Here are two compassionate, useful articles about teaching in a pandemic. Both were coauthored with Christina Katopodis, I’ve (an extraordinary English doctoral student, Futures Initiative Fellow, and prize-winning adjunct teacher at Hunter). She and I are writing Transforming Every Classroom: A Practical Guide (due out in 2022 from Harvard UP).
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This one is about the value of some kind of synchronous teaching, for community and psychological sake, in this move to remote learning. It is both very reassuring and extremely practical, both include links to many practical resources. Good luck out there, everyone! Be kind to yourself–and your students.
I.
“Transforming Your Online Teaching from Crisis to Community” (IHE, March 11, 2020)
This article focuses on how to do one simple, easy synchronous activity with students (on a web platform, cell phone, even a Google Doc) to keep some kind of humanity and community in this crisis.
II .
“In a Pandemic, Everyone Gets an Asterisk.” (IHE, March 23, 2020)
This article focuses on rethinking grading systems. “For more than 100 years, testing and grading have become the tail wagging the dog we call higher education. As we all scramble to make do as best we can in the worst pandemic in a century, with the unfair and unequal pressures it has placed on all of us — teachers, students, administrators, staff — it is useful to pause and think about the purpose and mission of what we do.”