Index of Teaching Challenges – Chalk Talk

This index of teaching challenges was authored by a group of interdisciplinary Tufts faculty members and educational technology experts. Here you’ll find question-and-answer style advice from legendary college teacher “Jonas Chalk”. This content was adapted with permission from the book Chalk Talk: E-advice from Jonas Chalk, Legendary College Teacher, edited by Donna M. Qualters and Miriam Rosalyn Diamond.

 

• Assigning Letter Grades to Numerical Scores
• Attendance
• Changing the Ground Rules
• Civility in the Classroom
• Class Time Management
• Completing the Syllabus
• Coordinating Labs/Recitations
• Developing a Relationship with Your Class
• Effective Questioning in Class
• Electronics
• End of the Term Crunch
• Engaging Advanced Students
• Excused (or not) Absences
• Excuses: “But the dog ate my homework…”
• Extra Credit
• First Class of the Term
• Grading Class Participation
• Grading: D- Versus an F
• Group Assignments
• Helping Students to Take Responsibility
• Humor in the Classroom
• Inattentive Students
• Inexperienced Teaching Assistants
• Language Usage
• Lonely Office Hours
• Multiple Choice Testing
• Non-Facilitating Faculty Behaviors
• Preparing for Exams
• Reacting to Student Responses
• Realistic Course Objectives
• Student Backgrounds
• Student Excuses
• Students Complaining about Other Instructors
• Students Leaving Class Early
• Teaching Assistants: a TA Shirking Responsibility
• Teaching Decisions
• Teaching Problem-Solving
• Team Teaching
• The Multiple Dimensions of an Education
• Unfair Testing
• Why Ask Questions?
• Why We Test