Keeping Active While Working or Studying

 The Problem

In our busy world, we often tend to get so wrapped up in meeting the demands of our work and family life, that we often forget to meet the demands of our body: Move!

All too often, we feel that if we take some time to do this for ourself, then we are not "giving enough" of ourselves. However, this is not really true: If you don't look after yourself, there is less of you to give to the other areas. 

Reframing

So, let's first work on reframing our rules: It is a good idea to move and stay active so that we can be healthier and enjoy doing the things that are important to us. 

Note: It is always good to check with your health professional before commencing any new physical activity routine. 

Gradual Change

Being active is not a "zero-sum" game, in which you either have to be doing something at the top level, or not at all. No, you just have to start somewhere. 

Starting can mean something as simple as moving around for 5-10 minutes per hour. Set a timer on your phone, on your computer, watch, or stove. (Even better - make sure the timer is somewhere you have to walk to in order to turn it off.) Now, you might have to be practical here - set it so that you get up at a time when you can do so. But make a commitment to do this for 5-10 minutes out of each hour you are sitting. 

Starting can mean that you keep your walking shoes near you so that you can slip them on for an outdoor walk with little notice. That's right - plan ahead. Keep your shoes and outerwear nearby so that if you have 10-15 minutes, you can go for a walk around the neighbourhood! Keep your mask handy as well so that you can meet the requirements of any local mask mandates. 

Starting can mean that you find an online "Walk at Home" video. Did you know that these exist? I was amazed to find these early on in the pandemic. I would recommend Leslie Sansone's "Walk at Home" videos, which are currently available here. I like these because there really are four major types of steps, and you can choose 1 mile, 2 mile, or 3 mile videos. The four major steps are walking, kicks, knee lifts, and side-to-side movements. There are also "curl-back" movements, and some upper-arm movements that help break up the videos. Some of them involve just the four activities, and some include wrist weight or stretch band options (you will need to purchase your own equipment for those).  These generally take between 15-45 minutes, so you can select the one that is right for you. You can also just walk if you cannot keep up, so one should not worry if they cannot do everything in the video. 

Whatever you do, start slow and move up gradually. This is about your progress, so it's not a competition. 

If you do it...

Be sure to keep track of it - celebrate what you do, and encourage others to join you. 

Do it so you can do all of those things you love longer!

Humans, Dogs, and Cats

As many of us switch to remote teaching and learning, distractions are something that we may be learning to manage. This is especially true in the event that we have not previously worked out of our homes.

We may have managed to work out schedules and agreements with our spouses/partners/roommates and/or children. If you haven't yet figured this out, here are a few tips for the humans in your new workplace.

Working with your Spouse/Partner

Here it is important to stake out your separate spaces. If you live and work in a small space, then carve out your own separate spots on different chairs, and hopefully different tables. If you live together in a very small space, then consider one working on the eating area table, and one working from a couch or chair. Either way, you need your separate space.

You will also need to respect each other's time, space, and work. This means that you need to recognize that you are each at work, and do not interfere or comment on the work unless asked. Do not be a distraction. This is not the time to ask your spouse to do housework, or anything else you would not do at work. Keep your work time for work, and your personal time for personal time. 

Make jokes, and have some fun at breaks. The other day, my husband and I jokingly greeted each other as though we were at work with "Hi! How are you? So good to see you again. I have to run, but hopefully we can find time for coffee or lunch together soon"! This helped lighten the mood, since we do actually miss being around our colleagues, and we are in the middle of a stressful situation.

Working with Kids

I would not presume to tell anyone how to raise their kids, as my own have only had fur, four legs, and a tail. Instead, I will provide you with some links, and ask that you share any tips or links that you have found helpful in the comments below.

• The triple duty: Working Parenting, and Teaching from home
• Working at home with a toddler

 What I can recommend is to find a support group of similar parents, and look for online groups for supportive tips and humour. We all need humour right now, right?

Working with Pets

Currently, social media is full of humourous posts about working at home with pets. Some love the fact that their humans are at home now, as there is more opportunity for walks, playing, laps, and treats. Others are not so sure this is a good idea, since it is interfering with their naps. You may need to help your pets establish some ground rules, and it is not as simple as telling them and working out a contract. Here are some tips:

• For dogs: Walks are important, and usually around 30 minutes. Go for one before work, during your lunch break, and after work. Give them something to eat, or play with, during your conference calls. You may need to keep them in a separate room, or with a house-mate when you have such calls. 
• For cats: Set up a spot for your cat that involves comfort and sunshine (if at all possible). The space should not be your keyboard, as that will make work impossible. Similar to dogs, cats need play time and attention, so schedule those into the morning, at lunch time or during a coffee break, etc. Really, though, cats sleep around 16-18 hours per day, so they are somewhat easier in terms of the hours they spend being active. 

Note that all of this activity can also help you ward off the potential expansion due to working from home and being socially distant. (See my Behavioral Geek posting here for more tips.)

