*** Hi there! I feel as if I’ve been away from my blog for a while, and I actually have, although it’s been entirely unintentional. Today, I wanted to explain why, especially as I wanted to write about the past week, which has been somewhat momentous for my family. My son started his freshman year…
Tag: university
Coping With Your First Child Heading Off To College: A Mother’s Lament
*** This concept of a child going away to study at a university shouldn’t really phase me at all, right? I’m a college professor. I have been for years now. I’m the one smiling at other parents during Open Houses as I say all the right things to them about how their student will love…
The Case for Teaching: Inspiring Students AND Inspired by Students
It’s Sunday morning, and I’m sitting on my porch writing this post and looking at this glorious day sipping my cup of coffee from my Yeti (which keeps it INCREDIBLY hot, let me just say). In a little while, my daughter and I will head to my parents’ house and sit by their pool and…
8 Things Teachers Enjoy During Summer Break
*** Yesterday, students at Stevenson University celebrated their graduation at our ceremonies in Maryland. As a professor in the department of Business Communication, I was thrilled to see our graduates walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. They worked hard the last four years, and it paid off. As for my colleagues and me,…
Procrastination Doesn’t Pay
* As a college educator, I can certainly tell you with certainty that procrastination doesn’t pay. I see it every day—sometimes getting started on the task is actually more difficult for some than executing the task itself. The truth is, people think procrastination is about managing time. However, it’s much more complex than that. People underestimate…
Why We Should Stop Using the Phrase “In the Real World”
While there are many trite (and incorrectly structured) phrases that people use constantly, i.e. phrases like “It is what it is” and “I could care less,” whereby the first just sounds silly and the latter actually means you care, there is another phrase that I’d like to see stripped from our sentence constructs. The phrase…
20 Years and Counting The Pleasures
I distinctly remember Beth, my neighbor at the time, and the assistant in the Humanities department, asking me the question: “Could you teach a public speaking class?” “Yes,” I said. “I was a mass communication major with a minor in speech communication.” It was the Thursday before Labor Day, and the course at the community…
