It wasn’t until I described how watching Ian McKellen’s explication of Macbeth helped me recover from a lousy class session that I realized how often I turn to YouTube videos to process the ups and downs of teaching. Here are a few more of my
Why do I teach? You might as well ask, “Why are you breathing?” That’s how essential teaching has been in the daily pattern of my life since 1980. And like breathing, it is hard to figure out what the mechanics of my teaching are; they
In May 2024, Annalise Nisly graduated from Goshen College with an environmental and marine science major with a concentration in marine biology as a member of the “Covid class” of students who had started college during the height of the pandemic. Lamar Nisly has since
We all have had that lesson that has not gone the way we anticipated: we set high goals for our students, and whether because of delivery or circumstances out of our control, the lesson failed. We also struggle with failures as we aim to inspire
Most professors love to learn. Our bookshelves are full of books, our inboxes full of newsletters, and our files (paper or electronic) full of possibilities! Each one contains excellent resources, techniques, and ideas we plan to try someday. But for many of us, someday doesn’t
Although I have been teaching for nearly 20 years, the memory of the first day I stepped into a classroom and faced students as a graduate teaching fellow is still sharp in my mind. I stood at the front of the room as students trickled
When educators talk about AI, they seem to fall into one of two camps: one that is vehemently against the use of it in education and another that acknowledges its growing influence and agrees that the way we teach must change. I pondered my own
Need some advice about getting along with coworkers? Try your children’s bookshelves. Here’s what I learned from my kid’s favorites.
In Rasselas, Samuel Johnson’s philosopher Imlac offers the following bleak assessment of life: “Human life is every where [sic] a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed” ([1759] 1999, 31). Having been a teacher for more than 30 years,
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