To My Professor: Student Voices for Great College Teaching - Softcover

Michigan State School Of Journalism

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1942011490 ISBN 13: 9781942011491

Publisher: Read the Spirit Books, 2016

Synopsis

"To My Professor: Student Voices for Great College Teaching" begins with remarks by students about their professors. They tend not to be the kind of remarks that professors usually hear, and some are harsh. Others are full of gratitude for teachers who inspire and motivate. The "To My Professor" statements are really just starting points that lead to advice from master teachers. Teaching college is difficult and this book has some potential solutions. More than 50 chapters cover situations including expectations, communication, technology, race, gender and religion, mental and physical health.

CONTENTS 

1. Structures & syllabi
The syllabus: road map for a smooth experience
Don't serve lessons after their freshness dates
Being available for students: Making office hours count
Mutual civility means knowing and respecting your audience
Going beyond grades to feedback and growth
Student safety matters on and off campus

2. Engaging everyone
Getting the whole class involved
Loafers and lax rules give group work a bad reputation
There is an arms race and many shades of gray in academic fraud 3. Out of bounds
Getting names right: It's personal
Profane professors: Tactical or tacky? 
A professor walks into a classroom: Humor 101
College can be a lonely place for conservatives
Remarks about appearances are more than skin deep

4. Technology
Email etiquette starts with good ground rules
PowerPoint: weapon of class destruction
Managing the demons of digital distraction 
Online classes: love/hate relationship

5. Life styles, life stages
There is a first generation for everything 
Check-ins help transfer students shake freshman feelings
Invisible population: How to help student-parents keep up
Veterans transitioning to a new theater of operation on campus
For older students, college is a stage, not an age
Commuter students in the classroom         
Getting athletes to bring their A-game to academics 

6. Health and wellness
The Americans with Disabilities Act
Helping students' mental health and well-being
Profs can help with attention and executive functioning
Autism spectrum issues are different but can be helped
Food allergies, an overlooked health hazard
How instructors support visually impaired students
For hard-of-hearing students, simple changes make learning easier
You can't always see something is wrong just by looking
Unreported disabilities: How to help while respecting privacy

7. Racial inclusion
What to do when something breaks out in the classroom
#BlackOnCampus is about what goes on inside classrooms, too
Teaching the growing population of Latino students
Beyond face value: The diversity and depth of Asian Americans
Native Americans: Dealing with cultural misunderstandings
Ahead of the curve: Teaching toward more varied diversity
Assumptions about identity are no substitute for knowing

8. Religious inclusion
Religious holiday requests require flexibility, discernment
Holidays that university calendars might not include
'I hope you're not hiding any guns under your headscarf today'
Students singled out as Jewish, even when they're not
Campus Christians can find their beliefs challenged

9. International
Making international students feel at home away from home
For international instructors, bridging languages is a process
For those new to the language, English can be a sentence  

10. Gender and identity
Women lead men in numbers but still trail in power
Breaking down the walls of career gender stereotypes
Breaking the binary: Seeing sexuality as a spectrum 
Transitioning on campus: finding and redefining identity

11. Finances
Hardly working or working too hard? College debt weighs more than ever 
Texts and supplemental materials can be expensive seem superfluous 

About this title

About the Author

Project editor Joe Grimm joined the Michigan State University School of Journalism as visiting editor in residence in 2008. Prior to that, he spent 32 years at Detroit-area newspapers, most of them as the recruiting and staff development editor for the Detroit Free Press. In that role, he interviewed students on dozens of campuses. Throughout his newspaper career, he was an adjunct instructor at Oakland University. He wishes to thank the thousands of students who have made his teaching and journalism careers fulfilling.

From the Back Cover

In "To My Professor: Student Voices for Great College Teaching," students tell us what they really think. They say and write what they seldom tell professors directly, giving those at the front of the classroom a rare glimpse into the minds of those in the back. The book includes statements, notes and social media comments by students describing experiences wonderful and painful, uplifting and unbelievable.

You will hear from students who live at the margins, transfer students, students with invisible challenges and student veterans. Some feel excluded, isolated or misunderstood. Then, you will find strategies and resources for better college instruction in more than 50 situations. They include teaching a growing variety of students, being flexible and fair, recovering from mistakes, dealing with racial tensions and using humor.

Much of what teaching assistants, adjunct instructors and tenured professors know is learned and tested on the job. It comes from classrooms, faculty seminars or other teachers and mentors. Most teaching literature benefits students in the end, but this book puts the student perspective at the beginning. It is written by a Michigan State University journalism class.

Learn what students and master educators say about classroom management and the challenges of communication, inclusion, grading, student health and safety, technology and support.

Edition details

• Publisher: Read the Spirit Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1942011490
• ISBN 13: 9781942011491
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 230
• Editor: Grimm Author Reviewer Series Editor Joe