Teaching at NDNU

Teaching at NDNU

The Hallmarks in daily teaching

The Hallmarks show up in how you greet students, how you respond to mistakes, what you choose to assign. You will not embody all seven equally. Notice which ones your discipline and your students most call for, and make those visible.

• Dignity of each person. Learn and pronounce student names correctly from day one. Use the names and pronouns students give you. Address microaggressions rather than letting them stand.
• Justice and peace. Build readings and examples that include diverse voices. Surface the ethics of your discipline, not as a bolt-on unit. Make grading transparent.
• Diversity. Vary your examples to reflect who NDNU actually serves. Treat language and cultural difference as resources, not deficits.
• Community. Build collaboration into the design — group work, peer review, study teams. Recognize student contributions visibly.
• Educating for life. Teach the habits of mind students use forever: how to read a complex argument, revise their thinking, sit with uncertainty.

Inclusive teaching, concretely

Names and pronouns from day one. Learn to pronounce every student's name. This is the single most consistent thing NDNU students name as making them feel respected.

Equitable participation. Vary the mode — cold call paired with think-pair-share, written reflection paired with discussion. Wait longer after asking a question; the first hands up crowd out students who think more carefully. Use small groups so quieter students have a lower-stakes place to contribute.

First class, first week

Students decide a lot in the first session. Is this someone I can ask questions of? Do I belong here? You will not erase a bad first class with a strong middle of the term. A strong first class earns you margin for the rough weeks.

• Publish your Canvas course at least a week out — CETL recommends two — and walk Student View to confirm everything renders.
• Introduce yourself fully. Not the CV. Why do you teach this course?
• Walk the syllabus lightly. Hit outcomes, schedule, policies, and what to do this week. Nobody has ever been won over by a full read-through.
• Get into something substantive. Do not spend the whole first class on logistics.
• Give a low-stakes formative assessment by the end of week one. It tells you who is engaged while you can still do something about it.
• Reach out to students who do not engage in week one. Early intervention prevents most attrition.

Accessibility

Accessibility is far easier to build in than to retrofit — and everything you make between now and your first class can be accessible from birth. The high-value moves: use real heading styles (not bold text); add alt text that describes the image's purpose; write descriptive links ("Read the HBR article on remote work," not "click here"); caption every video and correct the auto-captions; and use built-in PowerPoint layouts rather than loose text boxes, then run Review → Check Accessibility.

Sustainable teaching

Faculty who do this work for years figure out how to sustain it. Faculty who do not tend to burn out by year three. Two failure modes:

The sustainable middle is not "do less" — it is do less of the wrong things and more of the right things. Set an honest response-time expectation and hold it. Pick two or three things to say on a paper, not everything. Hold office hours at consistent times and use them for other work if nobody comes. Grade early in the day, not at 9 p.m.

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