Tag: stress
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What Can Faculty Do about Students’ Classroom-Based Anxieties? More Than You Think.
originally posted Aug 4, 2014, on Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching blog Last week, The Princeton Review released its annual list of “The Top 10 Colleges for ___,” and Vanderbilt made a big splash by ranking #1 with the Happiest College Students in the US.* While this is fantastic news for the campus, and it’s interesting to speculate about what makes…
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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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The Continual Unfolding of Our Work
This week was an especially stressful time of the semester. Some of you are looking forward to spring break, but Vanderbilt’s was at the very beginning of March. The week after break–or, as we often call it, “break”–is hard for instructors and students alike. We see the home stretch in front of us, but it’s…
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After the Honeymoon
My class is still in the “honeymoon phase,” those carefree weeks in the beginning of the semester when students and instructor alike enjoy each other’s company and insights, before any major papers or exams complicate the dynamic. Smaller, low-stakes assessments have given me a chance to provide early feedback and have documented the their good thinking…
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Support for Stressed Students
The new semester started yesterday here at Vanderbilt. My students were bright-eyed and enthusiastic, though I know they were experiencing those first-day uncertainties about their new classes, professors, and classmates. Soon enough, these early jitters will turn to a more significant set of stresses as assignments come due, exams are scheduled, graduation approaches, and life…
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Stories of the Slow Professor
Last week, I attended my 10th consecutive conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL)–in many ways, the highlight of my academic year, as it feels very much like ‘going home.’ After five days, though, it’s good to be back in my real home, and I’m grateful for a Sunday…
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Playing with Others
I recently received an email that, in another time, would have tested me. It’s a genre familiar to all of us: several paragraphs registering a complaint, only some of which we have control over, written out of frustration and haste, and expressed in a way that (we think) we would never use in face-to-face communication.…
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Reducing Stress
In recent weeks, I’ve talked with quite a few colleagues–faculty (full-time and part-time) and graduate students–who were nervous about teaching their first class, or their first class on this campus, the first session of a new course, or a new group of students. This concoction of stage fright, imposter syndrome, natural uncertainty about anything new,…
Nancy L. Chick 