I'm seeing that meta-analysis about class attendance going around, including pleas to use our scholarly training to make evidence-based decisions, which would include designing teaching policies based on "the science." Totally on board. I teach my stats students to do this. 1/7 One thing I might direct them to do is look for potential threats to external validity. A student might volunteer that the meta-analysis was published in 2010. And that the papers included spanned 1927 to 2009. We might have a class discussion whether we can generalize ... 2/7

I'm doing a 30-min workshop on @padlet tomorrow, and I'm wondering what your favorite way to use Padlet is, as I am sure I haven't discovered all of the best uses yet.

I'll add some of my past Padlets below. 1/9 You can use Padlet to create collaborative classroom norms. Everyone adds anonymous notes containing the things they need for a safe and/or brave space. Then you go through and look for themes and narrow down/combine ideas to a set of 4-5 of classroom commitments/norms. 2/9

To me, the first step in enhancing teaching is getting clear on your values & context.

Don't ever change your pedagogy cause someone else did a thing and is raving about it.

Only change if the change is a better reflection of your values in a way that respects your context. 1/4

https://twitter.com/CharlesWMcKinn2/status/1524089631779733504

That context includes # of courses/preps, but many other things.
For ex, I teach 6 courses a year; 6 preps. BUT all of my scholarship and service is focused on teaching. This is an incredible privilege cause effort in 1 area pays off in others. Most don't have this privilege.2/4

Since trying to hunt down folks that are causing student trauma probably won’t end well, I’m taking a different tack.

I’ve been a minimal grader, but guess who is going FULL UNGRADING!?

I was waiting till I figured it out more but there is to much harm to counteract to wait. I am FIRED UP and MOVING FAST.

Already pulled all of the points off of our Pyramid of Activities in the syllabus and added Process Letters as a Tier 2 activity.

BOOM.

I mean, also, what am I doing?

But still, BOOM.

I’ve been in a funk about returning this Fall. But I had an insight this weekend.

I realized the funk isn’t so much about COVID (although that’s still a concern). It’s about what we learned about what teaching & academia ARE during COVID. And it’s something we can’t unlearn. The pandemic stripped everything down. Unexamined choices were now under the microscope as tough times demanded we get clarity on exactly what we are trying to accomplish when we teach.

It also illuminated how much of what happens in academia does not contribute to that mission.