaching in, He as in higher ed, sanebox.com/tihe, you can get a free trial over there and also a discount on your annual subscription should you choose to subscribe and they tell us we have really high subscribers because a lot of people once they try it, they realize how much time it’s gonna save them. Again, thanks to SaneBox for sponsoring today’s episode.

Now, Donald, we get to get to the recommendations part of today’s episode and I just have a quick one. I’m not familiar with this site, as in it’s not one that I have visited a lot, but it’s called Writing Explained. It looks at different types of–it’s got a whole huge listing of AP styles for different words. The one that I came across that I want to recommend today is for Disabled, Handicapped and so I’m just going to read a tiny bit of this one for everyone to give you a flavor of the kinds of recommendations that it makes.

I’m reading now from writingexplained.org about their entry for AP Style Disabled, Handicapped. In general, do not describe someone as “disabled” or “handicap” unless it is clearly relevant to the story. If a description must be used, try to be specific. For example, an advertisement featuring Michael J. Fox, swaying noticeably from the effects of Parkinson’s disease drew national attention.

You should avoid descriptions that connote pity such as, “afflicted with” or “suffers from” instead use has, for example, correct, Michael J. Fox has Parkinson’s disease. Wrong, Michael J. Fox suffers from Parkinson’s disease. It goes on to explain some other terminology that we should not use in our writing. I mentioned that I was not familiar with this website prior to coming across this, but I have a feeling I’m going to be coming back here a lot because there are a lot of ways that I suspect I can become better as a writer and more respectful of different populations and that kind of thing.

I’d recommend that people head on over for that particular entry. I suspect I might even be recommending more entries in the future. Donald, now I’m going to pass it over to you for your recommendation.

[00:35:49] Donald: Yes. As I mentioned at the very beginning of the podcast, like some of my new hobbies that I picked up, so we are back, I just looking at it on Amazon right now. Actually, I purchased this last March 2020. This is right at the very beginning of the pandemic when we were still going to the stores and ravaging toilet paper, and stuff like that.

I have this book recommended to me to a coach because throughout college I’ve been pretty busy with a lot of different things and always trying to stay busy. The book that it’s called is Your Best Life in Jesus’ Easy Yoke, Rhythms of Grace to De-Stress and Live Empowered and it is by Bill Gaultiere. This book was really good to me. I’ve actually gone through this book twice now.

I read it once back during the beginning of the pandemic, and then I actually read it at the end of last semester, into December into winter break. It’s been really helpful for me because I’m always sick trying to stay busy and I’m really tight base so always having a plan and needing some type of structure saying that I often feel I need to have so this book kind of reminded me that you can find rest in Jesus and take some time instead of his easy yoke.

It has little exercises to where it’s, “Okay, let’s take 10 minutes today just you sit down and breathe and let’s just read the song.” We can then have the questions how did you feel about this once it was done, but that’s not the end of every single chapter but overall, it’s a really good book that I would recommend to you guys.

[00:37:22] Bonni: Oh, that sounds so good and even just the breathing, [laughs] we can get so much out of just that taking those pauses and taking that time to breathe. Donald, thank you so much for coming on Teaching in Higher Ed, thank you for being a part of my life. I’m so glad to know you. And I’m glad to continuing to be getting to know you better on that we’re up to almost like daily basis workbooks different things. I’m really grateful to have you on my life and also to have you on my podcast.

[00:37:52] Donald: Yes, thank you for having me. I was so excited when you asked me to do this and I think it was an absolute yes. I’m so thankful I’ve been such a class this semester. It was such a perfect timing to have your classs at this time of my life. I’m really glad that we’ve been able to get to know each other a little bit better over the time of the semester, and I’m really thankful to have the opportunity to be on your podcast today.

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[00:38:17] Bonni: Thanks once again to Donald Bullock for joining me on today’s episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, where we looked at what we have learned, and thanks to all of you for listening. If you’ve been listening for a while, and you’ve yet to subscribe to my weekly Teaching in Higher Ed updates, I encourage you to head on over to teachinginhighered.com/subscribe.

You’ll get an email just once a week from me with the latest show notes from the episode and also with other resources, quotable words, and all that good stuff so head on over to teachinginhighered.com/subscribe. Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you next time on Teaching in Higher Ed.

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The transcript of this episode has been made possible through a financial contribution by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). ACUE is on a mission to ensure student success through quality instruction. In partnership with institutions of higher education nationwide, ACUE supports and credentials faculty members in the use of evidence-based teaching practices that drive student engagement, retention, and learning. 

 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.