We all want to be effective teachers, but how do we gauge whether our teaching has been effective? One simple way to gather informal, low-stakes feedback from students is through exit cards. In the last several minutes of class, the instructor can pose a question to the class, have students write their answer on a…Continue Reading Exit Cards: A Simple Formative Assessment Strategy
This post is an entry for Part II of the Mentally Healthy resource guide for UP faculty and academic staff working with students who might have mental health concerns. There is a study I cite often when teaching my Lifespan Development course about psychological well-being across ages that always resonates with students. Researchers took data…Continue Reading Mentally Healthy: Reducing (Student) Stress
This post is an entry for Part I of the Mentally Healthy resource guide for UP faculty and academic staff working with students who might have mental health concerns. “Brett” started the semester well; bright, engaging, asking great questions, and keeping up with all the readings. Midway through the semester, however, things changed. Brett started…Continue Reading Mentally Healthy: Responding to Students in Distress
Now that October has arrived, most courses have had their first exams. As students come in to review their scores, one common refrain echoes through the halls, “I knew that, but I just couldn’t remember it!”. Though it might sound like an excuse, the empirical data is clear – human memory is incredibly fallible, even…Continue Reading Whiteboard Animations
This post is the first entry for Part I of the Mentally Healthy resource guide for UP faculty and academic staff working with students who might have mental health concerns. There is, unfortunately, no magic formula for knowing when a student you know is in serious psychological distress. For one thing, all students experience some…Continue Reading Mentally Healthy: Recognizing Students in Distress