Educators Succeed Despite Adversity

education is supposed to be about nurturing thoughtful creativity, yet we are often forced to “stay on script.”

Overcoming the “College Students As Children” Mindset

In 2007 I began working for a nearby community college, my third such institution in Kentucky. In Kentucky, the community college system operates by a set of guiding principles and policies yet each institution also operates as a sort of franchise. The best way I can describe this is the application process. A person must…

The Case for Homework

Kevin Gannon (Grand View University; Twitter:@TheTattoedProf) wrote an excellent rebuttal to an essay published in the New York Time recently. Mark Bauerlein, himself also a professor (Emory University), penned some thoughts about teaching in “What’s the Point of a Professor?” Dr. Gannon took exception to many of the notions expressed by Dr. Bauerlein, and rightly…

Universities Cannot Afford Nonsense Bureaucracy

To be clear, I am not tenured faculty, nor will I ever be, unless a Prime Mover intercedes on my behalf, or my life circumstances alter significantly to allow me another opportunity to pursue a terminal degree. I suspect I will succumb to a terminal illness before that ever happens, though. My position on campus…

Another Day, Another Collection of Student Evaluations to Consider

Yesterday was like new comics release day except instead of being on the receiving end of one of the cooler parts of popular culture I was the recipient of documents which bear only the merest of traces of what students may be getting out of any of my courses. There is also a remarkable paucity…

Email Etiquette and Higher Education

I’ve examined a number of faculty posts over the last few years, tweets and Facebook updates, blogs and essays, relating how poorly students communicate with faculty. I’ve had conversation with faculty, my peers, who have various policies for handling questionable emails. I’ve tried to examine my own email styles along the way. As our global…

The Case of Not-So-Nimble U.S. Higher Education

Several of my past essays grouse about higher education not being particularly nimble places despite administrators who implore faculty to be more so while they themselves are anything but nimble. My own workplace is warming to the idea the institution is not as nimble as we would like. My hopes are some administrators are awakening…

Don’t Email Me About Your Grades!

I have a student appealing a grade in my Fall 2013 geography course. The course is 100% online. All homework is submitted via the university learning management system (LMS). The LMS reports no grades for the student for any assigned work, though time-date stamps exist to indicate the assignments were at least accessed. The student…

ESRI International Users Conference, Epilogue

The greater portion of the following collection of musings came on the very first day of the Education Conference. My current position covers a diverse number of disciplines, roles, and responsibilities. My office is on the top floor of a 5-story building, on the perimeter of our office space. And I am a Team of…

College Writing Tips: Check Your Logic

My teaching career began in the fall of 1997 when a faculty member experienced a heartache about a week before the semester began. During the intervening years between then and today, my peers, colleagues, and even those in business & industry, have noticed a tremendous decline in people’s ability to write. Recently, I spent many…