Rebekah Johnson taught high school Spanish for eight years in the US and the UK. She spent much of that time as Head of Department, training her colleagues on best practices for teaching and the incorporation of Canvas into the classroom. She's currently an Educational Technology Specialist at Norton.
Pedagogy in the Precarious Present: Tips for Teaching Effectively in Challenging Times
The past several semesters have been tremulous with more to come, topping even the anxiety-laden and stress-producing “pandemic semesters.” What new edict will come down today? Will my class end up on the news? Will I be fired, or will my department be shut down? These aren’t just philosophical questions in 2025.
Using InQuizitive to Improve Student Learning—and My Own Teaching
The world outside the classroom is changing. As students struggle to understand challenging concepts and engage with the material, psychology instructors like Elliot Berkman, PhD are turning to InQuizitive to identify their students’ difficulties, adapt their coursework, and encourage students to take control of their learning journeys.
Inclusivity: An Important Aspect of Intimate Relationships Courses
Unlike less personal subjects, teaching intimate relationships involves navigating students’ experiences, perspectives, and beliefs. Students bring personal histories and assumptions to classes on intimacy, which can lead to challenging moments when these deeply held beliefs are questioned. How can instructors address and reframe these preconceived assumptions with respect and empathy?
Separating Science Fact from Science Fiction: Tools for Science Literacy
What gave rise to this seemingly sudden decline in scientific trust? In retrospect, the public’s misapprehension about the value and meaning of science and scientific consensus clearly reflects a failure of science education.
Teaching Difficult Topics in the Humanities Classroom
As a teacher of moral and political philosophy, currently teaching at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford on a Master of Public Policy Degree, I typically teach students from around 50 countries with very different social, educational, and professional backgrounds, and I often encounter passionate disagreement in the classroom. So how do I keep the peace and encourage thoughtful, respectful dialogue?
Using Famous Figure Chatbots to Make Challenging Ideas Accessible: Q&A with Martin Puchner
I started to play around with the technology and was amazed how relatively easy and interesting it was. It made me realize that much of what had driven my work—how to make the past speak to the present, how to read ancient texts, and what it meant that the words of long-dead authors were available to us in the present—was relevant for interacting with chatbots.
Teaching Students to Write Award-Winning Essays
In Spring 2020, I started teaching in the Second Chance Pell program, and I was fortunate to have some gifted students. I decided to submit a couple student essays to the Norton Writer’s Prize competition. One of those essays won the First-Year Writer category, which recognizes original nonfiction by undergraduate writers, and another one was selected for publication in The Norton Field Guide to Writing (with Readings), Sixth Edition.
Making Film Personal: Selecting Engaging Movies for My Students
Whenever I’m teaching a film course at the beginning of a new semester, I am transported back to my own experience as a freshman taking my first film class at the University of Michigan, an introduction to cinema course taught by Hubert Cohen. Professor Cohen, who sadly passed away in March 2024 after teaching into his 90s, stood in front of a class of what must have been 250 people and told us, “My plan is to ruin your experience of going to the movies.” Of course, 18-year-old presumptuous me, thought “Who is this guy? And what’s he got to tell me I don’t already know about movies?”
Using Storytelling to Engage Environmental Science Students
Engaging students in the principals of physics, chemistry, and biology that underlie environmental science can be a challenge, especially in large and introductory classes, which I frequently teach. Over more than three decades as an educator at the college and high school level, I have honed an approach that I find reaches and engages many students in these large, lecture-based classes—teaching about the environment through the lens of people, their lives, and out-of-the-box ideas.