Dr. Bethany N. Morrison

This is the best comment ever! Thank you!

Promoting Democracy: Fostering Skills for Better Civil Discourse Resources to support instructors preparing students for productive engagement with differing viewpoints, values, and experiences.

I've been wanting to write more—from my own voice—and the CRLT Substack made a small step possible. This piece is intended as a guided tour of some CRLT and Ginsberg resources supporting instructors building skills for better civil discourse #highered #teachlearnsky
crlt.substack.com/p/promoting-...

How can you manage hot moments in the classroom when just about any topic can be a hot one?

Today on the podcast I talk with @prairiedogking.bsky.social and @bethanynmorrison.bsky.social about navigating high-stakes discussions in the year 2025.

www.buzzsprout.com/2069949/epis...

Anyone else use Steve’s Lava Chicken to explain the concept of “bad” words to their kids?

Ways my PhD training fundamentally altered my brain, part 51: I just thought to myself: potential meanings of "teaching statement" has a very narrow distribution, while "teaching portfolio" has quite a wide one. How do I communicate that like a normal person? Should I make a graph?

Thanks, Mirya! I'll check these out! (Incidentally, I just met Tyler at a new U-M faculty event and he first pointed me to civicsearch!)

CivicSearch Search local government meetings and texts

that help students 1. learn about how these races connect to issues they care about or 2. help them research the candidates in these low-information races. For example, civicsearch.org has this potential. TIA! ( @mirya.bsky.social @emayfarris.bsky.social ? - sheesh, I need to meet more S&L folks!)

CivicSearch Search local government meetings and texts

Hey #polisky, esp. folks who teach state & local politics, I'm working on a short piece on supporting students' engagement in down-ballot/local elections *across the disciplines.* I'm looking for resources/tools students could engage with as an in-class activity or homework...

Ugh. Why’s it so hard to pick up a class to adjunct??? 😫Come on! I’m super qualified—My fulltime role is all pedagogy all the time. I have a PhD from a top 20 school. I don’t need much from you, local colleges! Just want to do the thing I love, so I can enjoy & be good at supporting others doing it.

Does anyone else find themselves using an em-dash to avoid using too many exclamation points in email???? Gotta rein it in for #highered

#academicsky

Cory Booker's anti-Trump speech on the Senate floor has lasted 19 hours and counting The New Jersey Democrat has been criticizing the Trump administration's policies on immigration, education, the economy and more since 7 p.m. Monday. Here's what to know about his marathon speech.

Can you imagine if the record for holding the Senate floor was done in the spirit of John Lewis's "good trouble" and not held by a segregationist blocking civil rights?

www.npr.org/2025/04/01/n...

PDTS - Classroom Activities for Engaging with Politics, Policy, and Social Issues_Handout Classroom Activities for Engaging with Politics, Policy, & Social Issues Across the disciplines, we have valuable opportunities to support our students’ civic learning and democratic engagement by fos...

Last fall, I shared a piece on selecting activities for engaging with politics, policy, & social issues in #highered classes. I created a graphic handout to compliment the piece. It’s nonpartisan, with lots of specific activities linked to civic skills students are developing. tiny.cc/PDTS_handout

Crafting a Winning Teaching Dossier/Portfolio: Insider Secrets to Stand Out in the Academic Job Market — UVA Teaching Hub <p>How do you successfully document your teaching? In this collection, you will explore self-study approaches that provide you with an authentic representation of your teaching based on evidence of wh...

Resource share! I often get questions about teaching portfolios in my workshops on teaching statements. I've found this #highered job document hard to parse. @ckorpan.bsky.social demystifies it in this guide. I'm excited to start sharing it with our graduate students. #EdDev #FacDev
tiny.cc/81r8001

sigh. Thanks, ya’ll. I don’t see a
clear path for this, but I’ll try to be more attentive/open to possibility.

Hey #EdDev / #FacDev community, last term I did public-facing writing for the first time in ages. It felt good. The pressure of the election cycle (this was the work on teaching during an election) helped me carve out the time. In the absence of that external force, how do you make it happen?