Now, it may be that your pet acts differently for a few days as you both adjust to the new routine. Remember, they may have had the run of the house for 8-10 hours per day in the past, and now you are present most of the day. Give yourself and your pets time to adjust.

Final Note

Remember that you and your other humans, as well as the dogs, cats, and other pets, all need time to adjust. It will take time, but you will get there. Be patient, kind, and keep a plan. However, if the plan is not working, then be prepared to adjust it. So, be flexible too.

If you have any further tips, tricks, or comments, please feel free to leave them below.

Be well, stay safe, and look after yourselves!

D. E. Crone-Todd

Transitions to Remote Learning in the Era of COVID-19

Where We Find Ourselves

If you are like me, perhaps at first you thought that things would not get as bad as in other parts of the world concerning the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). How quickly my own understanding of the situation changed as I read the reports coming from colleagues in Italy and other countries. As my understanding evolved in this fluid, shifting time, I learned several things: 

• It is important to distance ourselves socially at this time to prevent everyone from becoming sick and over-taking the healthcare systems in our countries. (Here is a link to social distancing, explained.)
• It is unclear how long this will take. This makes it even more stressful when there is uncertainty. So, let's communicate clearly and effectively, and let each other know what we know and what we are still learning. That's the best we can do. 
• We all need help adjusting. All of us. (Here is a related blog post on my general "Behavioral Geek" page about self-regulation ideas during this time.) 

So, my hope is to provide just an introduction to thinking about a transition to online modalities in our courses. It is certainly neither complete nor perfect; however, it is a start. Much like some of you may find when making this switch. That's all right - everyone is in this together. With common goals and good intentions, we can work this out.

First Things First
Remember, you are a valued instructor. You teach the course that you teach because you have some expertise and/or quality that is valued by your institution. You designed your course the way you did most likely because it would work out well for everyone involved. So, that is still your goal. With that in mind, please remember the following:

• You do not have to be perfect. This is impossible. You need to simply work with your department, college/school, or university to figure out the best way to do this. Just because Professor X is teaching with full functionality with respect to a learning management system, Zoom, YouTube videos, and so forth, this does not mean you need to do so. However, if you want to try out something new, you can probably ask Professor X. 
• The course does not have to be perfect. Courses rarely are perfect. Ask any professor or student, and I'm sure you will hear a variety of responses. Now that we are shifting from some completely Face-to-Face (F2F) formats to remote modalities, simply keep the goals of your course at the forefront of your planning. What is in the course description? Let that lead you to make decisions. 

Consider Yourself and Your Students
As you contemplate how to provide your course remotely, remember what your responsibilities to the course and to yourself are during this time. Whether full-time or part-time, you juggle many responsibilities. In teaching a course, there are hours per week that you devote to that endeavor, as well as preparation, grading, etc. You also have other professional and personal responsibilities. So, mark out the time to devote in a meaningful way to helping make this happen.

Remember, too, that your students have both a responsibility to their studies and to their personal obligations. For all of us, these obligations may have undergone a Big Shift related to remote learning, teaching, work, and otherwise. Some students, or their families, may be undergoing historic shifts in how they live, work, etc.

Also, just as faculty members may have varying degrees of familiarity and experience with online learning, so too do students. So, just as you might be learning some new ways to do things, remember that your students will need an introduction to this new way too. You can help them through this by thinking about how to deliver your course remotely, and how to be clear in communicating and showing them how to do it. 

What Does This Mean?
At this point, you may be wondering how you will actually offer your course. This is a decision that you need to make, and it can involve various methods. Here are a few, depending on the level of familiarity that you and your students may have with online learning:

• No Familiarity: Consider the provision of instructions by email, and submission by either email or snail-mail. (This is important if some students do not have access to electronics. (See this post about Berea College, which serves a population of students who are not necessarily all able to afford the technology needed for an online delivery.) 
• Some Familiarity: Consider using a learning management system, such as Canvas, etc., that your institution uses to set up assignments for submission, and possible discussion groups. You could also provide online lectures that are in real-time using Zoom or a similar platform for real time (synchronous) lectures/discussions, or an uploaded video of your lecture to YouTube. You can check with your institutions' technology offices to obtain help with this. In this case, choose one or more option here.  
• Full Familiarity: If you have already been using these platforms, then consider adding chat rooms, discussion boards, online quizzes, and using any modality that makes sense to you. Don't rework your entire class, though. Make it something that transitions easily from your current mode of delivery into finishing the semester online.  Remember: Don't stress yourself or your students out even more!

A few final thoughts...
This is a time to communicate with your students. Let them know what you are doing, what steps you are going to take, and that you will send out the information when you have it. Remember that good teaching is about being clear, flexible, and compassionate. (For more on these tips of tips, see this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education.) 

