This post is for my new teachers or teachers newly committed to centering black women’s voices in their classroom. As with all things, let me start by telling you a little story. The day after Donald Trump was elected to lead my country due to our outdated, racist electoral college Read more…
Hi Friends, Yesterday I offered to record video lectures related to my areas of expertise for y’all to use in your newly online classes. Due to the volume of response I’ve decided to record a series of videos and put them on a soon-to-be-created abd2phd YouTube channel. Each lecture will Read more…
For the month of January, and in celebration of our two year and 100th post anniversaries, we’re revisiting some of our most viewed columns. For all of you who are teaching this semester, here’s our post about the best (imho) way to teach privilege, particularly at predominately white institutions. Enjoy! Read more…
Hey you! Yeah, you! You made it to the end of the term! Congratulations!!! I am so incredibly proud of you for all the hard work you’ve put in to make it to this point. No, I’m not proud of your productivity (but whatever you managed to do is awesome, Read more…
Earlier this week we addressed the topic of expertise. Specifically, that you have it. Your expertise doesn’t require you to know everything in the class you are teaching. Rather, your expertise is in your knowledge of how to learn. Many new teachers feel an immense amount of stress around needing Read more…
My MA program, like many humanities PhD programs, came with a teaching assistantship. I taught two sections of public speaking and, in return, the university waived my tuition and paid me a (very) small stipend. I was nervous about my first teaching assignment for several reasons. Like many students entering Read more…
Don’t be afraid to make your students work. I know, it sounds obvious, but I often meet graduate student instructors who feel comfortable testing their students but not making them work. Your students are one of your best resources in teaching and you should use them so that your job Read more…
In education, as in anything else, there are two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation is, like it sounds, motivation that is external in the form of rewards of some sort. In teaching, rewards correlate to an increase in grade in some way. Intrinsic motivation is, like it Read more…
It seems like a simple question: we all know what it means to learn. We’ve been learning our whole lives and, if you got into grad school, you’re probably pretty good at learning. Sometimes, when we are good at something, we don’t think much about how that thing works. Addressing Read more…
You are working too hard on teaching and you need to stop. I know you think you’re not doing enough, but I promise you that you are doing too much. How do I know this? Because all new professors do too much. (And, yes, if you have yet to defend Read more…