Posts related to the philosophy of teaching
I’ve just returned from the annual assessment conference, held by Texas A&M University. One of the themes that was repeated by many speakers was strategies to deal with faculty resistant to assessing general education competencies. Another was the difficult task of…
It’s the season for local athletes to sign letters to commit to teams at the next level, and I find it heartwarming when these young people acknowledge the impact of their coaches and other mentors. They realize that their opportunity…
I’m feeling kind of unsettled this month. After taking a break from blogging over the month-long year-end break, I’m finding it difficult to kick-start myself. In preparing this post, I looked back at my resolutions – and I want to assure…
The HAPS Histology challenge, a fantastic benefit of HAPS membership, was a the subject in an article on page 23 of the HAPS-EDucator’s Winter 2015 edition. The abstract of the article states: (The Histology Challenge) presents actual patient cases, in the form of photomicrographs of biopsy…
Okay, it’s that time in the semester when I have to force myself to focus on the positive – not on the desperate pleas for just half a point, or the snarky comments that I don’t know how to teach.…
I attended the National Association of Biology Teachers last week (my excuse for not posting last Wednesday) in Cleveland. In addition to my first experience with “lake effect snow,” and a reception at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame…
In one of my earlier lives, I was a research associate for a USDA scientist in Auburn, Alabama. At the time, my husband was a graduate student in the Fisheries Department at Auburn University. I had been teaching physiology to…
I listened to a webinar today, hosted by Instructure Canvas. My college uses Canvas as our LMS (learning management system), so whenever they have a new initiative, I pay attention. This time, they were publicizing “Canvas Commons,” which will give…
Tens of thousands of students take Anatomy and Physiology courses every year, usually as preparation for a career in health. A&P instructors touch the lives of all of these students, and HAPS gives those instructors guidance on dealing with some…
As I continue my exploration of online repositories, I get recommendations from other HAPS members. For example, Hiranya Roychowdhury, co-chair of the Curriculum and Instruction committee, made me aware of the University of Wisconsin learning object repository at A quick…