Ask-Dr-Kirk

Buon Viaggio

I'm putting this blog on hold for a few weeks while Jim and I are traveling throughout Italy. A più tardi!

How Not To Be Creative

J. Eddie Smith, IV, writes about creativity in a recent blogpost and gives great advice on what NOT to do if you want to be a creative writer, company, or employee. You'll see a theme here in the following examples:

If you don’t want to be a creative writer, you should try your best to

• Write things that have already been written.
• Tell as many people as possible about what you’re writing before you’re done.

If you don’t want to be a creative product company, you should try your best to

• Make products that have already been made.
• Tell as many people as possible about what you’re making before you’re ready to ship it.

If you don’t want to be a better cubicle worker, you should try your best to

• Be like everyone else, meet your boss’s expectations, and always ask permission.
• Announce ideas as soon as they pop into your head.

Thus, if you want to be creative, do something different and don't tell anyone about it until you're done!

 

How To Be Perceived As An Excellent Teacher?

Ever wonder what affects students' perceptions of your teaching?  Dr. Arletta Bauman Knight states that there are three dimensions for establishing your credibility in the classroom: Competence, Trustworthiness, and Dynamism.

Competence is the perceived "expertness" of the speaker, i.e., their knowledge of the subject matter. Competence also involves teaching the course in a way that will truly be of value to the student.

Descriptive adjectives include: informed, experienced, skilled, qualified.

Trustworthiness refers to whether or not the teacher has the best interest of the student at heart. A teacher who is trustworthy is one who promotes positive teacher/student relationships. For example, students are made to feel welcome as participants in the class, the teacher sincerely cares about the welfare of the students, and the teacher is sensitive to gender and cultural issues in the classroom.

Descriptive adjectives include: safe, just, kind, friendly, honest

Dynamism focuses on the teacher's "passion" for teaching and his/her enthusiasm in the classroom. It also involves the presentation skills of the speaker. That is, a dynamic teacher is one who is more likely to be confident, articulate, and animated. He or she is one who "changes the pace" in a single class by using a variety of teaching strategies.

Descriptive adjectives include: emphatic, bold, active, energetic.

 

What's On Your Summer Reading List?

ProfHacker at the Chronicle of Higher Education has a great list of book suggestions for summer reading.

Here are some more great books that I've enjoyed this past year.

A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Room, by Emma Donoghue

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close by Jonathan Safran Foer (I thought the book was better than the movie!)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack by Rebecca Skloot

 

What's the best book you've read this past year?

Quote Of The Day

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'...Dan Rather

Free ebooks On Blogging

Interested in guest blogging or want to know how to get more traffic to your own blog? Ann Smarty shares this list of free ebooks on blogging that she states are well worth your time.

 

How To Organize Your Work So You Can Have a Weekend!

Liz Strauss shares her best way to end a Friday checklist. This includes ending your Friday work day an half-hour earlier so you can organize your desk and plan what needs to be done first on Monday. She then advises that we "consider the week closed, leave the office at work, give your brain a break, and have a weekend."

That Liz is pretty smart...

Quote Of The Day

Best reason for students to acquire a rich vocabulary: to have multiple synonyms ready when they start to forget words in middle age…Alfie Kohn

 

Great Commencement Speeches!

For the past few weeks, both high schools and universities have been hosting their graduation ceremonies (I went to two of these in May).  Unfortunately most of the speeches were essentially the same and not really that interesting. However, I found this link to five great commencement speeches to be very inspirational.