A recent post from Stanford’s Tomorrow’s Professor eNewsletter features some great tips for engaging students in class discussions: Crickets refers to utter silence across an entire class, but the problem we’re addressing here pertains to individual students who never talk or post. The possible reasons for silence are numerous. Students may be shy, reserved, or introverted; […]
The first class meeting is an opportunity to clarify your goals and expectations for the course and to get acquainted with your students. Who are they, and what questions, hopes, and interests do they bring to the course? Here are a few first-day activities you can use to learn about your students and prepare them […]
by Donna Branyon, Department of English For the final project in EN 102 (freshman composition) and EN 319 (technical writing), we do versions of the marshmallow launcher project. Students are presented with an imaginary rhetorical situation: The UA Writing Center provides snacks for clients and consultants. They would like to be known as the most […]
Teach students to collaborate before expecting success. Doing group work, peer review, and other collaborative activities without prior training can lead to confusion and dead time in class. For maximum success, teach collaboration skills before starting group projects. ONE IDEA: Introduce peer review workshops at the beginning of the semester using a Fish Bowl approach. […]
by Jennifer Feltman, Department of Art & Art History Last week, students from my Late Medieval and Gothic Cathedrals courses worked together to layout the plan of a cathedral on the Quad using only simple tools: wooden stakes, mallets, string, and a straight edge. After about 3 hours work, they had the outlines of a […]
by Michael J. Altman, Department of Religious Studies Games are fun. Quizzes are not. But games can make quizzes more fun. That’s what I have learned by experimenting with the Kahoot, an interactive learning game, in my REL 130: Religion, Politics, and Law course. I discovered Kahoot during the Teaching Professor Technology Conference a few […]
by Jessica Fordham Kidd, Department of English My favorite presentation from The Teaching Professor Technology Conference 2016 was Dr. Gloria Niles’s presentation “Pecha Kucha: Multimedia Alternative to Term Papers for Digitial Natives.” Prior to this session, I was familiar with the term Pecha Kucha, but I had never given much thought to how it might […]
Read Moreabout Pecha Kucha A Perfect Complement to Writing Courses
by Marie-Eve Monette, Department of Modern Languages and Classics It is the beginning of class, and two students are getting ready to give their presentation. I know that they will probably talk for the 12-15 minute assigned time, some referring to their notes, others more at ease with speaking spontaneously. One slide after the other […]
Read Moreabout Pecha Kucha or the Art of Live Research Narratives
by Rebecca Salzer, Department of Theatre and Dance Dance has been a favorite subject of film since its invention. Thomas Edison, the Lumière Brothers, and George Méliès all used dance in their early film experiments. It was the perfect material for these early films; entertaining, beautiful, and also exemplary of the full potential of the […]
by Lauren Cardon, Department of English During the Teaching Professor Technology Conference in Atlanta, I was a facilitator for a Strategy Swap session on group work. I met with two different groups of people for thirty minutes each, and we shared our strategies. Most of our discussion focused on group work in the classroom — […]
