Claire and Ruth discuss supporting students doing oral presentations. Acknowledging the difficulty of presenting, Claire is generous with her grading and uses a rubric for feedback. She wonders how to share her presentation tips without being overwhelming. Ruth finds having frequent low stakes assignments helps students overcome anxiety. She also wants to convince students to practice their presentations.

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As some of us return to work on campus, Claire and Ruth discuss spending time with colleagues. Ruth remembers how effective working in a group can be. She wants to find the balance between the efficiency of working from home with the benefits of collegial interactions. Claire has been excited to hear about other teaching approaches from colleagues. She is still finding her feet with resuming face-to-face communication.

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While the STEM classes that Claire and Ruth teach are very math heavy, lab reports and reflection assignments have a written component. Claire finds that a rubric can be a powerful tool for feedback. She is wondering about implementing peer reviews as a stage in the writing process. Ruth sees the benefit of developing student writing skills but lacks confidence in her own writing and ability to teach it.

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Ruth and Claire have different ways of encouraging attendance in their classes. Claire does not assign attendance points and instead attempts to make classes engaging and fun. Ruth has had attendance points for years but recognizes challenges. What does it mean to attend? Is she being paternalistic?

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Bells and whistles are things we can add to our classes that are beyond the bare essentials. But which are worth the added effort and class time? Ruth feels good about some extra assignments she developed to help students feel welcome in her class. Claire developed a set of flashcards that students quizzed each other with during class time. Ruth wonders whether she needs to change the bells and whistles for a different demographic of students next semester. Claire is fine tuning her final project to maximize student engagement.

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In their 100th episode, Ruth and Claire discuss taking projects one step at a time. Claire notes that having undergraduate research broken into weekly tasks adds up to getting good research over the semester. Claire would like to apply one piece at a time to writing papers.

Ruth finds that only looking at the next step soothes her anxiety. Ruth is struggling with switching from planning to action.

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After experimenting with very loose deadlines, Ruth is convinced they don’t work for her. Claire’s late policy includes two late passes, no excuses needed (or accepted). Ruth is excited about developing a clear late policy. Claire is working on advising lagging students on how to catch up, and, if necessary, how to withdraw.

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Ruth was inspired by a colleague to think positively about students making a change of major. Claire uses advising meetings to check in with struggling students to see if they need a different strategy or a change of major. Ruth is wary of crushing dreams by suggesting people change majors. Claire wonders how to help students who really want to continue with their major but are struggling with it.

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Mathematics professor Bori Mazzag joins Claire to talk about capstone projects. Bori’s department has just finished a major curriculum overhaul that included designing a new project-based capstone course. She is excited about the students being able to work on teams to develop their own projects, and she’s wondering how to handle grading when the projects have different levels of difficulty/risk. Claire’s department has a very different format for their capstone course: a seminar where seniors delve into a research paper of interest and present a full 40 minute seminar to the department. Claire likes that this is a big deal for the students: completing it often boosts their confidence in their abilities and is something they can be proud of. She is wondering about how to help a few students for whom the project gets too overwhelming.

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Claire enjoyed advising students about proposals for a specific NSF call. Ruth now makes sure to send opportunities to the entire class rather than relying only on individual conversations. Claire is working on advising students on other career pathways. Ruth wants to make connections with programmes to find out specifics about what they are looking for in students.

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