Gen'l Teaching [view: normal]

This article by Dr. Daniel Feldman (University of Georgia) addresses the issue faced by many faculty. We may have been taught how to conduct research but struggle with how to take these research projects and get them published.

Tips include:

• Make sure your title accurately reflects the paper topic and isn't too long.
• Grab your reader's attention in the abstract.
• Keep introduction to no more th...

Dear Dr. Kirk:

I just came across your blog today and it seems like a great resource for professors. I am writing to see if you have any advice or tips for someone trying to get started as an adjunct professor. I have an MBA and work experience, but no formal teaching experience. I would love to hear any tips or thoughts you have to help me get started.

Thanks! Would Be Teacher

Dea...

This article discusses today's "new college students," that may include traditional age Millennials who use text messaging rather than emails; Gen Xers who have different expectations from those students either older or younger; and Baby Boomers who are coming back to school while balancing jobs and families. Diana Oblinger discusses the implications of these different learning styles for college ...

Illustration by Istra Fuhrmann, age 11.

I personally believe dressing professionally in class is important as I feel this shows respect for the students and also helps to role model for them how to be professional.

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education gives advice to faculty on how to dress for a job interview. As noted in the article:

Remember, the objective isn't to draw...

Here's an interesting article on how Purdue University is adding Twitter and Facebook to get more class participation in case you were wondering how that could be done.

Got this via @mashable on Twitter.

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Professors Lynn Jacobs and Jeremy Hyman posted recently on “13 ways to make your professor love you.” I’m thinking this might be good to put in a syllabus for undergraduates.

Among their suggestions: Look interested during class; ask questions, especially those related to reading assignments; bring in relevant newspaper or internet articles; and thank your professor when he/she does you a favor.

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I'm off to Savannah, Georgia, to teach a faculty development workshop at Savannah State University on Friday. The university's website states its goal is "a 'value added' education, resulting from classroom interactions, co-curricular activities, quality instruction, internships, practicum, research, and the infusing of technology into the curriculum...Thus, in addition to topics of teaching effec...

Tom Vander Well writes on quality assurance and recently gave the following advice to call center employees:

If you're working the phones today, I'd encourage you to keep a note pad or sticky-note on your desk. Each time you have a pleasant, friendly customer - jot down a hash mark or write the customer's name on your sheet. When one of those negative customers comes along, look down at your shee...

Check this out: The Teaching Professor has a blog with lots of free information on teaching and learning here.

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I recently turned in my 49 page application (not counting supporting materials) for tenure and promotion to Full Professor at the University of South Florida in Sarasota.

Came across these helpful resources as I was going through the process that I thought I would share.

Professor David Silver (University of San Francisco) talks through his narrative on service.

Dr. Fred Yaffe (Dean, College o...

Digital Storytelling is a method educators could use to give students a creative way to express themselves. One way to do that is to have students digitally tell about a movie or book in one minute, using music, costumes, sound effects, etc. Check out this one minute video done by students on Forrest Gump.

Found this via Dr. Strange who linked to Dr. Alec Couros’ student,

Money magazine in their November 2009 issue has ranked Professor as #3 in their list of the 50 best jobs in America. One of the major reasons was the flexibility that faculty have in planning their work schedules. I would have to agree that this is one of the reasons I love my job! ...

Interesting comments on what to do to turn around a toxic classroom.

Here are some more suggestions:

How to handle disrespectful students

Zero Tolerance policy

How to get respect from your students

Trust me. Your students want you to be in charge.

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Here's a free multi-media source for art teachers "designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook" by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker.

It's an interesting site for anyone interested in Art.

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I'm reading over a paper on which a student discusses his future plans. At the end, he typed, "Good thinks will come."

My first thought was to get out my red pen and circle the typo.

However, maybe he's planning to do some excellent thinking in the future?

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This is my 28th year of teaching at the college level. I didn’t originally plan to be a college professor; in fact, after earning my MBA, I worked in industry for a number of years. In 1982 I moved to Texas and decided to apply for an adjunct position at a community college, mainly because the campus was less than a mile from my house. The surprise for me was that I found out that I loved teachi...

I'm talking on "Using Social Media as a Tool for Recruiting, Sales, and Marketing" this morning with the Sarasota-Manatee Human Resources Association (SHRA). I'm looking forward to it.

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I received a signed copy of Timothy Johnson’s latest book, SWAT: Seize the Accomplishment today in the mail and I’ll have to say I think it’s his best one yet although Race Through the Forest (on project management) and GUST (on office politics) were excellent also. SWAT has a January 2010 release date on it.

Timothy was one of my MBA students back in 1990 and he likes to tell the story of the ...

The Bradenton Herald did a nice story on me today regarding the use of social media in the classroom. If you can't click on it, you can download here: Download Bradenton newspaper

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I'm putting together a syllabus and class activities for a MBA course on Managing Diversity that I'm teaching starting October 17. I thought I would ask Dr. KirkCat for advice:

Source: Drawing by my granddaughter, Istra Fuhrmann (age 11)

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I am really impressed with the website, Faculty Focus, for all the useful info they have for college faculty. They have a new special report, Effective Strategies for Improving College Teaching and Learning, that you can download for free. ...

Check out www.websitegrader.com

"Website Grader is a tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective."

This site www.delaneykirk.com ranks 26,719 of the 1,638,...

Bad student behaviors...

And good...

Photos taken at a workshop on classroom management I taught at Columbia University in New York City in 2007. Email me to invite me to your campus!

Or buy the book, Taking Back the Classroom: Tips for the College Professor on Becoming a More Effective Teacher, at Amazon or from Tiberius Publications.

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For those of you who love crossword puzzles, The Chronicle of Higher Education has an unique opportunity to create your own and submit it for publication in the Chronicle. I'm thinking this would also be an interesting assignment for students to design a puzzle using terms, concepts, people studied in class. ...

Dear Dr. Kirk: I need advice on giving feedback to my students. I always struggle with what and how much to say. Speechless in Seattle Dear Speechless: A colleague and friend of mine, Timothy Johnson at CarpeFactum provides some great...