Musings on an August summer afternoon from your HAPS president-elect: Rocking on my front porch with a tall glass of ice tea; watching hummingbirds and butterflies also enjoy our medicine wheel herbal garden; knowing I should instead be weeding said garden. While many of us teach in the summer as well, I hope everyone had a chance to fit in some great adventures or at least the opportunity to relax in a hammock and read something totally unrelated to school. We’ll all be sharing our “what I did over summer break” stories soon with colleagues as we try to get back into the rhythm of a new Fall semester.
My thoughts stray to another summer “weeding” task I always try to do – dig through my Round Tuit file. Growing up, I remember my father always seemed to have handy a wooden nickel with “TUIT” engraved in one side. It would promptly come out in response to our typical childhood retort when trying to put off a chore. You can still buy them today.
When I started teaching full-time, I got in the habit of keeping a Round Tuit file folder. During the rush of Fall and Spring semesters, I throw any new A&P developments, neat tidbits, and teaching strategies in the file to save it for later and the attention it deserves. Of course, now I also have an electronic Round Tuit folder. It is great for all those emails and web links that seem to come right after I’ve finished teaching a particular topic.
Of course, David Evan’s What’s New on the HAPS-Listserve goes in that file after a quick timely review, so I can dig deeper at leisure and incorporate current ideas into my next term. Two of my other favorites to put in my Round Tuit are the HHMI Biointeractive News and the Nobel Prize Monthly. For teaching ideas independent of content, I also add the Teaching Professor’s Faculty Focus.
If you aren’t familiar with any of these free resources, I’d recommend you subscribe, and don’t worry about having “one-more-thing-to-deal-with” – create your own Round Tuit file for guilt free stashing now and leisurely “weeding” next summer break, after the Atlanta HAPS conference.
What are some of the other great sources of ideas out there that you’d throw in your Round Tuit file? Share your favorites with everyone in the comments.
Here’s bidding farewell to summer break and wishing everyone a fantastic start to your fall semester!
The Teaching Professor e-newsletter (from Stanford) is another such resource that is nice to be reminded of each week — one can always follow a link back to the archives….