Tips, tutorials, and commentary on pedagogy, productivity, and technology in higher education.

Author Archives: Natalie Houston

Graduated in Gmail: the Forgotten Attachment Detector

March 15, 2010 in Productivity by Natalie Houston

Ever send an email without the attachment you promised? Here's how Gmail can save you from that error.

add exercise to your conference schedule

March 4, 2010 in Life by Natalie Houston

If you already have a regular exercise routine, or are just starting one, travel of any sort can be disruptive if you don't think ahead a little bit. So here are a few ideas for how to integrate exercise into your conference experience

Try a Mind-Sweep

February 25, 2010 in Productivity by Natalie Houston

One of the basic principles behind David Allen's Getting Things Done productivity cult book is that you should mostly use your brain for what it's good for: thinking, analyzing, and creating. You can free up the mental energy to do these kinds of high-priority and high-reward activities if you stop using your brain as an information storage and retrieval system, things that it generally is less skilled at.

In Case of Emergency

February 9, 2010 in Life by Natalie Houston

Here are two ProfHacker tips I hope you take five minutes to follow but never actually have to test out. If a medical or other emergency occurred in your classroom or in a hallway on your campus, would you know the best number to call? If a medical emergency happened to you while you were on campus, how would responders know who to call?

Myers-Briggs: or how to learn to get along

February 5, 2010 in Life by Natalie Houston

Do you ever sit in a meeting and wonder why no one else in the room seems to understand the right way to set the agenda? Do you ever wonder why your friend wants to go out on the town at conferences and you want to just go back to the hotel and sleep? Does your collaborator's working style make you grit your teeth, but you know he's brilliant so you stick with him anyway? For myself, I've found that the Myers-Briggs system for understanding personality traits has been very helpful in understanding and working through the conflicts that can arise in situations like these.

The Salt Mines. Really??

January 25, 2010 in Life by Natalie Houston

Over the past couple of weeks, I heard at least six people (some at my university, and some who work elsewhere) say the phrase "back to the salt mines" in relation to the start of the new semester. Which led me to wonder two things:

  • Where does this phrase come from?
  • What impact do our metaphors have upon our attitudes about work?

3×3

January 12, 2010 in Life, Productivity by Natalie Houston

The start of the spring semester (or winter quarter) is both all shiny and new and a bit worn and familiar. 15 minutes and three index cards or three pieces of paper can help you quickly clarify your goals for this semester without feeling like you have to start all over again at the beginning.

Paperless Grading with GradeMark

January 6, 2010 in Pedagogy by Natalie Houston

Grading. Who wants to think about grading papers now, at the beginning of January, when the bitter end of last term might not have entirely faded from your memory? Yet the best time to consider changing the format or requirements for student work is now, before assignments are due. In this post, I'm going to discuss using Turnitin.com for receiving student work and its grading component, GradeMark, for digital grading.

The Now Habit

November 30, 2009 in Productivity by Natalie Houston

As we approach the end of the semester, many people in academe (faculty and students alike) discover that they have been or currently are procrastinating about something. Neil Fiore's book The Now Habit can help.

Where’s the fun in funambulism?

November 12, 2009 in Life by Natalie Houston

Despite all the motivational posters you may have seen, balance isn't a state you can achieve. Balance isn't a thing you can grasp or a noun of any sort to be attained. Instead, balance is a continuously changing process.

Got a Minute? Count Backwards.

October 29, 2009 in Life, Productivity by Natalie Houston

Got a minute? Feeling frazzled, overwhelmed, or distracted? Here's another installment in the ProfHacker one-minute body/mind series.

Using LOC subject headings

October 23, 2009 in Pedagogy, Productivity by Natalie Houston

Chances are, the library catalogs you frequently consult have either recently undergone some interface modifications, or might be doing so in the near future. But researchers still need to know older methods too. This post discusses how LOC subject headings are constructed and when and why it is useful to use them.