Diana S. Barber, J.D.'s Key Takeaway: “I use numerous techniques to stay engaged with students, including intelligent agents that will automatically send email messages to students if they miss a quiz or assignment, as a reminder that I am available to assist and that their success is important to me.”
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Dr. Isabelle N. Monlouis: “Students need to learn how to fail forward. Learning to fail and learning from failure, with no loss of enthusiasm. Trying again, knowing this time, you are trying with the benefit of experience so you will be more successful. ... And we need to learn how to teach without penalizing ‘failure’ but instead recontextualizing it as gathering valuable information to make their next attempt more successful.”
Innovative College Teaching maintains its #1 ranking in Student & Teaching Mentoring and rose in another category: Pedagogy.
Diana S. Barber “I use numerous techniques to stay engaged with students, including intelligent agents that will automatically send email messages to students if they miss a quiz or assignment, as a reminder that I am available to assist and that their success is important to me.”
Jordan (Jody) Blanke “I like to teach by example. I think it is much easier to understand an idea if you can see it in action, rather than merely in the abstract. Quite often you can discuss the nuances of the topic by simply varying the facts of the example.”
Yelena Abalmazova Chan “Encourage students to explore all careers, classes, and topics that interest them. I really believe it’s a duty we have as instructors. I see some students tied to a major just because that’s what they chose based on pretty much no research or experience, and they clearly have no passion for it. There is nothing wrong with majoring in accounting but consider interning at a bakery if that’s something that piques their interest. Sometimes hearing that from an authority figure like a college professor is encouraging and gives students the permission to explore outside the box.”
Evaristo Fernando Doria “I am enthusiastic about expanding my efforts to create more cross-border interdisciplinary learning experiences. Such experiences not only prompt participants to critically analyze novel ideas and challenges but also encourage them to delve into the intricate intersections of various fields of study while developing their global mindset.”
L. Gregory (Greg) Henley “It's very important that I reach the students on their level. If I can get their attention, then I can teach them. Improving my teaching requires that I get constructive feedback to ensure that what I'm doing is working.”
Leila Lawlor “If you have chosen to teach, you have chosen to place students at the center of your professional universe. Tell them. They will appreciate knowing how much you want them to thrive, to enjoy your teaching, and to meet their academic and professional goals. As you get to know your students, they will surely appreciate your interest in their lives and goals.”
Laura E. Meyers “Unlearn. We need to deconstruct what we know and consider how we learned this and who it favors. Unlearning is one way to reduce bias and, in turn, harm. Unlearning can lead to allyship (and more) which is beneficial to our students (and us) in ‘becoming’ educators. Aren’t we always growing and becoming?”
Isabelle N. Monlouis “Students need to learn how to fail forward. Learning to fail and learning from failure, with no loss of enthusiasm. Trying again, knowing this time, you are trying with the benefit of experience so you will be more successful. ... And we need to learn how to teach without penalizing ‘failure’ but instead recontextualizing it as gathering valuable information to make their next attempt more successful.”
Benita Harris Moore “If you are offered a new responsibility that is not ‘pure teaching,’ be open to it. The new opportunity may or may not take you from the classroom but may open doors that are different than you could have imagined. Don’t be afraid to accept these opportunities. My 40+ years in education was enhanced because I said “yes” to opportunities that were presented to me, even if the new challenge was outside of my comfort zone.”
Carol Springer Sargent “My most popular technique to this day was the result of a learning experiment with a struggling student. … I asked him if he would just give me the commercial breaks during Law and Order. (his favorite show) He agreed. I created three-minute coaching videos that taught a core idea in each video. I focused on one foundational idea that, if missed, would make the rest of the chapter impossible. The ‘just three minutes’ was a wild success.”
John P. Thielman “I make sure not to recycle my exams and that they are always up to date on the current textbook and current law. The trick I use to discipline myself to do this every semester is to use the current students’ names in the test questions. This keeps the tests current, and the students get a thrill out of seeing their names on an exam question.”
Paul Ulrich “Encouragement of students is essential to my approach. I tell my students that I have greater confidence in their potential than they have in themselves, and I call them to rise to the challenge. For non-science students, I actively break down the lie that they are ‘just not good at science’.”
Marta Szabo White “Be OPEN – Organized, Passionate, Energetic, Nice. I honestly knew these characteristics to be important even when I first started. Now I know how truly pivotal they are.”
And finally, from the author Make your classes interactive with activities solving real world problems. Encourage students to be confident in their fact-based opinions and continually challenge or “teach the teacher.” For example, in my Internet Law class, students know more than me about emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, crypto, and NFTs. While I can teach the legal limits of technology, it is the energy of students which carries this class, as they educate me. This shift in roles grew my skills as a college professor. Ultimately, I want my classes to not only be student-centered but life-centered as well.
Excerpt, Innovative College Teaching book
You can listen to it on Spotify (23 min.)
