Tis the season for faculty complaints about grading. Not that I blame them. Grading is the absolute worst part of teaching---just ask any teacher. I myself was feeling incredibly unmotivated to review my students' midterm projects, and then I immediately felt guilty. After all, I am the one who sets the assignments. I am the … Continue reading Why Does Grading Feel So Hard?
Author: tawnyaazar
On Pointless Writing
I didn't know what to blog about this week until I was looking through my screenshots and found this legit gem: Screenshot of Miriam Posner's tweet reading: "Writing is so annoying when you have to have 'an argument' or at least 'something to say' and you can't just 'vibe.'" As you know if you've been … Continue reading On Pointless Writing
Academic Writing Month
Hello! I this blog post finds you well (*cringe emoji*) in spite of this week's election (if you are in VA especially). Little did I know that when I posted my "Rest" blog on October 4th that it would be the only post I'd make in the month of October. I rested over Fall Break, … Continue reading Academic Writing Month
Rest
Fall Break is almost here at my institution. For most of us this means a three day weekend. Because I teach on a Tues/Thurs schedule it means a four day weekend for me. My question is: do you rest on these occasions? Academics in particular, but also many of us I suspect, don't actually take … Continue reading Rest
Digital Inclusion Week Campaign
I'm replacing this Tuesday's tip post with an update on my community-engaged students' second major project: the Digital Inclusion Week Campaign (hosted by NDIA). If you read my "So You Want to Teach a Service Learning Course?" post, you know I've been teaching two CE sections this semester. I also wrote briefly about what my … Continue reading Digital Inclusion Week Campaign
Celebrate Your Wins
This will be a short post today because my hubby and I are heading out of town for the weekend in 15 minutes. Before we go, I wanted to encourage you all to find some way to celebrate your wins. This is rather common advice in productivity and academic circles, but it strikes me that … Continue reading Celebrate Your Wins
Teaching Tip Tuesday: Group Work
Ah group work. Every student's nemesis. A lot of teachers don't like it either because we know how much students hate it and because rarely is it less work for us in spite of having fewer projects overall to manage. What is it they say about hell being other people? And yet we assign group … Continue reading Teaching Tip Tuesday: Group Work
Organize Your Grant Writing
It took me longer than it should have to figure out how to plan for writing grants once I finished graduate school. Not that I hadn't had any experience with writing grant applications before, but my approach was very much by-the-seat-of-my-pants. I was lucky to think about them in time for the deadline. Lucky that … Continue reading Organize Your Grant Writing
Teaching Tip Tuesday: Changing Course Mid-Semester
While most of us aren't quite mid-semester yet, I'm already facing a decision to backtrack on a key component of my course design. I mentioned teaching CE courses in a pandemic was hard, right? We've all likely experienced some version of pivoting in the past 1.5 years thanks to said pandemic, but have you ever … Continue reading Teaching Tip Tuesday: Changing Course Mid-Semester
So You Want to Teach a Service Learning Course?
Sometimes I think I must have been out of my mind when I decided to teach two sections of a community-engaged course in a pandemic (this makes up only half of my 4 course load mind you). The coordination details feel endless at the moment. It is already the end of Week 4 and I … Continue reading So You Want to Teach a Service Learning Course?
Tawnya Azar 