Image courtesy of lifehacker.com

Feeling that mid-semester slump? Limping into the home stretch? Praying for final exams? Before you degrade yourself like that, you should check out gradhacker.org. The GradHacker team has been compiling advice on how to navigate the checkpoint that is mid-semester.

Liz Homan recently wrote on how to reinvent your teaching half-way, and most of her tips are useful reminders to do what we already do, again. For instance, have you tried using ice breakers at the mid-point to change the mood in your class? Homan offers some suggestions on how to use ice breakers to forward a discussion of course content:

An icebreaker. No longer must these be relegated to the first day, when everyone expects them. No longer must these be (let’s face it, futile) attempts to get everyone to learn names. Tie your icebreaker to course content! My favorite is a “four corners” exercise where students strongly agree/agree/disagree/strongly disagree with a number of value statements tied to our course content (in my case this semester, professional writing). These get people moving around and discussing their opinions with one another.

To read more of Homan’s article and learn the “jigsaw approach” (which is kind of like having students teach themselves), visit http://www.gradhacker.org/2014/03/07/reinventing-your-teaching-mid-semester-5-really-tiny-things-you-could-do-tomorrow/

Not too many of us here at UWindsor have official mid-semester evaluations in our classrooms, but it’s still worth taking a pulse now and then. We also love what Laura B. McGrath suggests you should do with student feedback. McGrath provide resources and guidelines for running your own evaluations and feedback forums and recommends that whatever you learn from these exchanges should be related back to your students:

Summarize the evaluations for your students; tell them what their peers have said (generally), tell them what you heard, and tell them what you’ve learned. This can be tough, especially when the comments aren’t positive. Your students went out on a limb to be honest with you; let them know that you heard them. Reporting your findings shows that you value their input, and can help to establish greater trust within your learning community.

To learn more about McGrath’s experiences with classroom feedback, read her article at http://www.gradhacker.org/2014/03/12/mid-semester-evaluations/.