Recently I created an assignment for my online speech classes that I think is simple and light, yet at the same time inspiring and valuable. Here it is (short and sweet): Assignment: Journal Entry about Managing Anxiety This assignment has 3 steps: After I created it, I kind of fell in love with it. I’m…
I’ll ask the controversial question: What’s the recipe for success as an adjunct instructor? Do you have a plan for being successful as an adjunct instructor? I know I certainly didn’t when I first started out, I was in my early twenties, just going with the flow and not thinking too much about it. I’m…
The transition from teaching predominantly in the classroom to teaching almost exclusively at home comes with a lot of adjustment, and if you’re not careful, it can become a slippery slope to barely teaching at all and/or losing a good chunk of your income. Here are 5 easy things I’ve done during the past four…
Have you ever been grading online assignments or replying to emails when it just felt like you were saying different versions of the same thing over and over again? I feel that way a lot of the time, and I know I’m not the only one. It turns out there’s actually a solution for this…
Working from home instead of driving to an office everyday can reduce stress in a number of ways, but it can also leave you feeling overwhelmed with both home and work responsibilities since there aren’t any real boundaries (for instance, trying to be professional during an exam review webinar while sitting in a messy house,…
If you teach online, or even in the classroom, you’re probably familiar with the popular learning management system, Canvas (it seems to be every college’s go-to LMS these days). It’s pretty intuitive and easy to use (which is why most instructors tend to prefer it over Blackboard), but there are a few Canvas tools that…
I had a few other blog posts lined up to use this month, but I didn’t want to miss my opportunity to write a holiday-themed post (my favorite!). As online teachers know, sometimes the work we do at our computer year-round can get repetitive, but I like to break up the year by thinking about…
I’ve written so many blog posts lately about how to teach effectively, how to get into online teaching, how to work from home, and I’ve written quite a few more along the same lines over the past two months, but I haven’t posted them yet because I felt overdue to write something much more inspirational….
As the fall semester approaches, I thought this article should be a must-read for us instructors. If you’re just starting out as a college instructor, or you sometimes wonder if you’re doing the best job that you can, check out the following article from Faculty Focus: Six Things That Make College Teachers Successful It’s a…
The other day I was reminded that what I do is very different from the usual 9 to 5 job. Someone made a reference to someone else having a “case of the Monday’s” (does Office Space get all the credit for that saying, or did that movie just popularize it?), and I realized I haven’t…