Tip: Tame the Email Monster Strategies for helping students find answers to their questions more quickly, without being "on call" 10 hours a day.

higheredpraxis.substack.com/p/tip-tame-t...

Dealing with academic email Either we profs are in charge of our email, or it's in charge of us.

Looking for resources for managing the deluge of student emails, particularly in large courses. Breana Bayraktar & @roberttalbert.bsky.social have great pieces on it from a few years ago (shared below), but wondering what else folks share with faculty. #facdev #eddev

rtalbert.org/dealing-with...

a stuffed animal with the words oh written on it Alt: baby Fozzy the Bear sighs and looks crestfallen with the word "oh" overlaying it.

In the morning, I'm all "Yes, I CAN carve out a role for myself, where I can teach, write about teaching, work on civic education across the curriculum, and facilitate impactful programming for faculty. In fact, I'm going to do X and Y and Z today." By the end of the day, I'm all

@michael-palmer.bsky.social IS @-able!

Holistic Teaching Effectiveness Framework (UVA) — UVA Teaching Hub <p>This collection highlights a range of teaching effectiveness frameworks developed for higher education contexts, primarily research-intensive institutions. These frameworks provide analytical appro...

It is important that we care about the quality of teaching in higher ed, but there are major limitations to only relying on SETs to assess it. check out Michael Palmer’s great new resource on alternatives (you know, for once you have that tenure!)

teaching.virginia.edu/collections/...

Also @bschmidt.bsky.social 's interactive and easy-to-use chart on gendered language in teaching reviews. I think a lot about how instructors could ask undergraduates to engage with it.
benschmidt.org/profGender/#...

Resource Share: At least once a semester, I reference or share @mirya.bsky.social, Ellen Key, and Rebecca Kreitzer's excellent annotated bibliography of research on bias in teaching evaluations. #favdev #eddev #AcademicSky
rebeccakreitzer.com/summaries-of...

Wait. There’s a keyboard shortcut for adding links??? This is huge!

Resource share: Georgetown's CTL developed an Inquiry and Discourse Toolkit for instructors in higher ed. It's incredibly well-researched and very thoughtful about the role of belonging, equity, and inclusion in dialogue across difference and deep inquiry into beliefs & assumptions. tiny.cc/znv4001

Loving a teenager has reduced me to arguing with an *artisan slime company's* customer support. If I buy $$$ artisan slime on 11/30 & you need 6 days (!!!) to process my order, then you should refund me when the USPS is still waiting on said slime on 12/17. Your ruining Christmas, Snoop Slimes.

Holding Class While Holding Our Breath, with Betsy Barre – Teaching in Higher Ed Betsy Barre discusses the times when we are holding our breath while holding class on episode 548 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast

ICYMI: Elizabeth Barre's academic background (and teaching experiences!) make this interview with @bonni208.bsky.social on instructor neutrality so rich and nuanced.

teachinginhighered.com/podcast/hold...

UMich_CRLT_Strategies for Effective Faculty-GSI Collaboration Strategies for Effective Faculty-GSI Collaboration Invest in team development through regular contact and communication Learn about team member experiences in face to face and remote teaching contexts...

We talk about how #highered instructors, unlike K-12, receive little training in pedagogy. We develop another key skill ad hoc: how to effectively & equitably lead a team of Grad Student Instructors (TAs). Here's a helpful resource by my CRLT colleagues to support this work: tiny.cc/8k51001

Emily's reflection doesn’t gloss over the real challenges folks are facing with student reading/writing in #highered, but leaves space for hope. I love that she shared a specific practice that can encourage us & our students to take note of our learning progress. #academicSky #TeachLearnSky

Policy writing overview

Resource share: When I first shared this infographic on policy writing from U-M Ford School's Writing Center, it was to encourage instructors to breakaway from the traditional academic paper—policy writing is a pleasure to grade! It's improved my own writing, though, that's a bonus! tiny.cc/dz3zzz

Still pretty sure I’m not doing Bluesky right.