Category: News
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Expanding the Roles of Engagement
One of my strategic principles for SoTL highlights multiple levels of engagement. Of course, we encourage and support our colleagues who are practitioners or “producers” of SoTL, and we now recognize students as engaged in SoTL, not just as learner-participants in projects but also as co-inquirers (Werder & Otis, 2009; Felten, 2013). But there’s another population we don’t often consider in…
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Sitting Down & Staying Still
The progressive breakdown of my computer and resulting residencies of IT guys have conspired to force me to read some of the books I have stacked on my desk. Today, I read the copy of Teaching with Heart: Poetry that Speaks to the Courage to Teach (Intrator & Scribner, eds., 2014) we ordered for our…
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A Room of One’s Own
I have a new favorite place on campus. It may not look like much–small room with a recliner and a lamp, a desk with a computer and handbook, a tv screen with assorted DVDs–but it’s a little oasis tucked into a corner room at 2015 Terrace Place. More comfortable than its name, the Mind Body…
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Homing In
My post-semester sabbatical from blogging lasted a bit longer than I’d anticipated. Nothing bad happened: I simply devoted 100% of my writing efforts to a few manuscripts I wanted to get off of my desktop. There are more–there are always more–but I finished the third yesterday, so I feel caught up enough that I can…
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Reading Here & Now
I’ve used the phrase “be here now” to describe what mindfulness looks like. It’s bumper-sticker-ease for the practice of observing the present moment right in front of us, paying attention to the here and now rather than yesterday, tomorrow, or over there. But a study that’ll soon be published in The Journal of Affective Disorders…
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In Case of Emergency
Before flying, we’re told to locate our nearest emergency exits. If we’re sitting in the emergency row, we must verbally agree to the responsibility of working the doors and helping our fellow passengers if necessary. Similarly, now that storm season has arrived in the South,* we’ve all prepared our “safe place,” the basement or an…
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On Another Planet
Last year, Forbes declared university professor the Least Stressful Job of the Year (Adams). The response was so strong that the writer issued a corrective Addendum, and the magazine published a variety of rebuttals explaining the stresses of this seemingly cushy job (c.f., Kroll, Willingham). In the wake of this controversy and resulting reality checks,…
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It’s About Our Students
Today is my last day of class, and I feel a little antsy, even a little edgy. I already have a stack of materials to grade, and I’ll be getting another stack today, and then another during our final exam period. I have deadlines related to other work activities. And my spring-exploded yard is calling…
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Looking into the Fire
In preparation for a talk next week, I was sitting on my floor next to my bookshelves, surrounded by open volumes of literature. (This is the literary scholar’s version of a kid surrounded by unwrapped presents.) I got sidetracked as I revisited one of my favorite passages in one of my favorite novels. It turns…
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Up in the Clouds
I’ve finally done it. I’ve missed my deadline for posting to The Mindful PhD for the first time. I was in Savannah, Georgia, all week for the SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) Commons Conference connecting with dear colleagues and friends and meeting new ones. If I’d treated the conference like previous ones, I’d have…
Nancy L. Chick 