Celebrating CETL Authors
Two CETL educators are releasing books this semester—and the UM community is invited to their launch parties!
It’s not every semester that your colleague releases an amazing book—and it’s even rarer for two colleagues to release amazing books in the space of only a few months!
This fall, we at CETL will be celebrating two book launches. The first is for our director, Dr. Joshua Eyler, and his book Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do About It. The second is for associate director Dr. Liz Norell and her book The Present Professor: Authenticity and Transformational Teaching. Read more about their books—and a new book project of my own—below.
Failing Our Future
Josh’s book was released just last month. Written for an audience of parents and students as well as educators, he shares research on how grades inhibit learning and motivation, damage parent/child relationships, negatively impact student mental health, and magnify social inequities.
More importantly, however, he also discusses how we can address these problems at home, in the classroom, and in our educational systems more broadly. In the final chapters, Josh examines the many forms of alternative grading that have become increasingly common at universities like UM in the past few years and profiles several colleges that have been educating without grades for decades.
As author Jeff Selingo writes, Josh’s book is “an indispensable read for every educator and every parent.” You can purchase it anywhere books are sold, including our local independent bookstore, Square Books.
We’re also thrilled to celebrate the book with our colleagues at the University of Mississippi. The book launch for Failing Our Future will take place on Friday, October 18 from 2:00-3:30 pm at the Butler Auditorium, in the Triplett Alumni Center. At the event, Josh will be in conversation with Dr. Tom Brady, Chair and Associate Professor of UM’s Department of Teacher Education. If you’re a member of the UM community, we invite you to join us by registering below!
The Present Professor
The second book we’re celebrating this semester is by Liz Norell. In The Present Professor, Liz addresses educators at a time when many of us are overwhelmed, unsure, and just plain stressed. She suggests that, in the midst of this turmoil, our presence and authenticity as instructors can be transformational—for students and for ourselves.
But this kind of authentic presence can be hard to come by. If we want to create spaces of inclusion, learning, and growth for our students, Liz argues, we must first focus on overcoming our own struggles and insecurities in the classroom. Her book provides a valuable guide for doing so. In an academic environment where we’re often asked to set our feelings aside and power through crisis after crisis, Liz invites us to slow down and prioritize our own wellbeing, engaging in the inner work that can make our classrooms into spaces of transformation.
Fellow authors have called Liz’s book “a breath of fresh air” and “a map to meaning and fulfillment in a faculty career.” The Present Professor will be released in December, but you can pre-order your copy now from the University of Oklahoma Press’s Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed series.
We’ll be celebrating Liz’s book launch here at UM on Friday, December 6 from 1:00-2:30 pm at the Butler Auditorium in the Triplett Alumni Center. At the event, Liz will be joined by CETL director Josh Eyler and other invited guests as they discuss the key ideas of the book. If you’re a member of the UM community, we invite you to join us by registering below!
And in other book news…
I’m thrilled to announce that I, Emily, recently signed a contract to write a book provisionally titled Collaborative Grading: A Practical Guide for Oklahoma University Press’s Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed series! The book will provide a step-by-step guide to designing and teaching a collaboratively graded course, offering concrete advice for college instructors who are interested in involving students in the grading process. Stay tuned for more news about this exciting project!
On a personal note, I want to say how proud I am of my colleagues and how exciting it is to see their ideas out in the world. And I’m looking forward to honoring their accomplishments at our book launches. I hope you can join us!