Student Guide Corner

By  Lew Ludwig  (Editor-in-Chief),  Denison University As the academic year comes to a close, Teaching Tidbits is headed for summer vacation. We hope you enjoyed the inaugural year of the blog and found it useful for your classroom. As you prepare for next year�s classes, be sure to read our posts from the last year, particularly our three most popular posts: 5 Ways to Respond When Students Offer Incorrect Answers How to Deal with Math Anxiety in Students   5 Reflective Exam Questions That Will Make You Excited About Grading   While the blog is on summer holiday, we encourage you to seek out other sources of good teaching tips, like attending the � Encouraging Effective Teaching Innovation � contributed paper session at this year�s MAA MathFest in Chicago this summer. We also welcome your suggestions of topics or ideas for future posts by contacting: teachingtidbits@maa.org . Enjoy your summer and see you in the fall. -The Teaching Tidbits Team

Over the years, I have written occasionally about the role of being a mentor for my students versus being a pure teacher.   Personally, I prefer to be open to mentoring for those students who might want it.   I think many of them like knowing that there is some rather disinterested person available that they can go to and simply say �I need some advice.�  For example, a former student wandered into my office a few days ago who was interested in talking about Teach for America.   This was a decision that had stressed her out and she began to cry.   We chatted for 10-15 minutes.   She didn�t leave dancing or singing but at least she wasn�t crying.  I did not mind listening and giving my opinion. But, at other times, I want to be a mentor to my students without even being asked.   I want to butt into their lives just a little bit�especially as it deals with college and their education.   Without any request, I ...

By  Dana Ernst ,  Contributing Editor,   Northern Arizona University Active learning is all the rage these days, and with good reason. As teachers embrace active learning, students are building problem solving skills that promote analysis and evaluation of the content they are given in the classroom. Read on to learn how active learning can give your teaching style a makeover. Active learning has been gaining traction over the past few years, aided in part by public approval from several entities, including the 15-member society presidents of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences in 2016. Active learning comes in several shapes and sizes, and inquiry-based learning (IBL) is just one of many forms. In particular, the IBL community has grown up to be very active and supportive in the past few decades. Loosely speaking, IBL is a pedagogical framework characterized by two essential principles: students deeply engage in meaningful problems, and  students coll...