** With apologies to Harry Potter fans for butchering the line. I spend about six hours a week staring at a video feed of myself whilst holding virtual office hours (which I call drop-in student hours, because not everyone knows what “office hours” means). During that time, I typically have very few students actually swing …
This morning, I was driving over to my local drive-thru to get a little something to eat. It was a foggy morning in Monteagle — not at all unusual up here in our mountain hamlet. At one point, I was approaching a popular intersection and a pickup truck was looking like he was going to …
In Atlanta for an Enneagram workshop on the instincts (sidebar: FASCINATING STUFF), I took myself to Mirko Pasta for dinner tonight. As is often the case when I eat alone, I pulled out some reading material — first, some student response papers that need feedback, then (once my food arrived) a novel on my Kindle …
Too often, I feel like I come to my Facebook community, my blog, or my podcast with thoughts I’ve mulled over at length and tied up into a neat package for public consumption. But today? I just don’t have that. Instead, meet the messy middle. I had a rough week… one marked with little pockets …
Background: Last week, I gave a short introduction to Bryan Stevenson’s book Just Mercy for a group of new honors students at Chattanooga State (where I teach), and the remarks I gave really hit their mark uncommonly well. So, I thought I’d share. Although I don’t talk from a script, I captured my remarks soon after they …
While classes don’t start for another two weeks, tomorrow is the day all faculty at Chattanooga State Community College report back to work. That makes tonight the last night of my second summer… and tomorrow the first day of my third year at Chatt State. WOOO! The dawn of a new school year makes me thing …
To talk to me about the work I do — teaching, advising, coaching — is to understand in fairly short order that I’m a person who genuinely, full-throatedly loves her work. People say things to me like, “you just glow” or “you REALLY LOVE your job!” … often with a mixture of awe and apprehension in …
I’m currently at an academic conference, the sort of event I once adored and increasingly find to be somewhere in the neighborhood of insufferable. To understand why, I share this sentiment expressed by a researcher on a panel I just left, sporting an unattractive scowl: “Sad to say, I’m increasingly convinced that the American public …
When I realized last January that I’ve never blogged my favorite books of the year, I was horrified, and I immediately put together a few recommendations from 2016. Thankfully, this inspired me to keep much better track of what I read in 2017, and I’m happy to share my favorite reads of last year. I …
At a political science conference last January, another professor and I started talking about civic education and civic engagement among our students. This is something I’ve read about a bit, but it’s not something I’ve honestly made all that much of an effort to incorporate into my classes before. I’d trace the lack of effort …
