Yesterday I urged that you alter your perspective by asking WW*D? The asterisk can be replaced by whatever you wish. A professor, a parent, a mentor, a younger sibling, a friend, an enemy, a character from a video game — whatever. The purpose, of course, is to get you thinking differently about the task at hand. How can you look at this from another angle, in another light, at a different magnification, and so on. It turns out that by looking from another angle you often find another way of doing things, or another way of learning, or understanding, or … Continue reading →

At the end of each semester students are typically asked to fill out some form of evaluation of the instructor and the course itself. This is an important part of being a student (in my estimation) as it is a chance for students to anonymously (and hopefully honestly) critique their instructors and classes. This past semester I impressed this truth onto my students before their evaluations. No, I didn’t try to sway them to evaluate me favorably. I told them that this is what keeps teachers you like teaching and what makes bad classes tolerable and good classes great. They … Continue reading →