Adaptability, enthusiasm, and a desire to constantly
improve one's methods are the hallmarks of an effective teacher. With
years of experience teaching law and ethics in business school, Perry
Binder brings a comprehensive teaching guide to assist those in the
teaching profession in finding creative ways to nurture and refine young
minds and help them reach their fullest potential. In Innovative
College Teaching, Binder shows readers how to make the first day of a
class memorable, engage with students and make a lasting impression,
improve one's teaching techniques and skills, prepare students for
multiple choice and essay exams, and much more. Binder also emphasizes
the importance of adopting new-age technology in classes, such as using
AI to create interactive modules and write prompts, and integrating
social media and other internet platforms into the curriculum to make
the learning process dynamic.
It doesn't matter whether you're taking the first steps in your teaching
career or are already an experienced veteran. Innovative College
Teaching is a must-read for anyone who loves to teach regardless of
their chosen subject/department. While the first part of the book
focuses on Perry Binder's own teaching process that he has developed
over the years in this profession, the second part contains interviews
with different professors from the fields of law, science, arts,
business, and technology, as they answer and offer their expert advice
on five specific topics related to teaching and education. They talk
about their inspiration to teach, their teaching methods, and how they
continue to improve on their teaching techniques. This is an educational
book for teachers to hone their skills further. I found it very
informative, relevant, and motivational, and I highly recommend it.
Reviewed by Pikasho Deka for Readers' Favorite
What Happened to Steve?
My classroom syllabus says: No legal advice questions! But I still get calls from students, sometimes when it’s too late – after they have a court date.
You know how you get one phone call before you get hauled off to prison? Well, I was in the office and got this call from “Steve:”
“Help me Perry they’re taking me awaaaaaaaaaaaaay!”
I’m like:
“Where the heck are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu?”
“The DeKalb Detention Center.”
Yeah. So I had a night class. After my night class at 10 o’clock at night, I’m on the highway getting off at Memorial Drive and there’s a McDonald’s, a Dunkin’, and a huge building with people banging on the window screaming:
“Get me outta here!”
And I walk in there with my squeaky voice:
“Uh, I’m here to see my student.”
And they’re like:
“You’re just a lowly prof; get outta here.”
So I fumble around in my wallet looking for an attorney Bar card, and I find a CVS card, a Costco card, a ticket to the Vatican, and finally I find the right one.
They put me in this bright white room with a huge window overlooking the jail. And by the way, it’s a very clean facility if you’re looking to visit or even stay for a bit. So anyway they bring out my student, on the other side of the glass, in his orange jumpsuit and handcuffed and he is sitting there and he is really, really looking distraught.
Now remember I told you my experience is as a commercial litigator. I never did criminal law so my knowledge of that is from TV. So I drew off that experience, and I put my hand up on the glass with my fingers spread apart.
And Steve’s looking at it. And looking at it. And I don’t move an inch.
And then he put his hand on mine and smiled!
The TV hand thing works!
Why do I tell students this story on the first day of class?
Here’s what my student did. He was driving excessively, over 100 miles an hour. He got a ticket for reckless driving, which is a misdemeanor. Here was his real crime: Being young, goofy, and showing up to court without an attorney. The judge threw him in jail for ten days. If he had an attorney, what likely would’ve happened was some kind of plea deal with no prison time.
So now here he is sitting in jail and I had to get him a criminal attorney that he’d have to pay a whole lot more than if he had one in the first place. That attorney somehow got him out in three days.
In this class, we discuss when you need an attorney and when you do not need an attorney. Before a problem gets really big, that’s when you need an attorney. And we will talk about a lot of those scenarios. We’ll talk about you as a businessperson, but we’ll also talk about your rights as an individual, and how to apply the law to each situation.
And be careful, since the judge has a lot of power. Always remember: It’s good to be the judge.
What Happened to Betty?
Another time, my student, “Betty,” was arrested after attending a Tone Lōc concert. She unknowingly wound up as a passenger in an allegedly stolen vehicle. The next morning, I received a phone call from Betty’s grandmother asking me to bail out her granddaughter.
After getting the cash from grandma, I went to the county jail where the guard took me to a dim and dank holding cell. I was looking all lawyerly with my blue pinstripe suit and sharp leather shoes and briefcase. Another guard escorted Betty into the cell. Her hair was disheveled, a stiletto was missing from one shoe, and she looked frazzled. I said:
“Betty, we have two options, I could get you out of here now, or” – as I reached into my briefcase – “right now, you can take the Midterm Exam that you missed last week.”
Betty’s reaction?
“Get me the frick out of here!”
Ninety minutes after the exam commenced, Betty was set free. I’ll let you judge for yourself how true the prior sentence is.
Always remember: It’s good to be the prof.
Takeaway
In the above anecdotes, I am not suggesting that college professors show up to jail at 10:00 p.m. or at a grandma’s home in the wee hours of the morning. Rather, my point is to let students know that they can contact you in an emergency to guide them to appropriate help and resources.
Listen to this Story
The Steve story can be viewed on my YouTube channel @Perry_Binder. (3-minute clip)
Excerpt, Innovative College Teaching (Chapter 1 Appendix)
Short YouTube Clips on... Shy Student & Book Giveaway / College is a Marathon Story / Welcome to College Moment / Social...
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