In a real change in emphasis from my last trip here, the first full day at the AAA NFC was devoted to teaching and service! For a while I thought I was at the conference on teaching and learning. But I realized as our breakout group on teaching went long by 15 minutes over it hour length, that was a good thing.

Even in a group dominated by reduced teaching loads 3/0 or 2/1 everyone had a story or question! It reminds me that as a senior academic we may not give our junior colleagues enough support in that area. It suggests department heads and other administrators need to do more than talk about the rhetoric about supporting good teaching! It was a wee bit humbling for this researcher who loves to teach to realize that we may not be so good at letting others know about our passion for teaching and that we did not come to be in the classroom fully formed.

Food for thought!