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My Favorite Teaching Resource

On March 27, 2009 Barbara Ribbens, CITR's faculty liaison for pedagogy, and Peggy West of CITR facilitated a session aimed at sharing favorite resources for teaching. These resources could include exercises, books, articles, or websites. Peggy and Barb brought resources to share, and invited those in attendance to share their favorites as well.

Highlights and Points of Discussion

I. What makes a good teaching resource?

  • The most useful resources contain "structures" or "frameworks" for classroom exercises that can be easily adapted to other subjects or disciplines.
  • For example: Puzzle Exercise (Barb)
    • Break up the pieces of a relatively easy jigsaw puzzle (or multiple puzzles) into several large envelopes.
    • Hand one envelope to each student or group of students with the directions, "When I say go, open the envelope and complete the task inside."
    • It will take students some time to realize they don't have all of the pieces to the puzzle and must seek the help of others to complete the task.
    • Use the experience to highlight and lead into discussion of your topic (e.g., strategic management, teamwork, etc.)
  • More examples:
    • Energizers
    • Role Plays
    • Writing Tasks
    • Experiential Learning Exercises

II. Where can you look for structures and teaching resources?

  • CITR has established an "Excellence in Teaching" special book and DVD collection in the library. The collection is located on the 2nd floor near the circulation desk. Faculty can suggest a favorite book or video to be added to the collection.
  • Web resources are also a good place to look. Don't ignore ideas that might be posted on K-12 resource websites. Often these can be adapted to the higher education learning environment.
  • Professional Organizations, Cooperatives, and Online Services often have repositories of discipline-specific teaching aids and ideas (e.g., HealthTeacher.com is a paid service that provides access to a multitude of health education resources.) If you are able to spend the time searching and browsing for what you need...YouTube, TeacherTube, and other open sharing sites also offer a vast array of media and resources to choose from.

III. Final Thoughts

  • Get into the spirit of sharing....ask other faculty what their favorite resources are and share your own. We are at our best when we learn from each other.

 

Favorite Teaching Resources

Websites

  • MERLOT (Over 20,000 online teaching resources organized by discipline.)
  • HealthTeacher.com (Online service with a veriety of health-related materials.)
  • PBS Teachers (Free online resources to coincide with PBS programming.)
  • Mulitcultural Pavilion (Free resources and handouts for multicultural education.)

Books and Resources in the CITR Excellence in Teaching Collection (2nd floor Library)

  • Collaborative Learning Techniques by Barkley, Cross and Major (2004)
  • Engaging Ideas by John C. Bean (1997)
  • Promoting Active Learning: Strategies for the College Classroom by C. Meyer and T. Jones (1993)
  • Complete Listing of Resources in the Collection