Tips Tricks and Productivity

What I’ve learned in 10 Years of Teaching College (And Why I Give My Students High Fives)

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It is hard to believe. But, I’ve just completed teaching at the university level for 10 academic years.

At the age of 24, I  began teaching as a graduate student in 2006 at Washington State University where I independently taught 2 classes a semester for 4 years. I had no idea what I was doing. I was barely older than the seniors. With a textbook in hand and the summer to prepare, I jumped right in.

As of this past Friday, I have completed 6 years of teaching as an assistant professor. All of that has been working with undergraduates.

Continue reading What I’ve learned in 10 Years of Teaching College (And Why I Give My Students High Fives) →

Classes, Classroom Activities and Exercises

Should Students Be Able to Fire Teammates in A Class Project? (Part 3 of 3)

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In the previous two posts in this series, I talked about steps I take to set teams up for success in group class projects.

The first post looked at group contracts. The second post looked at peer evaluations of one’s team.

In this final post, let’s look at the more dramatic tool that I use to set teams up for success in group class projects: The ability to fire teammates from a group.

Continue reading Should Students Be Able to Fire Teammates in A Class Project? (Part 3 of 3) →

Classes, Classroom Activities and Exercises

A Guide To Setting Up Classroom Groups for Success: Team Evaluations (Part 2 of 3)

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This is the second post in a 3-part series on how to set up teams to be successful. [If you haven’t read post 1 yet, I encourage you to read it first].

I started this series with a question:

Should Students Be Able to Fire Teammates in a Class Project?

Again, in my classes, the answer to that question is “yes.”

Continue reading A Guide To Setting Up Classroom Groups for Success: Team Evaluations (Part 2 of 3) →

Classes, Classroom Activities and Exercises

A Guide To Setting Up Classroom Groups for Success: Group Contracts (Part 1 of 3)

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Spoiler alert: The final blog post in this 3-part series about how to set up your class for success when working with groups will be titled:

Should Students Be Able to Fire Teammates in a Class Project?

In my classes, the answer is “yes.”

Continue reading A Guide To Setting Up Classroom Groups for Success: Group Contracts (Part 1 of 3) →

Book Reviews

Must Read Book: Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath (Book Review)

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There are books you want your students (and everyone else who works in communication!) to read, and there are books they must read.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip & Dan Heath falls into the must read category. Here’s why:

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Activities and Events

Study Explores Hootsuite University in the College Classroom

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Frequent readers of this blog know that I’ve been using Hootsuite University in my social media class for some time now.  But, how does using Hootsuite University impact social media learning?

Continue reading Study Explores Hootsuite University in the College Classroom →

Classes, Writing Across Platforms

What’s Changing? My Writing Across Platforms students will write for BuzzFeed and More in Spring 2016. Oh, And here’s the syllabus!

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Each semester, I like to highlight something that I’m doing different in one of my classes (for example, see last Fall’s What’s Changing post).

This semester, I’d like to highlight my Writing Across Platforms class (the syllabus is at the bottom of this post). I’ve been teaching this class every spring for the last few years. So, what’s changing?

Continue reading What’s Changing? My Writing Across Platforms students will write for BuzzFeed and More in Spring 2016. Oh, And here’s the syllabus! →

A Social Media Education Blog by Matthew J. Kushin, Ph.D.