Category teaching
Potential discipline problems of major concern to teaching assistants and future college teachers
Students who talk with classmates during class. Students who fall asleep in class. Students who pack up several minutes before class is over. Students who argue about how you graded an assignment. Students who text message during class or are on their laptops checking their Facebook pages. All of these discipline problems are concerns that […]
Having an eye for finding storytelling photos
This is a big deadline week in Writing for Mass Communication. This is the deadline for the students’ reporting assignment on an environmental, health or science story. Students are scrambling to get those last remaining interviews and get their stories written. Another part of the assignment is for them to take a photo that will […]
“Can we lie?” — The followup discussion
“Can we lie?” was a question a student asked during a class discussion on interviewing a few weeks ago. Two issues helped me decide how to respond: First was timing. As often happens in teaching, we had a lot to “cover” in the class time. The students would be starting their own interviewing soon, and […]
Quill & Scroll faces challenges of economy and technology
Brightly colored leaves. Temperatures that required de-icing the plane. I knew I wasn’t in Gainesville this weekend. I was at the University of Iowa for the annual meeting of the Quill & Scroll board of trustees. Q&S, an international high school journalism honorary, strives to promote high caliber publication and individual performance. Much of our […]
College faculty job process — tips from those on the job search
One of my goals of Mass Commication Teaching is to help the grad students better prepare for being successful in applying for a faculty teaching position. We took another step toward that goal with doc students Jeff Neeley and Yan Yang as speakers. Both are hoping to have faculty positions for the 2010-2011 school year. […]
We were ready to try out Mediasite, but Mediasite wasn’t ready for us
My 6th-period lecture on Thursday was to be the debut of Mediasite for me. I had decided I was interested in trying out this new technology setup when I learned that Gannett Auditorium was one of the auditoriums at the University of Florida that was to be equipped with Mediasite. Mediasite was being installed in […]
Interviews provide students with information about H1N1 swine flu — for reporting assignment and for personal application
The guest speakers in yesterday’s class were to help the students get ready to write a story about the H1N1 flu. I provided the expert sources for the story — Dr. Guy Nicolette, chief of staff at the University of Florida’s Student Health Care Center (SHCC), and Paul Myers, assistant director of the Alachua County […]
University of Florida sells The Florida Flu Kit
The Florida Flu Kit is being sold on the University of Florida campus to encourage sick students to stay home — but to be prepared to deal with the flu. he kits were on sale outside the Student Health Care Center for $10. The kits also are on sale at the SHCC pharmacy. The kit […]
National core standards for English and math proposed for K-12
When I was a graduate student in Administration and Supervision in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky, one of my professors told of a recent trip he had taken to France where he had visited schools and met with national education officials. He was in the office of one of the top […]
When you teach a large lecture course, your students may be everywhere you are
I teach a course that has about 250 students each semester. That’s about 500 students a year. And they’re everywhere. Not just in the auditorium. I enjoy running into my current and former student on campus. With almost 50,000 students on campus, UF can be a big and impersonal place. So hearing, “Hi, Dr. Dodd” […]
Julie Dodd 