When I began college, I was unmotivated and chose to blame others for my problems and my shortcomings. I was so much smarter than everyone that I didn’t need to do all the work that everyone else did; at least that’s what I thought. My favorite pastime was staring blankly at a television, rather than […]
Habits of Empathy
There has been a 40% drop in measured college student empathy since 2000 (Konrath, 2010). But is empathy really important for students? Empathy has been shown to improve test scores, develop leadership skills, strengthen classroom community, provide career skills, increase emotional intelligence, and reduce learner stress and reactivity. Given the major drop in empathy, can college students […]
Go Fish Shuffle
After attending an On Course workshop, I was so excited about applying the new active learning strategies to my English courses that I came to think of my tool box as more of a treasure box. First, I used “Twenty-One” to teach summarizing and jazzed up the card exchange intervals with music. Next, I […]
Helping First-Year Students Transition to College
Academic Strategies for Excellence (AS198) is a three-credit course designed to assist first-year students make a successful transition to college. The course, rooted in research and best practices for guiding first-year students, helps students develop academic, personal, and professional skills. Wesley College is a minority serving institution (MSI) with approximately 53% of its student population […]
Aha Journals – On Course: Strategies for Success in College, Career and Life
When I first began offering On Course Workshops in 1996, I was in for a pleasant surprise. During the very first workshop, someone spontaneously announced, “I just had the most amazing Aha!” And she went on to enthrall us all with her sudden insight. In future workshops, I started encouraging Aha’s. “An Aha can change […]
