Julie DuNeen has written an interesting piece about the habits of successful teachers. She writes, "If you ask a student what makes him or her successful in school, you probably won’t hear about some fantastic new book or video lecture series. Most likely you will hear something like, it was all Mr. Jones. He just never gave up on me. What students take away from a successful education usually centers on a personal connection with a teacher who instilled passion and inspiration for their subject. It’s difficult to measure success, and in the world of academia, educators are continually re-evaluating how to quantify learning. But the first and most important question to ask is: Are teachers reaching their students? Here are 25 things successful educators do differently.
IS COURSE REDESIGN FOR YOU
At
the height of the buzz around MOOCs and flipped classrooms three years
ago, Bridget Ford worried that administrators might try to replace her
introductory history course with a batch of videos. She agreed that
something should change: Drop-outs and failures were high in the
200-person class—at about 13 percent. But the assistant professor of
history at California State University at East Bay wanted something less
drastic than giving up on live lectures entirely. Looking
through a collection of teaching portfolios by her colleagues helped
reassure her that she could redesign her course while preserving what
worked about the classroom experience. Plenty of colleagues on other
campuses were wrestling with the same question, she saw in the
portfolios, and they were finding ways that tried new approaches without
throwing out the old completely—call it turning the class on its side
rather than making a full flip. For her, that meant reducing the amount
of lecture time and spending part of class sessions on team-based
projects. “It was helpful to me to see that my field wasn’t an outlier
in arriving at a middle ground,” she says. Continue reading here.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR REST
As we approach the final exam period, reminding your students about good study habits that lead to success is important. Many students are still under the impression that cramming or "pulling an all-nighter" is the way to learn. Here is an article that focuses on how rest can actually make you perform better on assessments. It begins, "Sleep is critical for mind and body health. Without it, the effects can be severe. But what if you suffer from insomnia? Neuroscientist Claudia Aguirre provides seven healthy tips for a better night’s sleep."
