Monthly Archives: October 2020

Triads – More Than Just a Chinese Organized Crime Syndicate

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Triads – More Than Just a Chinese Organized Crime Syndicate

By Kyle Webb

The Teaching Excellence Committee will again be organizing Teaching Triads this winter term, and we hope that many of you will consider participating. You will receive more information about getting involved later this term. Until then, here is a preview of the Teaching Triads:

What:

Teaching Triads are groups of three faculty (though it could just as well be two or four) who observe each other’s teaching throughout the term, provide each other feedback, and engage in discussions about teaching. The Teaching Triads and PROT processes are similar, but differ in two important ways. Continue reading →

Mixing Modalities

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Hello everyone!  Let’s talk teaching –

As a young instructor, I started teaching on chalkboards and clear plastic acetates.

Since then, I have:

-Seen new computer graphics programs that can make your paper handouts more interesting

-Developed my own website to give students access to these handouts in digital form at any time

-Ditched my website when Learning Management Systems started

-Became overjoyed with the advent of Powerpoint

-Became disillusioned with Powerpoint

-Enjoyed making and posting videos for my students

-And now we have Zoom.  Phew!

As instructors we need to be nimble and adventurous, creative and adaptive, thick skinned when things don’t work out, but mindful enough to pat ourselves on the back when we see the gleam of inspiration and insight in our student’s eyes. Continue reading →

A Strange New Teaching World: Juggling at its finest

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Ok, everyone, raise your hand if you have your hands full. (get it? …sorry)

We are all jugglers in life; trying to keep a number of things in the air without letting them drop, but never having enough hands to guide each thing through its entire journey. We decide when an item needs our attention and which we can let fly for a little longer. Hopefully, the time you do get with each will set it up for a long, true flight and not need your constant support and guidance.

Just like the expert jugglers, our tasks aren’t all created equal, and that medicine ball that’s in the mix is always taking more time to control than we want. So what can we do? Not to wax nihilistic, but Sisyphus may suggest to sing “Don’t worry, Be happy” by Bobby McFerrin. OR, we could take a more comfortable, controlling approach to how we handle these tasks. Continue reading →