The posts below are from the CfLT newsletter which includes curated, research-based digital resources to support ongoing faculty development and pedagogical engagement. As of August 2025, CfLT Director Karen Spierling oversees the content. Posts from July 2020-May 2025 were compiled by previous Director Lew Ludwig.
As the authors note right off the bat in this recommended article, “Writing Your First Grant,” grant writing can be intimidating. The good news is you’re not all on your own. Denison’s Office of Foundation & Corporate Relations (FCR) is here to help.
New professors might be used to working with a “sponsored program office” or a “research office.”
Do your students need support collecting, organizing, and correctly citing their research? If so, take a look at Zotero. Zotero is a free, open-source tool that is easy to use. For more information and a video walkthrough, take a look at this EdTech Blog post, “Zotero to the Rescue.”
Like many of us, I relaxed my due dates as we struggled with the pandemic. Now that we have just passed the second anniversary of the national lockdown, I’m beginning to reflect on my choices. On the one hand, I can point to certain students who benefited from this more empathetic approach (not a word that is often used to describe me), but doesn’t the “real world” operate on deadlines?
If nothing else, I am a grading machine. Students turn in written work every week except for testing weeks in each of my classes – ten weeks of written work (homework), four tests, and a final exam. Yes. I am a grading machine. Or, as our retired colleague, Don Bonar, often said, “They pay me to grade; I teach for free.
I taught my first college-level math class in the early 1990s – the era with only three major television networks and “Must See TV” (already, I may have lost some of you). To connect with my mostly white, suburban, Mid-West students, I would reference one of my favorite shows, Seinfeld. Catchphrases like “Get out,” “Giddyup!” and “Hello, Newman” would often elicit laughs from my students, as well as references to Festivus, Bosco, and Yo-yo Ma.
In this series, I share teaching mistakes I have made in the hopes that others can learn from my missteps or try to avoid them. For this installment, I will share a practice that was not my proudest moment.
Early in my career, Denison had a policy that students could add/drop a class within the first three weeks of the semester.
Like many of us, I give in-class tests. Early in my career, I adopted a structure where a test was worth one hundred points. The test consisted of five-point and ten-point questions to keep the math simple. The twelve or fourteen five-point questions were generally more straightforward, while the three or four ten-pointers helped “sort the As from the Bs.”
While I keep a relatively low-key persona in daily interactions, my Myers-Briggs is INTP. If you follow such things, you will be surprised how outgoing I am in the classroom. I was fortunate enough to conduct my student teaching under George Schwipps, a high school math teacher described as “part game show host, part auctioneer.” Some of George’s classroom enthusiasm rubbed off on me, and I try to keep my classes lively and engaged.
Growing up in a single-parent household, my mother played a large part in my upbringing. She taught grades 4-6 for twelve years in the Cincinnati school system before resigning to raise me. My father died when I was five, and mom decided to make a go of the small hobby farm we had started and to raise my brother and me on her own.
It’s that time of year. Students are looking for summer opportunities, trying to land that first job, or contemplating graduate school. Yes, recommendation letter writing season is in full swing! A recent Chronicle article bemoans how the digital age has ruined this process.
Never fear! Recall, the Lisska Center has created this video to provide you with suggestions on writing letters of recommendation, including things to focus on and what to ask of students.
