Do you use online quizzes? Have you thought about using them but are worried about academic integrity issues. Students do take the quizzes out of class and on their own time. Given rampant cheating in college courses already, why put students in such a tempting situation?

I am cleaning up my office after the book. I think a good half of my teaching-learning books (and I have a lots) are off the shelves and on the floor, desk, and table. Putting them away is a chance to look again at old favorites and find things missed or not remembered.

I was re-reading Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach last week. What a classic! If you haven’t ver read this book, it does deserve to be on that must-do-before-I-die list. It is such a good book. Actually it is so good, I ended up being just a bit depressed. This weekend I finished the book I’ve been working on for the last three years and it is so not as good as the Courage to Teach. Perhaps I will be able to write something that significant in my next life.

“What we do in the same class can be soon forgotten by one student, yet have a profound impact on another.” (p.2) Joel Foisy, a math professor, says this might well be his “biggest” teaching lesson. He has another insight along the same lines: “Any given class is really many different classes—one for each student involved.” (p. 8)

Student evaluation results from last semester usually get distributed about this time at a lot of places. I thought a few reminders might be in order. This particular set is brought to you courtesy of the IDEA Center (Individual Development and Assessment Center) at Kansas State University. This center is one of the largest providers of a national student rating system. They have been in business for years and are highly respected by both ratings researchers and practitioners.

With 10 inches of snow on top of two inches of ice, there wasn’t much to do besides read this past week, and I got around to several books that have been waiting on my shelf. One of those books is a collection of essays, all written by faculty at SUNY (State University of New York) Postdam.

In the February issue of The Teaching Professor I highlight some very practical research that looked at student responses to written feedback provided on their papers. Most of us tend to be a bit cynical about this. We see students quickly turning to the page with the grade and then shoving the paper into the backpack. But the findings of these two studies indicate that this isn’t how most students respond. The studies give students more credit than we tend to. But there was something else from one of the studies I wanted to share here.

Recently I read this advice to new faculty: “Just be yourself.” Like a lot of advice, this isn’t bad; it’s just not very good. Every person has many selves, so which one of the many should you be in the classroom? Moreover, the classroom teacher is under some obligation to meet professional standards. You can’t act in the classroom like you do at home in your PJs.

And so begins another semester or term. Being in a job with so many endings and beginnings has its advantages. Sometimes I think we take them for granted and might need a gentle reminder of the promises they hold.