We are in for a bumpy ride. Let's fasten our seatbelts, read the safety manual, and remember to look after ourselves and others. With common goals, good intentions, and a clear, compassionate plan, we will help everyone get through the rest of this semester. If we can do that, we will have become a little more resilient, and helped our students to do so as well.

Be safe. Be well. Also, let me know if there are any other topics you would like covered. I will do my best to do so in the coming days and week.  

D. E.  Crone-Todd, Ph.D.  

Welcome to "Teaching as Learning", my new blog related to ideas I learn along the way regarding university-level teaching. As a behavioral scientist, I have found that teaching really is both an art and a science. So much can be learned by reviewing and analyzing what works, and what doesn't, and then adjusting what is done. I hope you find this helpful!

For today's post, I thought I would talk about lessons learned from giving feedback in online learning environments. I have taken, TA'd, and taught online, hybrid, and in-person university and college courses for some time. Online learning is the wave of the future, but we want to make sure that we do this is a way that is impactful and high quality.

Many of us uphold high standards in our classes, and give feedback to help our students learn how to do things better. This can include giving praise, prompting or cuing for more information, explaining why something is incorrect, etc. In other words, we try to provide formative (developmental) feedback, as well as summative (final, end-of-semester) feedback, to communicate how well the student's work corresponds to the expectations for the assignment or exam.

One important thing I discovered years back when teaching online courses is that students will take some forms of feedback more personally and in an emotional manner than they will other types of feedback. This is important because emotional reactions can lead to misunderstandings between well-meaning faculty and students, and the student may lose interest or become frustrated  in an otherwise important course. However, in some cases this was easily solved by simply changing the language we use to provide feedback.

Simply put, my own experience as an instructor and as a supervisor of teaching assistants, taught me to: (a) personalize the praise; and (b) depersonalize the constructive criticism. Using an example, there were huge differences in the number of complaints I received related to teaching assistants when comparing these two different types of feedback. Here they are, and how they differ.

Personalized versus Depersonalized Praise
Essentially, the difference is between saying, "You did a great job" versus "Great job"! Generally, there is little difference in student reactions to these types of phrases. "Excellent draft" versus "You wrote an excellent draft!" also typically results in little difference in terms of interactions with students. However, when there are constructive, critical comments that need to be made along with praise, personalizing at least one aspect of the praise does seem to make a difference. For example, if a student had a number of revisions to make, finding one or two things to praise is important and tends to result in less frustration on the part of the student. Even if the writing is full of errors, etc., one could always state something positive about the choice of topic. However, be sure that the praise is something that is praise-worthy, and not something like, "Good margins!".  

Personalized versus Depersonalized Constructive Criticism
Here is where the reactions of students really differ, and usually lead to flurries of interactions between the student and professor, and possible the chair or head of the department. It seems like such a small thing, but providing depersonalized constructive criticism is usually better received than personalize constructive criticism. Consider giving feedback on a grammatically incorrect sentence. Here are two possibilities:

• You need to correct the grammar in this sentence
• This sentence is grammatically incorrect

Invariably, whenever I have had student complaints about feedback from TAs or instructors, there has been more of the former type of feedback. Commons statements such as "Your example is incorrect because...", "You need to improve your grammar and spelling..", and so forth were common in this situations. Once I met with the TA or the instructor and we shifted such statements to ones such as "The example is incorrect because...", or "The spelling and grammar need correcting...", almost no complaints were received regarding the students' perception that the person came across as rude, disrespectful, etc.  

Now, it is worth pointing out that I do not believe the instructor or TA were being rude or disrespectful. In fact, knowing these wonderful people in person, I know that if the course were in-person the way in which they would say the exact same sentence would come across in an entirely different way. However, without the benefit of facial expression, body language, and tone/modulation of voice, the recipient of the feedback may hear it differently "in their head" when reading the feedback.

A few more points that you might find helpful:

• DON'T USE ALL CAPS because it sounds like you are yelling. Of course, ONE or TWO words in a sentence might be all right, as long as it is not personalized constructive feedback!
• Try to avoid typos and grammatical mistakes on your own part. If you have problems with spelling and grammar, consider typing out your comments in Word or a similar app to check your writing first. Be the model you want your students to follow. 

A Word to Students
If you happen to read this as a student, please know that your professors and instructors really care about giving you feedback. If you get feedback that seems rude or disrespectful, take a little time to read it out loud using a helpful voice to see if you can act and react differently to it.  

Final Comments
This information is meant to help us think about how we provide written feedback. This approach will not solve every problem, but I have found it to be helpful to both those who provide, to those who receive, feedback. Perspective-taking is important in this process, and takes a while to develop. I know that I am still learning, and as I teach and research these topics, more will be learned. Iterative processes are like that.

(In case you would like to read any of my earlier publications, here is a link to Google Scholar.)
Many thanks to Dr. Michael Christie for his helpful feedback on this post. Any mistakes are my own, and I take full responsibility for them. 

Darlene Crone-Todd, Ph.D.