I've been wanting to write more—from my own voice—and the CRLT Substack made a small step possible. This piece is intended as a guided tour of some CRLT and Ginsberg resources supporting instructors building skills for better civil discourse #highered #teachlearnsky crlt.substack.com/p/promoting-...

How can you manage hot moments in the classroom when just about any topic can be a hot one? Today on the podcast I talk with @prairiedogking.bsky.social and @bethanynmorrison.bsky.social about navigating high-stakes discussions in the year 2025. www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/epis...

Anyone else use Steve’s Lava Chicken to explain the concept of “bad” words to their kids?

Ways my PhD training fundamentally altered my brain, part 51: I just thought to myself: potential meanings of "teaching statement" has a very narrow distribution, while "teaching portfolio" has quite a wide one. How do I communicate that like a normal person? Should I make a graph?

Hey #polisky, esp. folks who teach state & local politics, I'm working on a short piece on supporting students' engagement in down-ballot/local elections *across the disciplines.* I'm looking for resources/tools students could engage with as an in-class activity or homework...

Ugh. Why’s it so hard to pick up a class to adjunct??? 😫Come on! I’m super qualified—My fulltime role is all pedagogy all the time. I have a PhD from a top 20 school. I don’t need much from you, local colleges! Just want to do the thing I love, so I can enjoy & be good at supporting others doing it.

Does anyone else find themselves using an em-dash to avoid using too many exclamation points in email???? Gotta rein it in for #highered #academicsky

Can you imagine if the record for holding the Senate floor was done in the spirit of John Lewis's "good trouble" and not held by a segregationist blocking civil rights? www.npr.org/2025/04/01/n...

Last fall, I shared a piece on selecting activities for engaging with politics, policy, & social issues in #highered classes. I created a graphic handout to compliment the piece. It’s nonpartisan, with lots of specific activities linked to civic skills students are developing. tiny.cc/PDTS_handout

Resource share! I often get questions about teaching portfolios in my workshops on teaching statements. I've found this #highered job document hard to parse. @ckorpan.bsky.social demystifies it in this guide. I'm excited to start sharing it with our graduate students. #EdDev #FacDev tiny.cc/81r8001

Hey #EdDev / #FacDev community, last term I did public-facing writing for the first time in ages. It felt good. The pressure of the election cycle (this was the work on teaching during an election) helped me carve out the time. In the absence of that external force, how do you make it happen?

Looking for resources for managing the deluge of student emails, particularly in large courses. Breana Bayraktar & @roberttalbert.bsky.social have great pieces on it from a few years ago (shared below), but wondering what else folks share with faculty. #facdev #eddev rtalbert.org/dealing-with...

In the morning, I'm all "Yes, I CAN carve out a role for myself, where I can teach, write about teaching, work on civic education across the curriculum, and facilitate impactful programming for faculty. In fact, I'm going to do X and Y and Z today." By the end of the day, I'm all

Resource Share: At least once a semester, I reference or share @mirya.bsky.social, Ellen Key, and Rebecca Kreitzer's excellent annotated bibliography of research on bias in teaching evaluations. #favdev #eddev #AcademicSky rebeccakreitzer.com/summaries-of...

Resource share: Georgetown's CTL developed an Inquiry and Discourse Toolkit for instructors in higher ed. It's incredibly well-researched and very thoughtful about the role of belonging, equity, and inclusion in dialogue across difference and deep inquiry into beliefs & assumptions. tiny.cc/znv4001

Loving a teenager has reduced me to arguing with an *artisan slime company's* customer support. If I buy $$$ artisan slime on 11/30 & you need 6 days (!!!) to process my order, then you should refund me when the USPS is still waiting on said slime on 12/17. Your ruining Christmas, Snoop Slimes.

ICYMI: Elizabeth Barre's academic background (and teaching experiences!) make this interview with @bonni208.bsky.social on instructor neutrality so rich and nuanced. teachinginhighered.com/podcast/hold...

We talk about how #highered instructors, unlike K-12, receive little training in pedagogy. We develop another key skill ad hoc: how to effectively & equitably lead a team of Grad Student Instructors (TAs). Here's a helpful resource by my CRLT colleagues to support this work: tiny.cc/8k51001

Emily's reflection doesn’t gloss over the real challenges folks are facing with student reading/writing in #highered, but leaves space for hope. I love that she shared a specific practice that can encourage us & our students to take note of our learning progress. #academicSky #TeachLearnSky

Resource share: When I first shared this infographic on policy writing from U-M Ford School's Writing Center, it was to encourage instructors to breakaway from the traditional academic paper—policy writing is a pleasure to grade! It's improved my own writing, though, that's a bonus! tiny.cc/dz3zzz

Still pretty sure I’m not doing Bluesky right.

Apparently designer slime is a thing now. Kids these days. Grumble grumble. 😉

Initial thouughts to the “babying” in the post-election piece in the @chronicle.com. I needed a few more characters than Bluesky will permit so... www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

#POD24 ICYMI, UVA's Adriana Streifer & Dorothe Bach's session on Values-Driven Consultation Moves provided a thoughtful approach & useful strategies to grapple with a common challenge to #facdev / #eddev —how/when do we bring up our concerns about practices/mindsets shared with us in consultations?

