Teaching

Educational (R)evolution: My Journey

Posted by admin on May 18, 2021

Fethiye Ozis, PhD, PE
Senior Lecturer
Civil Eng, Con. Mng., Env. Engineering
Teaching Academy Member

I graduated as an engineer from an education system where students directed all attention toward the teacher, and all I needed to do was just sit and listen. I have never experienced active learning in the classroom. In honesty, it took a long time for me to enjoy learning. Learning was a struggle. I had to spend hours to review the topics we covered in… Read more

A Call for Mostly In-Person, but being Flexible Isn’t the Worst Thing in the World

Posted by admin on April 1, 2021

Nicole Walker
Professor of English
President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow

 

Admittedly, we’ve been asked to be flexible a lot this past year. Faculty have taken on additional courses, some were laid off, then, some were thankfully rehired, but often with higher workloads. Those faculty will probably never feel secure in their jobs again. We’ve given up sabbaticals. Our salaries were cut, although those cuts were, thankfully, restored. If resilience was the theme word for 2020, then I hope the theme word… Read more

Being Kind to Yourself in a Time of Uncertainty

Posted by admin on October 8, 2020

Pamela Stephens, Professor of Art Education and President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow

As the global Covid-19 pandemic forced many of us to teach remotely, art educators willingly took action to provide exceptional learning experiences for their K-12 and post-secondary students. In a completely unplanned teaching and learning environment, art teachers quickly switched from traditional face-to-face classroom instruction to unfamiliar remote educational practices; practices that were largely unfamiliar to many. This abrupt pedagogical shift brought with it a variety of struggles.

Navigating mostly… Read more

Preview of Teaching Day – January 9, 2020

Posted by admin on December 19, 2019

Monica Lininger, PhD, LAT, ATC

Associate Professor, Physical Therapy and Athletic Training
Teaching Academy Member

When we as faculty prepare for our courses, we start with the methods needed to transmit the content to the learner. What do we want the students to know by the end of the course? Whereas for our students, this might be the initial exposure to the content. We need to understand that our typical students have played nearly 10,000 hours of video games before they… Read more

The Compassionate University

Posted by admin on November 26, 2019

Chrissina Burke, Senior Lecturer, Anthropology

Dawn Hawley, Professor, Geography, Planning, and Recreation

We know that life is stressful, especially given the number of how-to articles to help us “destress” or “meditate mindfully” or “build work-life balance” in a basic Google search. Even considering our increasingly stressful and overbooked lives, why do we continue to give assignments our students call “busy work?” Why are we expecting our colleagues to respond to emails quickly? What aspects of our lives are causing us to… Read more

Truth is More Engaging than Fiction:  The Power of Relevance

Posted by admin on October 9, 2019

Michael T. Lebec PT, Ph.D., is a Professor for the Department of Physical Therapy & Athletic Training, NAU Mountain Campus.

As an established professor teaching in the NAU Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Program, I have positioned myself so I am able to teach courses that are mainly my choosing.  However, this was not the case when I was a junior faculty member.  My initial teaching load included multiple courses in which the senior faculty were not highly interested.  In part,… Read more