Mike Calendine

I still use a lot of PPT in my current position.  It isn't that this is bad, but I really need supplemental material to help drive the text home.

The truth is you never stop teaching. I think about things outside of the class or experience life things that I bring into the class for discussion or even humor.

Faculty start out very objective...worried about crossing t's and dotting i's....but the reason you hired them was their personality and their expertise.  It is tough for new faculty to be themselves....but it is truly necessary.

Disruptive students want your attention.  In this world of transactional education, students believe their view may bed as important as yours.  Transparency is your friend.  If you are teaching a hot button topic, talk about it.   The ground rules...what you expect.  What does dissent look like in your class?  There is learning in refutation.  Are you willing to go there?

Faculty know who the bad students are.  This may be academically...or it may be socially.  Little wins will gravitate to bigger wins....but you cannot belittle adults. 

If the faculty are not excited for the content, then I don't want them in the class.  They will bring down a class faster than anything else.

Students need to assess well....period. Anxiety from test taking?  Take ore tests.  Prepare more.  Studies have shown the more prepared you are the less anxious your become.  So maybe the question becomes how can we show them so they know they are prepared or not?

Don't overcomplicate it.  Pre-test...content....post-test. This will give you and the students the ability to analyze what they learned and did not learn.

Students must learn connection. Material learned cannot be viewed as pragmatic pieces of information.  Where does it fit?  How does it fit?  How is it the same?  How is it different?

I would suggest reading "Make it Stick" by Brown.