Create to Learn

I’m sure we all have stories about being a child and coming hope, filled with excitement, to tell your parents about your science project. What to make? How to make it? The possibilities were endless. As you discussed it with one or both parents, ideas were tossed about. Eventually, your parent’s ideas begin to take …

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Breaking the Ice

As part of a class I attended last winter, we had to do presentations on our final papers. I kept mine as short and visual as possible while adding stories to go along with the paper. We had 20 minutes each, so there was no chance of going over. We all had similar presentation styles, …

The Big Picture

Summer is here and it’s a great time for photo taking. Like many organizations, we have a lot going on outside and often big groups that need a group photo. The hard part, is getting everyone in the photo and not ending up with a far off image that doesn’t show faces, which are the …

Express Yourself with Sound

Adding audio to presentations has become the norm, particularly online. On one hand, it’s a great idea because others can hear your voice and connect in a different way. It’s also helpful for those with a visual disability. The problem with adding audio is that so many make the same mistakes they do when giving …

Mozart and the Brain

I remember sitting in the movie theater and hearing the da dum, da dum of the pending shark attack in Jaws and curling up in my seat as I watched the young woman swimming, unaware that her life was about to end. The music, before the image, alerted me to the danger and the shark …

GRIT – What is it? Why do we need it?

At a workshop I attended last week, I met a lovely woman who mentioned that her daughter had almost finished college, but wasn't able to graduate because of one class she needed. She just couldn't pass that one class. She had tried three times and was ready to give up. I immediately felt sympathy for …

Empathy Online

Just knowing someone else recognizes your pain may mean the difference between successfully finishing a course and dropping it.

Good Bye Mr. McFeeley!

“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” ― William Arthur Ward A few blog posts ago, I talked about a really bad math experience that left me with a fear of math that continues to this day. The one exception was geometry. Now, I know, that …

Creating a Community in the Online Classroom

I remember the first time I really connected with an instructor online. It was late at night and I was very tired from a long day. She had asked the class a question about working with students with disabilities. I had little experience with students with disabilities at the time, so I wrote about my …

Finding your strengths as a teacher

One of my first experiences as a student of an online classroom was dismal. The professor had no idea how to teach online and was unfamiliar with the learning management system (i.e. Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard, etc.). Rather than trying to get help with the technology, he did what he thought was right and even after being …