Merry Finals Week!

Merry Finals Week!

Time to decorate the Christmas tree — Image by Paul Nicholson from Pixabay And hit the books — Image by Benjamin Klammt from Pixabay So, how are you doing? Fabulously, I hope; ready to whip through your finals with straight As and already signed up for every class you’ll need next semester. If you’re not…

Commas Made (ALMOST) Simple

Commas Made (ALMOST) Simple

Maybe you’re taking English Comp I next semester, or maybe you’ve got a standardized test coming up, or maybe you’ve got a big, important paper due sometime soon. For any of those reasons, you might actually to get a handle on the most complicated item of punctuation in the English language: the comma. In this…

Taking Responsibility

A college instructor (not at MAC) reminisces: “Early on in my first year of teaching, I remember a student commenting aloud, before the class had really begun, that she was “bored.” I was absolutely astounded. For almost a minute I could not speak. She might as well have accused a cardiologist of being a bad…

AI And Your English Class

AI And Your English Class

Any instructors who assign written work are of course 100% aware of ChatGPT and other text generators. They are 100% aware of humanizer tools. They know all about arguments that AI detectors are not reliable. What can you, as a student planning to take an English class, or facing a written assignment of any kind,…

Learning Does Not Require Magic Rituals

Learning Does Not Require Magic Rituals

How do you learn Algebra? Chemistry? Anatomy? For that matter, how do you learn anything? Pixie dust? Photo by Austin Ban on Unsplash Unfortunately, sprinkling pixie dust across your Intro to Chem book or Human Anatomy slides seems to be an unreliable method. You learn via attentive practice and mindful repetition. Whether you are learning…

Coping with Classes You Can’t Stand

Coping with Classes You Can’t Stand

So, here you are — just finding out that you’re stuck in a class you hate! Photo by Daniel Herron on Unsplash You hate it so much you can’t even stand to study for it. What do you do? This is a problem every single student has to deal with at some point. If you…

Six Weeks Till Finals

Six Weeks Till Finals

Thanksgiving is coming up, then Christmas, and we’ve got just about six weeks to go in the semester! This is the point at which you really need to make sure you’re doing okay in all your classes. Right now, it’s still possible to pull up a grade in almost any class. In a few more…

Good Habits

Good Habits

You’ve probably heard the saying that people are creatures of habit.  That’s pretty much true, isn’t it? Probably most people usually drive home by pretty much the same route, have dinner about the same time, go to bed at about the same time, make the bed the same way every morning – all habits.  And, as…

Launching Into Your Morning

Launching Into Your Morning

What are mornings like in your home? Here’s what you don’t want for your answer: — Desperate searches through the house for your book bag. — Desperate searches through your book bag for the homework you were sure you stuffed in there last night – unless you just dreamed you finished it? Photo by Sabbra…

Answering Forum Prompts

Answering Forum Prompts

“Read Chapter 4. How does the debate over immigration in the 1920s compare to current immigration debates in the United States?”  “Read Chapter 8. Contrast Piaget’s theory about stages of development with Vygotsky’s theory about continuous development. How would these theories differ in their predictions about the consequences of online school during the Covid era?…