cannyben

The phenomenon of "easy versus hard" teachers probably dates back to Socrates. Some teachers love giving A’s to students. On the other hand, plenty of education theory supports the claim that teacher expectations are positively associated with student achievement. This is not elitism but a philosophy of value-added instruction. Intentional teaching means putting in the extra work and encouragement needed to help students attain difficult goals. High standards coupled with high expectations — including encouragement— create real student success. Who is the customer? We live in an era of grade inflation. The consumer model has twisted our priorities at every level. It isn’t even a good consumer model, which can work well if the right consumer is served. A student once asked why I didn’t consider him my customer. If he paid his tuition shouldn’t I supply his demand for a degree? I replied, "Yes, you are my customer — but not the you of today. My customer is the ...

I was 21 years old when I first stepped into a classroom as a teacher. I was so   nervous about how the students   would perceive me, and so uncertain about what I was doing that I had   precisely one goal for the first day: Get through it.  I managed to achieve that modest goal. But over the course of the next couple of decades of full- time teaching, I have become much more aware of the extent to which the first day of class sets the tone for everything that follows. On that first day, your students are forming a lasting impression not just of you as a teacher but of your course, too. Their early, thin-slice judgments are powerful enough to condition their attitudes toward the entire course, the effort they are willing to put into it, and the relationship they will have with you and their peers throughout the course. So that first class meeting is a big deal. You want to give the students a taste of the engaging intellectual journey they will undertake in...

Once one   becomes   an academic administrator, one of the most valuable skills one should cultivate is the ability to repeat oneself, and still sound fresh and sincere. Similar questions to a similar audience result in similar answers. For instance, when I meet a donor or an   alum who asks how the school is doing, I have a ready answer in my head — with key talking points, stats, and anecdotes. The content will vary over time as the data shift, but basically I’m echoing myself. The same is true of many internal conversations. There are very few critically urgent matters in the world of academia — besides obvious ones like "building on fire" or an imminent deadline for a large grant proposal. Most of the time — whether it is deciding on how to allocate funding, making a hiring decision, negotiating appointments, or revising curricula — you legitimately have weeks or months to deliberate. Be wary of agreeing to something, or refusing it, too quickly. When someone ...

As we see our students on a regular basis, we often can tell if they are struggling emotionally. Yet we’re not mental-health professionals. Most of us don’t have the training to know how to offer support and guidance to students who are suffering with mental-health issues. So how should we help? Anxiety, in particular, seems to be  on the rise  among the students. I recommend a three-step response. Step No. 1: Notice.  Only a few  students who have killed themselves had any interaction with their institution’s counseling service. I suggest we don’t have to diagnose a mental illness; we just have to recognize that someone is in distress. That’s not as difficult as it might seem. Distress might manifest itself as a downturn in a student’s hygiene. A student suddenly might start missing class, or failing to turn in assignments. Or someone who is normally alert and engaged might now be falling sleeping in class. Those signs don’t require a lot of training to sp...

Remoteness, isolation, and peripherality have become lenses through which certain territories and communities are valued and assessed. These concepts have come to be regarded as markers of vulnerability, marginality, and lack of modernity. Yet all three concepts are fundamentally relational. Territories such as Greenland and New Caledonia may seem remote and isolated from the perspective of their distant metropolitan powers, Denmark and France, but for those living in these territories, the periphery is itself the centre. The city of Manchester in Northern England is often regarded as remote from and peripheral to the economic powerhouse of Southeast England, yet the population of Manchester's urban area exceeds that of many European countries. Places that were once deemed remote, such as Australia, can come to be taken on their own terms, while important power centres, such as Ancient Carthage, can dwindle and ultimately be buried beneath the earth. What do remoten...

Good posture is important. It   not only expresses but helps to form our attitude of mind, “Chest out, chin up, back straight” this is the advice to give. A few minutes deep breathing does the child a world of good refreshing the mind. Exercising, singing, making things, playing a musical instrument and joining in social activities with others are all to be encouraged. Games can be both educational and relaxing, spelling and intelligence tests, quizzes and so on can be wonderful as can singing and laughing with them. “For the ordinary dweller, going back to nature where the artificialities of life are dispensed with and where personal effort is necessary for any degree of comfort to be attained – that is of infinite value. Camping, living on a farm, all these things are far better for the child than going to a seaside hotel where everything is done for him.”   (Virtue’s Home Tutor). Of course, all holidays need not be the same and exposing the child to other enviro...