One of the things I love about Disney is thinking about the “backstage” aspects of it. The fact that it’s a workplace that exists in fantasy but also very much in reality. The fact that on one side of a door is a Castle and Cinderella greeting guests to her kingdom, and 5 feet away …
The Lie Destroying America: If It’s Important, They’ll Call
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the power of a telephone call. I live in a region where many people still believe that the only way to get action on anything is to call someone, which leads to many, mostly in the younger generation, having extremely awkward phone etiquette. Both Karey & I often …
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About Your Instructor
Our learning management system asks us to write an “About your Instructor” page for our students. Here’s Fall 2023’s – I think I’ve reached peak “This is who I am”… I was born last century, the only offspring of artists who both never had the opportunity to complete a college degree. From an early age …
Dr. Westfall’s Writing Pet Peeves (a.k.a. How to Write a Paper I Won’t Hate)
We’re at the end of the Summer II term, and I’m reading term papers. It has made me think about the biggest issues I see with student writing today. So here is my list, in no particular order, of my biggest pet peeves. If you are a student in one of my classes, this is …
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BattlingPickle’s PsychOut Discord
A colleague and I are creating a Discord server to discuss psychology and all things related (Technology, community, academia, culture, etc…) We’re hoping to use it with our students, and our colleagues and friends. If you’d like to join in, head over to https://go.jonwestfall.com/psychout and jump in. Right now just a few channels in there …
Explain Everything Demo
I made this in about 5 minutes… sometimes having the right tool means pay a bit of money to speed up your workflow. Could I have done it for free? Yes. As accessibly? No.
I’m Busy – My Best Tips and Tricks for A Productive Professional Life
It’s been awhile since I’ve talked productivity on this blog, but recently I’ve had a number of people point out to me that I’m extremely busy. If you don’t know, I have a few different roles professionally and personally – if you’re really curious, here’s the list as of today. But without boring you, know …
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With a Little Love and Luck, You Will Get By
A message of hope for a good 2021-22 School year
Rest Days that Don’t Break Your Apple Activity Streaks!
If you ask around the internet about rest days, you find a debate between the “be active every day” crowd and those who insist that your body needs recovery time. And honestly, the answer is somewhat in the middle. If you’re doing something that requires regeneration, such as strength training to build muscle, than yes, …
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Easy Class Participation Tracking, Grading, Rubric Generation, and More with Excel
One of my classes this semester requires me to track how often students speak in class, and evaluate each comment. I also have students leading discussion, and I need to be able to generate completed rubrics easily for them so they get my feedback. I’ve found that I can keep track of all of this …