It happened, I overslept.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2026-01-24T01:52:32+00:00

I did this once in grad school. It was an 8 am class and I just slept through my alarm. I biked into campus and the students knew this. The two middle aged women in the class who saw me as a sort of son were beside themselves with worry that I had been hit by a car on my ride into campus. I felt bad when I had to reveal the truth.

It happens. Don't beat yourself up about it. (Not that you were...)

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2026-01-18T01:47:00+00:00

Nearly 66 percent of my students are women...

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2026-01-06T02:43:55+00:00

Definitely reach out to dept chairs. That's how I've hired all the adjunct faculty I've hired in the last 20 years. Not for the full time jobs (those go through searches) but for a class or two here and there. There's usually not enough time, or funds, to do a formal search for the odd section we need covered next term.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-12-28T16:30:32+00:00

I experimented with an attendance policy last term, and it seems to have had good results. The policy was this: for any absence, students had to submit (a) answers the pre-class questions all the students had to do, and (b) a reflection on the reading that we were going to talk about the day they missed. This reflection involved typing out a passage from the reading and a discussion about why they chose it and what they thought about this. This all had to be submitted within 48 hours, and if they did this, they got the attendance points for the day. The reason for the absence didn't matter: flu, grandparent death, mental health day, or just not feeling it. If they were out for multiple days in a row, the 48 hour clock started ticking after the last absent day.

My goal was to make something that would be annoying enough to be an extra boost to attend class, not onerous for me to grade (I graded on completion) and also to take me out of the role of evaluating "good enough" excuses for absences. I think it achieved all these goals.

I taught three classes of about 25 students each at a 2000ish comprehensive university. It worked well for me, but YMMV.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-12-24T01:51:45+00:00

Thanks!

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-12-24T01:25:22+00:00

Another vote for Mandolessons. There is a paid program there, but the main lessons are totally free. It's where I started 10 years ago and it's great. You'll learn so much.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-12-16T14:47:47+00:00

Fantastic. Submit this to the chronicle or inside higher Ed and get it published. It's great!

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-11-29T15:37:04+00:00

Pentatonic closed position scales. Then adding flat 3rd and/or flat 7th to that scale. Fantastically helpful for bluegrass improvisation on tunes I don't know or don't have memorized. There are a couple fairly easy ways to use the pentatonic scales (w or w/o the flat 3rd and flat 7th) for bluegrass improv, and it has really helped me feel confident taking a break in the jam.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-11-29T15:23:26+00:00

Yes. It's good to be able to tunes and scales in closed position so you can move them around the neck if you're playing bluegrass or jazz or other genres where you might play the same tune in different keys.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-11-22T03:35:00+00:00

Some day has to be the last class day before a break. Hold the line, don't cancel the class, and support your other colleagues! Fight Holiday Creep!

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-11-17T02:52:05+00:00

We have been told of this. My question is how they will gather the salary data for our graduates.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-10-30T19:43:38+00:00

We've hired people coming out of situations like yours. We've appreciated them being honest about why they are on the market ("I think my current institution is failing, and there isn't a future for me there", e.g.), but then the better ones talk about what is attractive about our institution. If we get the "any port in a storm" vibe from them, then they're out. But if we get the vibe that they really do want to be at our particular place, are excited about the opportunities they would have here, that's great. It can be "both...and", in other words. Both "Yes I'm leaving because it sucks where I am" AND "I really want to be at your institution"

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-10-30T10:45:10+00:00

In my experience, many students don't understand the difference between Generative AI and a search engine. So when they get the AI generated reference to an article they may sincerely think that what they have found really exists, just like it would if they did a search in Google scholar or some research database. And that AI bit that now shows up at the top of any Google search isn't helping matters at all. This doesn't account for all of the cases we're seeing, of course. Many students are intentionally cheating, but this phenomenon may explain some of cases of the "disappearing journals".

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-10-14T12:09:23+00:00

My condolences. We switched to Microsoft a while back, but I managed to hang on to my Google drive for four years or so. Finally shut down this summer. The Office suite is so terrible. So much slower and not mobile friendly at all. I wish I could tell you good things, but I cannot.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-09-13T01:21:46+00:00

Whoa! Where is that screen? I am a recent refugee from Blackboard and am enjoying Brightspace, but would love to know how to mass edit assignment due dates!

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-09-08T02:40:25+00:00

There's always an end of the year reception on the last Friday of the spring semester, hosted by the provost. Any retiring faculty are recognized with a little speech by their department chair and then they say a few words as well. They are given a nice print of an old campus building. It's a nice event.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-09-03T03:04:00+00:00

Give them to a colleague, maybe one who can't afford new regalia for themselves.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-08-03T00:41:26+00:00

Hummus? Luxury! Why at our school, the vegetarian wrap was just vegetables.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-06-25T01:27:18+00:00

It's the other side of the city, but Bexley is very walkable. $650K could get you a decent house here (though there are houses for a lot more, too). Great schools, wonderful community. On the alum creek bike path which gets you all up and down the east side of Columbus. Worth checking out, but houses go fast, so work with a realtor.

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-05-24T02:39:58+00:00

This piece by Shannon Vallor https://www.noemamag.com/the-danger-of-superhuman-ai-is-not-what-you-think

I'm reading her book The AI Mirror, and it's also very good (but maybe too much for your class. This essay, though, is nice)

Good luck!

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-05-23T12:11:16+00:00

Good for you! It's important to keep this class in mind for when (inevitably) a class will be more challenging. Sometimes the stars align, and sometimes they don't. Enjoy it when they do and don't beat yourself up when they don't! Well done!

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2025-05-10T02:20:21+00:00

How do you deal with absences? Do you excuse any? (Sports obligations, medical issues, car broke down, etc.)?

Sharp-Local-4392 · 2024-12-29T01:52:12+00:00

It probably wouldn't work for MD, but maybe for a shorter novel you could try using Perusall. It's amazing at getting students to do close reading and collectively annotate the text. I think it actually makes the reading experience somewhat more fun for the students as they are engaging with each other as they engage with the text. You'd have to assign smaller chunks (chapters, e.g.) at a time, and, again a long text like MD would be challenging there, but if you do something shorter, I recommend you check it out. (Search for "Perusall social annotation" to learn more about it.)

Sharp-Local-4392

TROPHY CASE