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Category Archives: Teaching Portfolios
The Weepy Teaching Statement: Just Say No
A while back I wrote a post called “The Worst Job Letter Ever Written (Not Really).” Today I want to share with you a similarly awful teaching statement (with kind permission of the writer, discipline obscured.) I don’t call it … Continue reading
Banish These Words
Do not use the words “unique” or “burgeoning” in any of your job documents. They are painfully overused. The first is just trite. The second is over-dramatic. That is all.
Posted in Graduate Student Concerns, How to Get Grants and Fellowships, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Teaching and Research Statements, Teaching Portfolios, Writing Instrumentally
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Damning Yourself With Faint Praise–Teaching Edition
For some reason people love to include undergraduate student feedback in the teaching paragraph of their job letters, and that feedback usually looks like this (from an actual letter): “Former students have consistently told me that I give helpful feedback … Continue reading
What the Heck is “Assessment”? (A Guest Post)
Today’s post is a Guest Post from a faithful reader and client on the tenure track, and also on the job market, who discovered some interesting points about “assessment” while she was at some interviews this year. More and more … Continue reading
How Would You Mentor Graduate Students? Another #Facepalm Fail
Today I was doing an interview bootcamp and came upon yet another #Facepalm Fail of the academic interview. The #Facepalm Fail is: “How would you mentor graduate students?” Actually, this might not rise to the level of a full-size #Facepalm … Continue reading
How To Give a Teaching Demonstration (A Guest Post)
Today’s post is a Guest Post by Dr. Melissa A Barlett, who is an Instructor in Biology at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica, NY. Melissa kindly came to my rescue when I asked for a post on the Teaching Demonstration. … Continue reading
How To Describe a Course (In an Interview)
Today I am going to devote the post to a brief but vital explanation of how to describe, in an interview, a course you propose to teach. I am doing this as a result of Interview Bootcamps lately, in which … Continue reading
Posted in How to Interview, Teaching Portfolios
Tagged doing a course proposal, proposing a course
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What is Evidence of Teaching Excellence?
Today’s post is a Special Request post for quite a few clients, who wanted to know what is meant when a job ad asks for “Evidence of Teaching Excellence.” I want to state at the outset that I have only … Continue reading
The Dreaded Teaching Statement: Eight Pitfalls
Here at The Professor Is In we have reached the point in the Fall 2011 job market season in which many of our clients have finished work on their job letters and their c.v.s—and damn, do they look good!–and have … Continue reading
