On Fridays We Wear Red

Today is the last day of the first week of the spring semester at Valdosta State University. Every Friday we wear red to show school spirit. I went ahead and just bought red glasses to make things easier!


This semester I *get to* teach two sections of an introductory educational psychology course, called Exploring Learning and Teaching, along with an online section of Educational Psychology for Teaching Adults. These are not new preps; in other words, I have taught these classes before and get to have fun with them.

This first week is just an introduction so I chose to try out this empathetic syllabi review exercise from the blog, Faculty Focus. In my face-to-face sections, I asked students to bring in their syllabi and critically review them for missing information, as well as mark important dates in their calendars (paper or electronic). This then facilitated a discussion about why some instructors may leave out due dates or points for each assignment. This is my attempt to make teaching transparent to a room full of future educators. The discussion then transitioned to study habits and goals, as well as time management for weeks with more than one exam, multiple assignments, etc.

An innovations to enhance the delivery of the content for this course is employing a bit of a flipped classroom. Last semester I discovered Crash Course Videos on Youtube and used many of them to facilitate my lectures. This semester I am assigning them as out-of-class activities and then leading a discussion before quizzing students on the content. My focus is on having students use the class time to apply the content, instead of simply passively watching the video with me. In total, they will watch 11 videos and take 11 quizzes, with the top 10 grades counting for 10% of their course grade. Here is a link to one of my favorite videos concerning the "controversy of intelligence."

For my online course this semester, I am attempting to make my own videos. The class is structured with eight modules covering several topics on adult learning. Each module currently includes a quiz on the textbook, additional readings and websites, a discussion board post with required replies, and a learning log in which students document their self-directed learning project. I am now creating a powerpoint for each module with narrations and animations to make the online class more like a face-to-face class. The mini-lectures are short, though - no more than ten minutes as I don't want to bore students. The process I use to make the lectures includes making the slides, writing out the script, and then recording the narration. Guess which step takes the longest? I am using the export function in PowerPoint to create the videos, which means I have to start over each time I make a mistake. Please comment if you have a ideas about better ways to make these mini-lectures. Thanks in advance.


Enough about teaching: all in all this week went smoothly considering both my husband and daughter were feeling under the weather. Luckily, he was able to take her to the doctor and she was cleared for daycare. Here is a picture of her at the doctor's office (still smiling after an hour of waiting). Thank goodness for childcare. What do you do when your child or pet is sick? Do you cancel class, get a sub, Skype in, or bring them with you? These are some of the fun decisions that #professormoms have to make more than they would like to! Wishing everyone out there a healthy MLK holiday weekend.