by Lauren Arend, Assistant Professor, Education On the morning of Monday, October 13, the day the SLU campus woke to protestors and activists setting up camp at the clock tower, I was busy preparing for my School and Community class for preservice teachers. As has happened often over the two semesters I have taught this course,… Continue reading Ferguson at the Clock Tower: When community-based inquiry comes to campus
Category: Teaching Today’s Students
“Metanoia” in PhD Mentoring
by Kenneth L. Parker, Steber Professor in Theological Studies, Department of Theological Studies Metanoia is a transliteration of the Greek word, μετάνοια, and means “change of mind, repentance, regret.” While the Greek word means far more than the English terms “repentance” or “regret” can convey, the expression “change of mind” is too vague to carry the force of… Continue reading “Metanoia” in PhD Mentoring
Student Engagement Technique: Liven Up Class Discussions with the IF-AT Form
By Elizabeth Sweeny Block, Assistant Professor, Department of Theological Studies Have you ever posed a question to your students only to be met with blank stares and silence? Have you wondered how you could better facilitate discussion in class? Have you wished that you could motivate your students to participate in class conversations? The IF-AT… Continue reading Student Engagement Technique: Liven Up Class Discussions with the IF-AT Form
Students’ Perspectives on the Meaning of Course Relevance
by Kelly McEnerny, Graduate Assistant, Reinert Center Imagine attending a course that seemed not to relate to your goals and showed little compatibility with your interests. For anyone who can remember furtively glancing at the clock in the back of the classroom, this exercise should be easy. Your experience would likely have involved some lack… Continue reading Students’ Perspectives on the Meaning of Course Relevance
Power Over or Power To?
Has the balance of power changed in classrooms full of millennial students? Jennifer Waldeck, in a short article in The Teaching Professor*, “Reflections on Teacher Power in the Contemporary Classroom,” argues that current student behaviors challenge “traditional assumptions” about the power teachers have to influence students. She lists conventional ways of influencing students: Using “rewards”… Continue reading Power Over or Power To?
What’s on our minds: How current events can help inform our approach to teaching and serving students
by Chris Grabau, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center With the recent events in Ferguson, many educators have been looking to find useful resources to help teach about race, racism, inequality, and justice. In response, Marcia Chatelain, a historian of African-American life and culture at Georgetown University, created the Twitter hashtag, #Fergusonsyllabus. Since the hashtag's creation, there… Continue reading What’s on our minds: How current events can help inform our approach to teaching and serving students
Channeling Student Motivation
by Elisabeth Hedrick-Moser, Graduate Assistant, Reinert Center Student motivation can be an elusive creature. Many of us have come up with the perfect lesson plan to convey the most exciting subject matter that our discipline offers…only to look out upon a sea of lifeless faces. Yet, when we step out into the sunshine and see… Continue reading Channeling Student Motivation
Context Matters: Understanding Today’s Students and the Implications for Teaching
If we kept a running total of words we use in the Reinert Center, “context” would without a doubt be near the top of the list. It appears early in conversations with the teachers we work with, through questions such as: “So tell me about your course. Who are your students? What can they typically… Continue reading Context Matters: Understanding Today’s Students and the Implications for Teaching
Beginning with Accessibility
by Jerod Quinn, Instructional Developer, Reinert Center I had a paradigm shifting experience a couple of years ago. I dabble in web development and have built a number of websites over the years for friends, companies, and for my own projects. My friend Jay asked if I could build a basic website where he could… Continue reading Beginning with Accessibility
Teaching without Talking
by Gina Merys, Assistant Director, Reinert Center In a recent article, "The Silent Professor," Joseph Finckel reflects on his experience teaching on a day when he had lost his voice. Of course, the experience of teaching without a voice is not a singular one; most of us have dozens of examples of teaching while ill… Continue reading Teaching without Talking
The Notebook 