{"id":358,"date":"2020-10-12T12:52:22","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T19:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/?p=358"},"modified":"2020-10-13T13:55:11","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T20:55:11","slug":"a-strange-new-teaching-world-juggling-at-its-finest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/2020\/10\/12\/a-strange-new-teaching-world-juggling-at-its-finest\/","title":{"rendered":"A Strange New Teaching World: Juggling at its finest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, everyone, raise your hand if you have your hands full. (get it? …sorry)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Just like the expert jugglers, our tasks aren\u2019t all created equal, and that medicine ball that\u2019s 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 \u201cDon\u2019t worry, Be happy\u201d by Bobby McFerrin. OR, we could take a more comfortable, controlling approach to how we handle these tasks.<\/p>\n

More than time management<\/h2>\n

I\u2019m sure most of us can point towards time management skills as an important aspect of this, but what if we are already good at that skill? We can\u2019t make more time, and we can\u2019t be too much more efficient. Adding a new task would require \u201cdropping the ball\u201d on another. I\u2019m also guessing that most of us have had to let some items go, and have an ever-refined process for saying \u201cno\u201d to new things that won\u2019t fit on the plate.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to suggest you put a new ball in the air but to help you refine one that is there already. Teaching is the heavy awkward behemoth we are all tossing around. It\u2019s multifaceted, involved, energy draining, and\u2026 never flies on its own for very long.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s my point? To be practical. This blog is supposed to make us all better teachers as we thoughtfully roll the ideas around and apply them. But let\u2019s be honest, human nature would suggest we make something work and move on. After all, \u201cWhat ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix.\u201d But I hope your thoughts on teaching aren\u2019t \u201cjust don\u2019t break it\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the exercise field, the primary complaint for most is not enough time. The response we have is \u201cIf it is important to you, you will need to make the time.\u201d So this is what I\u2019m suggesting, set aside specific time to think about your teaching from different angles. This doesn\u2019t have to be onerous, but it may require setting an appointment with yourself. Hopefully this blog can spur on ideas or present tools you can use.<\/p>\n

As we move through the academic year you will see more Teaching Moment blog posts from myself and the rest of the Teaching Excellence committee. We will make a concerted effort to bring you topics that are worth your time, cut the BS, and provide resources to improve your ability to keep that behemoth up in the air.<\/p>\n

Where to start<\/h2>\n

Check out this self-assessment tool<\/a>. It\u2019s brief, and doesn\u2019t require you to do anything but think about yourself.<\/p>\n

To get somewhere else, we first need to know where we are.<\/p>\n

(also, you can head over to the Teaching Resources page<\/a> to find more assessment tools at the bottom, after you scroll past all the other useful resources!)<\/p>\n

Still want more?<\/h2>\n

Keep an eye out in future blogs about Learning Triads, The Teaching Excellence Award, and free seminars we are putting together that discuss and demonstrate useful tools and concepts from our own faculty and the Center for Teaching and Learning. (These would all look amazing on your review!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lastly, A picture of my cat, Finn.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

-Tim Burnett<\/p>\n

Instructor of Kinesiology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10789,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1354215,1354585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assess","category-reflect"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10789"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":366,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/teachingexcellence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}