Reflective Teaching Evolution

I was prepared. I was ready for almost any student argument. I had thoroughly thought through how I would "sell" ungrading to my Organic Chemistry II students. And then the first day happened. It was yet another reminder that we're never truly ready for new pedagogical implementations, no matter how ready we think we are. … Continue reading Ungrading: The First Day (Part 2) →

I find myself reminiscing on what an awesome experience #BCCE2018 was, even though I could not attend the conference due to health issues. My reflection on my BCCE 2018 experience begins with a dream that was fulfilled during the conference. I co-organized (with the incredible Glenn Hurst) a symposium jointly hosted by the Higher Education … Continue reading Reflecting on #BCCE2018: Our RSC/BCC Joint Symposium “Communicating Chemistry via Social Media” →

It began with a blog post and a fundamental dismantling of my assumptions, courtesy of Jesse Stommel: Just published a new piece about ungrading and other alternative approaches to assessment. I continue to be disturbed by how many otherwise productive pedagogical conversations get sidetracked by the too easily internalized ubiquity of grades. pic.twitter.com/IJHqtvjc5Z — Jesse … Continue reading Ungrading: A Series (Part 1) →

Yesterday morning I woke up to an email from the Digital Pedagogy Lab that announced the opening of the 2019 Digital Pedagogy Lab Fellows program: The Digital Pedagogy Lab (@DigPedLab) has its 2019 Fellows application available, folks. It’s due 1/10/19. Information about the Fellows program is here: https://t.co/qzLFSZkHp7 and you directly can apply here: https://t.co/emq2jlWyF3 … Continue reading Digital Pedagogy Lab 2019 Fellowship Application →

This morning, I finally got around to reading Bonnie Stewart's SlideShare from her Northwestern University talk: today i got to hang out at @NorthwesternU and talk experiential learning & its intersection with digital learning thanks to @matthewlaron & #TEACHxperts & it was way fun & MAN this is a pretty place. slides from the opening … Continue reading Experiential Learning & Experimental Teaching →

For the past few days, I've been trying to read a keynote I was anxiously awaiting, mostly because Robin had promised to break the mold of her previous keynotes: I am going to read a keynote address this week. I never do that, but I wanted to write something more nuanced and wrestle and craft … Continue reading A Reflection on Robin DeRosa’s #PaLa2018 Keynote →

Throughout my tenure as a professor, my teaching practice has become continually innovative, iterative, evolving, and messy, although messy in this sense means something more akin to the ideas underlying jazz music. “Jazz teaching” is less messy than “highly improvisory, depending for its appeal more on the skill, intuition, and experience of individual performers than … Continue reading Jazz Teaching and Open Pedagogy →

I rewatched Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "The Danger of a Single Story" this morning. (Ms. Adichie's awesome webpage is here: https://www.chimamanda.com/) I had watched this TED talk previously because it is, indeed, one of my sister Christy's favorite TED talks of all time. Christy believes in the power of stories, and it is part of our … Continue reading Revisiting “The Danger of a Single Story” for #UnboundEq →

I have been reading "An Urgency of Teachers" by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel. Excited to announce the release of a book I’ve been working on with @slamteacher for the last 2, 7, or 18 years, depending on how I count. It’s available now in paperback, Kindle, and open-access. All proceeds benefit the @HybridPed … Continue reading Wrestling with the Inner Pedagogue →

There's something delightful in thinking about how to design things in the exact opposite way they have been designed previously. In my design experiences, we've used Wrong Theory to "break" design, and I marvel at the ways Wrong Theory continues to infiltrate my life in new and unexpected ways. The newest is, of course, the … Continue reading My Alt-CV/Un-Introduction for #UnboundEq →