Dragons are real. Characteristics of dragons: We rarely notice them until they awaken. They rarely take notice of the world around them until they see a threat to their hoard. Because they sit and brood, they believe themselves to be cunning. They will defend their […]
Category: Launch Your Career
We are Human Beings
Have you ever felt as though you were talking past someone, rather than with them? Our culture tends to see roles, not people. People tend to see Professor Ferrar, not Tony. Tony is a guy in his early thirties who has a wife and a […]
Dear Student, Do the Work
Yesterday I shared three keys for designing effective homework: Interest: students need to find the material itself interesting Relevance: students need to believe that the activity will cause them to learn the material Appropriate Level of Challenge: students need to be stretched, not broken When […]
Dear Prof., Your Homework Stinks
Homework. Many students hate it. Many have only one goal: get it done as quickly as possible because they’d rather do anything else with their time. And I don’t blame them. Today, for the first time in over a year, I am writing critically about […]
Homework: Learning Tool or Academic Arms Race?
During my freshmen and sophomore years, I had one goal for my homework: get it done in as short a time as possible. Why? Because I would rather be doing anything else! I know I am not alone. I meet very few students who are […]
Writer’s Block
That’s what I have today. Not because I don’t have anything to say, but because I have so many half-baked ideas floating around in my head. But that much is a daily reality for me. For some reason, today, I am struggling with latching on […]
Remember Boredom
When was the last time you were bored? I don’t mean “playing on your phone instead of paying attention,” I mean B-O-R-E-D. Not very long ago, the world forced boredom on us regularly. Now, I can’t remember the last time I was in a situation […]
Hideout
What’s the most important thing you do? If you had to had to pick just one activity, what would it be? I have an answer for each of the major roles I play (husband, dad, professor…) The most important thing I do as a professor […]
Let’s Trade
Yesterday I talked about “unlearning the value of hard work.” The punchline was that we overload ourselves with “good” things to do, when we should be more picky and wait for the “great” ones. Hard work is good, when it gets you somewhere. Otherwise, it’s […]
Unlearning the Value of Hard Work
The hardest class I took in college was graduate-level Thermodynamics. Thankfully, it was hard for all of the right reasons: highly intellectual, deeply nuanced math, complex subject matter. These days, many courses are made artificially difficult by ineffective teaching. Not this one. Dr. VonSpakovsky was […]
