Podcast Archives - FacultyWorkshop

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How To Prepare For A Teaching Demonstration At A Job Interview

Post author:Dr. Fawaz Al-Malood
Post category:Podcast Productivity Professional Development Teaching

This is the third in a series of articles to help you prepare for the teaching job interview. In the last two articles, I discussed how you can prepare for the Writing Assignment At Teaching Job Interview and how to Prepare For A Teaching Interview.

In this article, I’ll share four things to help you prepare for the teaching demonstration.

Teaching Demonstration

Most applicants applying for a teaching position seem have some teaching experience either as a Teaching Assistant (TA) in graduate school, or as an adjunct faculty, or as a trainer in the industry they’ve specialized in. If you happen to be one of those, you’re fortunate enough to have some classroom or instructional experience.

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CC Image courtesy of Bryan Frank on Flickr

Top 5 Higher Education Job Sites

Post author:Dr. Fawaz Al-Malood
Post category:Podcast Productivity Professional Development

Photo of PhD Graduate — CC Image courtesy of Bryan Frank on Flickr

Whether you are looking for your first faculty position or a different one, a job search is a full-time job in itself if done correctly. Opportunities within academia have to be actively pursued on a daily basis.

Why? The answer is simple. Supply and demand!

Universities are awarding more graduate degrees than the market can handle. In 1957, U.S. institutions awarded a total of 8,611 doctorate degrees. In 2012, they awarded a whopping 51,008. That’s a 492% increase within half a decade.

We have seen a 64% percent increase in doctoral degree program completers within the last thirty years alone. The competition in the job market is extremely tough, and you, as a job seeker, need to understand that a college degree, even a PhD from a respected university, does not equal a guaranteed job offer any more. There are simply more qualified job seekers within the academic market than full-time positions.

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Setting The Bar: How High Should Your Student Expectations Be?

Post author:Dr. Fawaz Al-Malood
Post category:Dr. Al-Malood's Blog Podcast Teaching

I was blessed and fortunate enough to have attended an exclusive small private college in Switzerland on a full-academic scholarship. Most of the students who attended came from privileged backgrounds. Many were high-performing students, which was probably a good thing because this college was no walk in the park. This was one of the top five Hotel Management schools in Switzerland at the time. Academic standards and performance expectations were extremely high. This was a school that had rules and expectations for everything in and out of the classroom. It was more like an elite military academy than a college.

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Tick tock: "You're burning daylight!"

5 Time Management Tips

Post author:Dr. Fawaz Al-Malood
Post category:Podcast Productivity

I have yet to come across a college or university that requires all students to take a course in time management before they graduate. It’s mind boggling! We in the United States require our students to take a whole bunch of General Education (GE) courses that they’ll rarely, if ever, use after they graduate, but we won’t require them take courses on topics that they will need and benefit from every day of their life during and after college. Courses like: money management, personal financing, and time management. Some of these students eventually become professors never having learned how to manage their time effectively.

I meet a lot of faculty who want to get a lot of things done. They want to accomplish great things in academia but find themselves working around the clock and barely accomplishing anything. They’re able to meet the basic obligations of their duties and nothing more. Why is it that some faculty seem to be involved in so many exciting activities and projects, in addition to teaching, while others are barely keeping their heads above water?

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CC Image courtesy of Matheson Learning Commons on Flickr

How To Avoid Group Work Complaints: 4 Tips To Follow!

Post author:Dr. Fawaz Al-Malood
Post category:Podcast Productivity Teaching

Photo of students working in a group — CC Image courtesy of Matheson Learning Commons on Flickr

Ever wonder why so many students hate group work? If you were like most students in college, the thought of group work was something you did not look forward to either. Why? Well, there are a number of reasons.

Being in a group meant:

making concessions and giving up control of a portion of a project or assignment
having the performance of other students in the group affect your grade
being possibly stuck with one or more losers who never do any work and still end up with the same grade as everyone else in the group
having to rearrange your schedule to accommodate the availability of others in the group

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Managing Group Projects: 8 Things You Should Do!

Post author:Dr. Fawaz Al-Malood
Post category:Podcast Productivity Teaching

managinggroups — Show them the impossible and inspire them to get there. They deserve it!

So you’ve assigned your first group project and thoroughly explained the requirements to your students and you now want to make sure that your students are productive and efficient. Fortunately, there are a few things that you can do to facilitate the interaction and progress of each group.

1. Raise The Bar

Before assigning the groups, it’s important to set the tone for the quality of work you expect from students. Raise the bar high, and your students will meet it and possibly exceed it. Set the bar too low, and you’ll be disappointed with the quality of your students’ work, and they’ll never really know what they are truly capable of achieving. Never make the mistake of assuming that a student’s socio-economic background, age, or cultural background will prevent them from achieving spectacular results if they are properly trained and prepared by you.

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Disciplinary Action: Keep It Professional!

Disciplinary Action: Keeping It Professional!

Post author:Dr. Fawaz Al-Malood
Post category:Classroom Management Podcast

Disciplinary Action: Keep It Professional! Every now and then you'll find yourself in a position where you'll need to address unacceptable behavior on the part of one of your students.…

Online classes can be remote. Reach out to your students.

10 Ways to Increase Student Engagement Online

Post author:Dr. Fawaz Al-Malood
Post category:Podcast Teaching

Online classes can be remote. Reach out to your students.

One of the challenges that faculty teaching online (or hybrid) courses face is designing their courses so that there’s frequent and active engagement between the student and faculty and also between the students themselves. Why? Because as a faculty, you are required to be able to afford the same level of engagement online that you would in a traditional class where students meet with you and each other in person.

Some faculty are under the false assumption that teaching online is easy, and all you have to do is tell students what you want them to read or study and then have them complete assignments and quizzes to demonstrate their competency or mastery of the learning objectives. That is NOT teaching! Nor does it qualify as a distance learning course that would be eligible to pass the scrutiny of your regional accrediting body. That format may qualify as a correspondence course but not for a distance learning course.

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3 Ways To Avoid College Student Problems Before They Occur

Post author:Dr. Fawaz Al-Malood
Post category:Classroom Management Podcast

CC Image courtesy of Nick Farnhill on Flickr

There are numerous articles on the internet that address this issue, and some are better than others. The tips I am about to share with you are strategies that have worked for me, and I hope they’ll work for you as well. I’ve found that most student-related-problems fall into two broad categories: 1) behavioral problems and 2) academic performance. Most of the behavioral problems can be mitigated before they even start in your classroom. How?

I’m glad you asked! In a nutshell, “Nip it in the bud!” Take action from the very beginning, and address potential areas of concern before they even occur.

Here are 3 ways to do just that!

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