Most people identify summer as school holidays. While many students and teachers take the warmest months off, here are three teachers’ anecdotes of their breaks before September.
Troy Van always had questions about his mother’s past, partly because of Delia’s reticence about it. When she passed away two years ago, new details about her emerged from different sources that totally surprised Troy. A history teacher, he’d built his success on honesty and credibility. In the end, if contradictions in Delia’s life taught Troy a lot about himself, he also learned to accept her choices for survival in a turbulent world.
Some colleagues and I find exams to be stressful experiences for college students who usually cram for them. Given viable options to traditional midterm and final exams, we want to try other learning components for the same marks. We’ve shared with each other reasons for choosing learning over testing. Over time, we’ve also seen administration’s interest in making exams optional.
Over time, more college students (now adults) have involved parents, guardians, and even legal counsel when resolving academic concerns with their teachers. Many colleagues and I find these encounters contrary to adult autonomy, but while we uphold self-advocacy and self-direction, some colleagues and I also feel that instead of rejecting third parties, we should do no harm, and not make things worse even in ambiguous situations.
A lifelong learner’s granddaughter tells the colorful story of his love of learning, every day of his life, everywhere he lived.
Witness a developmental journey of new adult educators, Janice Cullen and Mina Wong, as they navigated through a challenging learning process of their own. But shifting from traditional classroom management approaches, they fostered a culture of support and encouragement. Being 'smart, kind, organized' became their daily commitments to building academic success and meaningful connections in the classroom.
From receiving flowers as a gesture of love to navigating plagiarism debates, Mina shares amusing stories and insight from her experiences as a college teacher. Discovering diverse cultures and challenges students bring to the classroom, she offers a unique perspective on education.
