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REFLECTIONS

Monthly News & Updates

August 23, 2023

Featured Learning Lab Workshop: Using Reading Logs

This self-paced and web-based workshop demystifies the reading process by teaching the Reading Methodology and the use of a Reading Log (based on the methodology) to increase reading engagement, comprehension, and retention. $10

Access the Workshop ($10)

Click HERE to visit the Learning Lab.

Starting Off on the Right Foot

(aka: Principles for Establishing a Quality Learning Environment)


With a new semester or term starting shortly, we thought we'd share the 10 principles common to the kind of learning environments that make for successful students AND teachers.


  1. Establish a high degree of trust and respect.
  2. Make sure both learner and mentor are committed to the learner’s success.
  3. Get student buy-in very early in the process.
  4. Challenge students.
  5. Set clear and high expectations.
  6. Encourage risk-taking.
  7. Seek student feedback regularly by using assessment on a consistent and timely basis.
  8. Measure and document progress and growth.
  9. Create a collaborative learning space.
  10. Create a balance between structure and flexibility.

From the Faculty Guidebook (3.1.1 Overview of Quality Learning Environments)

Featured Blog Post



Psychological Immunity

“According to a growing body of research, the brain has a remarkable capacity to make the best of bad events: when we encounter negative situations we subconsciously activate what is known as our psychological immune system...."


There is a mentoring skill, maintaining balance, that lends itself easily to familiar metaphors such as that of a tightrope walker or a ship at sea during a storm, both situations where stability must be maintained, if catastrophe is to be avoided. In both scenarios, you work to actively balance the bad with the good, losses with gains—if things shift too far right/starboard side, you add weight to the left/port side. You can learn and improve the skill of maintaining balance.


We recently came across the article quoted and cited above about psychological immune systems.


“Wonderful,” we thought, “It’s like binocular vision…an additional perspective increases what we can see!” (We must admit that this idea also made our nerdy little eyes light up.) ...

Keep reading...

Featured Blog Post

Laughter Through Tears

"Laughter through tears

is my favorite emotion."

—the character of Truvey Jones in Robert Harling’s Steel Magnolias

A friend recently commented that he’s at the point in life where he’s losing people, mostly older relatives, but also cultural touchstones of his youth—singers and actors were who immediately sprang to mind. He knew that was just going to accelerate, the older he got. Another friend who was with us agreed but said, “I’m losing people too but I’m also gaining people…several close friends are having kids, I’m discovering new singers and actors, and I think I made a new friend this week while out running.”


We were all silent for a few minutes and then talked about how the losses seem to just happen but the gains require you to be actively involved. Sure, your friends are going to have kids whether you know about it or not but the degree to which their joy adds color to your world depends on you. Ditto with finding new experiences and people. They’re out there already but you have to be awake, aware, and sometimes even roll up your pant legs and wade out to find them.

Keep reading...

Top 10 Things To Do to Prep for a New Term

We asked around and here are the top 10 suggestions:



  1. Review and update course syllabus based on any changes in the course content.
  2. Plan lesson schedules, ensuring balance between different topics.
  3. Check and update online teaching platform with relevant course materials.
  4. Prepare an initial set of assignments, quizzes, and exams.
  5. Set office hours and communication guidelines for students.
  6. Organize any needed teaching aids or demonstration materials.
  7. Attend faculty meetings and workshops for any new teaching policies or tools.
  8. Order textbooks or other necessary reading materials.
  9. Review student rosters and familiarize yourself with student information.
  10. Set up a grade book and organize grading criteria.

Teaching Institute (Sept 5 to Oct 3)

You already know that the Teaching Institute is perfect for institutions or individuals interested in converting from a traditionally-oriented classroom to one that is learner-centered (i.e., active learning and/or POGIL), but what we haven't shared are the activities included in this special event. Here they are (see below)!

Register for an Institute

Psst! There's a discount for newsletter subscribers...scroll down!

The Teaching Institute is web-based and accessible through your preferred internet browser!

Activity 1: Getting Prepared

Activity 2: Performing in Teams and Goal Setting

Activity 3: Exploring the Learning Process Methodology

Activity 4: Knowledge and Its Structure

Activity 5: Week 1's Capstone Assignment (Assessment of My Last Year of as a Professional)

Activity 6: Assessment vs. Evaluation

Activity 7: Reflection vs. Self-Assessment

Activity 8: Assessing Assessments

Activity 9: Midterm Assessment

Activity 10: Week 2's Capstone Assignment (My Professional Development Plan)

Activity 11: Course Design

Activity 12: Assessing an Activity

Activity 13: Educational Transformation

Activity 14: Quality Learning Environments

Activity 15: Week 3's Capstone Assignment (10 Tools to Improve My Practice)

Participants should budget 7 to 8 hours (plus 1 or 2 Zoom meetings) each week.

30% OFF

ANY Institute


Register before Sept. 30

and enter the discount code!

Simply enter

[newsletter30percent]

as the Discount Code

when registering!

REGISTER NOW

Helping Them "Read the Freakin' Syllabus"

In a column, “They Scoff at Your Piddly Rules” in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Ms. Mentor shared her response to the ubiquitous complaint that students do not follow directions. “If they would just read the syllabus,” many a professor fumes. That is a problem so egregious that there is a Facebook group called “Read the freakin’ syllabus, people.”

Beleaguered teachers deduct points, hide easter eggs, use pop quizzes, try shame and bribery (“we’ll have a class party if we can go the whole semester without anyone asking things that are answered on the syllabus”). At some campuses, students aren’t allowed into their labs until they copy the lab instructions, word for word, into their notebooks and have them initialed by a supervisor. Grades may be docked if students fail to number their pages or forget their source lists. Students who do get everything right—who, in short, do exactly what they’re supposed to do—sometimes get extra points.


We’d like to point out what should be obvious: Asking students to read their syllabus is a world apart from students reading, processing, and understanding their syllabus, let alone being able to apply the information it contains to any given assignment or set of circumstances in the course. In response to this same issue (we did say “ubiquitous”), we have created an activity, Analyzing a Course Syllabus (which is also included in the Student Success Toolbox). Beyond simply asking (i.e., hoping) that students read or copy or have their course syllabus indelibly tattooed on their arms, this guided-discovery activity not only aims to familiarize students with the contents of their course syllabus, it requires that they achieve at least Level-3 competency (i.e., Application in Bloom’s Taxonomy) with the information it contains. They do this through answering Critical Thinking Questions, writing and sharing Inquiry Questions about the syllabus contents, and creating a personal Plan of Action for the Course.


We are offering that activity here, as a free download, in pdf format (click the image below). Use it with our blessing!


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