This post was originally published by Inside Higher Ed on June 15, 2014 At the beginning of my second quarter teaching, I had a major cold sore outbreak that could only be tolerated under thick layers of desensitizing, gross-looking ointment. Within an hour of arriving at the university that day, four people had kindly alerted me…

This post was originally published by Inside Higher Ed on November 30, 2014 Amidst reports of Steve Jobs and other Silicon Valley CEOs imposing extremely strict technology rules on their children, the debate aroundtechnology use in the classroom has caught fire once again. One of the strongest arguments for banning technology in the classroom came earlier this fall, from…

This post was originally published by Inside Higher Ed on June 9, 2015 A while ago, guest-writer Kathryn Young wrote a great post here on GradHacker documenting the professional benefits of volunteering on campus. She wrote from the perspective of a master’s student preparing for the professional world and how her volunteering work beefed up her resume and made her…

This post was originally published by Inside Higher Ed on March 13, 2016 A while ago, a struggling student (let’s call her Jane) walked into my office to discuss her performance in my German class. Jane was a shy student who rarely participated in class discussion, and her performance on the quizzes and midterm was…

This post was originally published by Inside Higher Ed on December 20, 2015 A while ago, a friend of mine started working on an oral history podcast documenting the experiences of graduate students at different stages in their PhD. One of the project’s goals is to articulate struggle and survival in grad school without ironing…

This post was originally published by Inside Higher Ed on November 22, 2015 One of the challenges I face teaching a daily language class is finding novel and creative ways to maintain student interest throughout my lessons. One of my favorite teaching “tricks” is using music to motivate learning, improve concentration, create a sense of…

This post was originally published by Inside Higher Ed on September 14, 2014 With the start of the fall term, many graduate students are entering the classroom as teaching assistants for the first time. While new TAs usually get a day or two of training from their universities, most of us discover pretty quickly that we…

This post was originally published by Inside Higher Ed on March 16, 2014 Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise its not better. – Avinash Kaushik Add “integration in the classroom” after social media in the above quote, and you get…

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