I can see the sea otters AND go to the #POD24 afternoon sessions. All I need to do is get on only double decker train going in the right direction of just two options. Easy peasy. 😳 😫

Hey #POD24, Kate Flom Derrick & I have been talking with CTLs about the role “one-off” workshops play in their work. I’ve been particularly interested in the question, given the scuttlebutt about workshops relative to intensive programming. Come engage with our initial findings on Monday at 10:30!

ICYMI, Betsy Barre (WFU) wrote a piece on teaching this week. It's useful and rich. Shout-out to the discussion of whether to act neutral is to appear fair. Our students know that we have beliefs & opinions. If we pretend like we don't, they'll interpret the silence. cat.wfu.edu/2024/11/hold...

The werewolf voting sticker is really capturing the energy this year.

Thought I'd mention this piece one more time, just in case it's helpful to your work, #facdev #eddev #academicsky #highered tiny.cc/PDTS3

It’s challenging to plan for teaching next week with big unknowns and key differences in instructors'/students’ context & capacity. We share options for navigating this moment—small moves to support well-being, ideas to support civic learning and continued civic & community engagement. tiny.cc/PDTS3

Hey #facdev, #eddev, folks headed to the #POD24 conference, is there a conference app yet? Oxford abstracts is not working for me as a means for planning my conference experience!

It doesn’t have to play out like 2020. We CAN be prepared to talk with students about uncertain election outcomes (or outcomes being called into question) after 11/05. SLSV's 2024 Post-Election Campus Guide is a valuable starting point. #academicsky #EdDev #polisky docs.google.com/document/d/1...

In the lead-up to the 2024 election, here's a piece on how we can design class discussions on policy, politics, & social issues that support students’ learning and their democratic & civic engagement. May it help someone out there in #AcademicSky tiny.cc/CRLT10-14 #HigherEd #FacDev #EdDev #polisky

I love #fatbearweek so much & I'm 100% #TeamGrazer but... I'm always cognizant of the weirdness of competitors who don't know they are competing or care what we think. It's been especially weird this year: "32 Chunk may have killed her cub, but Grazer wins the tournie!" www.npr.org/2024/10/09/n...

128 Grazer is my girl! Big ol' mama bear! #fatbearweek #fatBearTuesday

I'm very disappointed in the choice of Bear 901's photo for voting today. She had a massive transformation and the pic just doesn't highlight it! The injustice! #FatBearWeek

You can keep your sharks, I'm holding out for Fat Bear Week! youtu.be/qDVNL5SKLms?...

Thanks for having me, @derekbruff.bsky.social! This work has been so engaging and I appreciated the opportunity to talk your ear off about it! 😁

#Umich Colleagues! Have you shared the Promoting Democracy Teaching Series workshops with your department, grad. students, post-docs? For folks feeling anxious about teaching over the next 6 weeks & folks feeling kinda pumped about supporting democratic engagement. ginsberg.umich.edu/teach-democr...

A new handout for “I ask but my students never have any questions!” For the new instructor of #highered in your life. Or for a new angle to a perennial #pedagogy challenge. It starts with student motivations/explanations, then provides small moves targeting these explanations. tiny.cc/h39mzz

Thanks, @karencosta.bsky.social! One of the ways we iterated on this work in 2024 is by addressing both the anxiety that comes with teaching in high stakes conditions AND the meaningfulness that comes with supporting students as new voters.

Because bsky effectiveness is a mystery, one more mention: We leveled-up our guidance around teaching during the 2024 election in partnership with U-M's Ginsberg Center. I'm proud & excited about this work & hope it can have a wide impact. crlt.umich.edu/blog/prepari... #highered #FacDev #pedagogy

I'm really proud & excited about my work in our partnership around teaching during the 2024 election at #umich. If you are interested in learning more about what we're going and the resources we're sharing, we just published a piece on it. crlt.umich.edu/blog/prepari... #highered #FacDev #pedagogy

Now I am really going to vote. There had better be enough howling wolf I voted stickers in my precinct. www.nytimes.com/2024/09/05/s...

Last year, I facilitated a couple of workshops on designing in-class activities for accessibility. There's a lot out there on digital accessibility/accessible materials, but it's a little harder to find resources on accessible active learning. This piece is a great contribution to that body!

I'm super proud and excited about the programming we're developing at U-M to support faculty teaching during the 2024 election. I'd love to hear what other CTLs are planning. ginsberg.umich.edu/teach-democr... #HigherEd #facdev #eddev

Just a reminder of this "classic" from the Grading for Growth folks. I share it when an alternative grading approach seems like quite a jump. It shares the 4 pillars to alt. grading & suggests that there are LOTs of ways (both small & big) to work towards them. gradingforgrowth.com/p/finding-co...

When I saw Dana present this work at POD, I felt that “of course!” and “yes!” feeling. journals.publishing.umich.edu/tia/article/...

Because it feels good to share professional successes...last month, the Journal on Centers for Teaching & Learning published our article on the value of diverse types of teaching programming for faculty. Delighted to keep working with folks at Wake Forest! openjournal.lib.miamioh.edu/index.php/jc...

Hi polisky, would you mind sharing a sentence or two about how you think about the teaching parts of your faculty role? Context: I'm giving a talk to new PS PhD students on the role of teaching in a faculty career. I wanted to find something in JPSE or PS on the topic, but no luck so far. TIA!