I have a list of ‘Inspiring Things To Do’ that I keep at the very front of various notebooks that I use to keep track of errands, school assignments to grade, etc. I’ve rounded this list out with things that will continually inspire me when I’m already feeling on top of the world, but will…
“My first introduction to ‘distance learning’ was an Art History course I took in college. The format was straightforward. There were no classes, much less a virtual course classroom to login to, and you took a proctored midterm and final exam at the school library. A research paper was required and it was submitted via…
I know it’s not very original to write a blog post about one’s goals during the first week of the new year, but I’m okay with that. I’ve always been a huge fan of setting resolutions just hours before the ball drops on December 31st, mostly because I tend to set goals that I can…
Every time I visit our family cabin in North Carolina, I feel the need to write about it. And every time I’m here, especially over the winter break, I forget just how much I’ve simply needed to unplug. As an online college instructor you’re essentially ‘on call,’ even on weekends, which is fine by me…
“I’ve been teaching part-time since my early twenties, and it really gave me the opportunity and the inspiration to explore other interests, like fashion, acting, traveling, getting an EdD, and starting a website. My favorite part about being an adjunct instructor has always been getting to know different students each semester, and hearing that I…
I recently finished up my last semester teaching international college students, and subsequently handed the reigns over to some new instructors I’ve trained during the past few months. One instructor who shadowed me during the Fall term, a NASA liaison at our university, is trying teaching on for size during the next year, and she…
“I started out my career as a high school history teacher in the mid-1990’s. I loved teaching and trying new things – particularly the new technology tools we had available to us. They were pretty limited – word processing, PowerPoint, slowwwww Internet, and CD-ROM-based digital encyclopedias. Even though the tools were pretty rudimentary, I was…
I’ve had the book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel on my bookshelf for almost 2 years, and I’m just now making a dent in it (I swear I’ll finish it over winter break!). Before I get too far into it, though, I wanted to note a few…
I never intended to put this post on Happy Professor (I wrote it some months ago), but the longer I teach, the more I hear about the private struggles of other instructors (related to office politics on the physical campus, being bullied by students in online courses, or reading heartbreaking student criticism at the end…
“I’ve been teaching part-time since my early twenties, and it really gave me the opportunity and the inspiration to explore other interests, like fashion, acting, traveling, getting an EdD, and starting a website. My favorite part about being an adjunct instructor has always been getting to know different students each semester, and hearing that I…