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Finding Time To Write
Like most faculty, I first started seriously writing while I was in graduate school. At the time, I was working full-time during the day and working on my studies in…
Productivity tips for faculty. Life’s complicated as it is, let’s see if we can help you simplify a few things.
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How To Prepare For A Teaching Demonstration At A Job Interview
This is the third in a series of articles to help you prepare for the teaching job interview. In the last two articles, I discussed how you can prepare for the Writing Assignment At Teaching Job Interview and how to Prepare For A Teaching Interview.
In this article, I’ll share four things to help you prepare for the teaching demonstration.
Teaching Demonstration
Most applicants applying for a teaching position seem have some teaching experience either as a Teaching Assistant (TA) in graduate school, or as an adjunct faculty, or as a trainer in the industry they’ve specialized in. If you happen to be one of those, you’re fortunate enough to have some classroom or instructional experience.
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Top 5 Higher Education Job Sites
Whether you are looking for your first faculty position or a different one, a job search is a full-time job in itself if done correctly. Opportunities within academia have to be actively pursued on a daily basis.
Why? The answer is simple. Supply and demand!
Universities are awarding more graduate degrees than the market can handle. In 1957, U.S. institutions awarded a total of 8,611 doctorate degrees. In 2012, they awarded a whopping 51,008. That’s a 492% increase within half a decade.
We have seen a 64% percent increase in doctoral degree program completers within the last thirty years alone. The competition in the job market is extremely tough, and you, as a job seeker, need to understand that a college degree, even a PhD from a respected university, does not equal a guaranteed job offer any more. There are simply more qualified job seekers within the academic market than full-time positions.
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How To Get Students EXCITED About Volunteering!
As a the head of the hospitality management program at my college, I get contacted by various community organizations, profit and non-profit, looking for students to volunteer for a number of things ranging for being ushers at a major international event like the Breeders Cup World Championships to being Food Safety Advisors at the International Festival at the Claremont Colleges.
As exciting as these opportunities are for me to share with my students, I need to bear in mind that many students are not immediately aware of the benefits of volunteering. Many of my students are commuter students, some have jobs, some are parents and all of them seem to have little to no time to serve the community and volunteer in anyway. Or do they?
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5 Time Management Tips
I have yet to come across a college or university that requires all students to take a course in time management before they graduate. It’s mind boggling! We in the United States require our students to take a whole bunch of General Education (GE) courses that they’ll rarely, if ever, use after they graduate, but we won’t require them take courses on topics that they will need and benefit from every day of their life during and after college. Courses like: money management, personal financing, and time management. Some of these students eventually become professors never having learned how to manage their time effectively.
I meet a lot of faculty who want to get a lot of things done. They want to accomplish great things in academia but find themselves working around the clock and barely accomplishing anything. They’re able to meet the basic obligations of their duties and nothing more. Why is it that some faculty seem to be involved in so many exciting activities and projects, in addition to teaching, while others are barely keeping their heads above water?
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How To Avoid Group Work Complaints: 4 Tips To Follow!
Ever wonder why so many students hate group work? If you were like most students in college, the thought of group work was something you did not look forward to either. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons.
Being in a group meant:
- making concessions and giving up control of a portion of a project or assignment
- having the performance of other students in the group affect your grade
- being possibly stuck with one or more losers who never do any work and still end up with the same grade as everyone else in the group
- having to rearrange your schedule to accommodate the availability of others in the group
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Managing Group Projects: 8 Things You Should Do!
So you’ve assigned your first group project and thoroughly explained the requirements to your students and you now want to make sure that your students are productive and efficient. Fortunately, there are a few things that you can do to facilitate the interaction and progress of each group.
1. Raise The Bar
Before assigning the groups, it’s important to set the tone for the quality of work you expect from students. Raise the bar high, and your students will meet it and possibly exceed it. Set the bar too low, and you’ll be disappointed with the quality of your students’ work, and they’ll never really know what they are truly capable of achieving. Never make the mistake of assuming that a student’s socio-economic background, age, or cultural background will prevent them from achieving spectacular results if they are properly trained and prepared by you.
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10 Ways to Increase Student Engagement Online
One of the challenges that faculty teaching online (or hybrid) courses face is designing their courses so that there’s frequent and active engagement between the student and faculty and also between the students themselves. Why? Because as a faculty, you are required to be able to afford the same level of engagement online that you would in a traditional class where students meet with you and each other in person.
Some faculty are under the false assumption that teaching online is easy, and all you have to do is tell students what you want them to read or study and then have them complete assignments and quizzes to demonstrate their competency or mastery of the learning objectives. That is NOT teaching! Nor does it qualify as a distance learning course that would be eligible to pass the scrutiny of your regional accrediting body. That format may qualify as a correspondence course but not for a distance learning course.
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How To Plan Your First Course: 5 Tips For New Faculty
Planning a course for a brand new faculty can be an overwhelming experience. It can be especially overwhelming if this is your first time going through the process. And even more so if you have not had the opportunity to participate in a TA program and be mentored by seasoned faculty. But, there’s no reason to fret. This article will cover a few simple things you can do to help you plan your first course without stressing and getting overwhelmed.
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