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