Home

Past Articles

Conferences

Citation Information

Feedback

About the Authors

Subscription Information

Submission Guidelines

Editorial Welcome

By Mona Pelkey

Dear Readers,

March means a lot of different things to the academic—spring break, midterms, dealing with winter fatigue and that vague restlessness that accompanies the oncoming spring, and the ironic feeling of relief/panic that before we know it, the semester will be over. It is also a time to reflect upon how the semester is going, and what we can do to improve our students’ and our own performance. We ask ourselves, “Will we accomplish our goals?” and “Will our students accomplish their goals?” This reflection reveals the gaps between what we are doing and hoping to accomplish and what is actually occurring. Thankfully, a good way to learn how to fill in those gaps is to use information gleaned from the excellent articles in The Learning Center Exchange!

Of course, March is also time for many papers to be written/turned in/graded. How many of us have wished, over and over, that students would just proofread those papers, just once, before turning them in? Kyle Cushman has written a concise and helpful article on how to teach students to edit their papers. (I taught English, reading, and study skills and I always learn something from Kyle’s columns.) Our humor columnist, Barbara McLay, shares with us the unintended, hilarious miscommunications that occur when students do not proofread or think things through! As she says in the title of her column, “Sometimes you have to laugh!” You just have to read these! They will make your day.

Dennis Congos writes about the irony of failure and its relationship to true success in his article this month. As always, he has turned this information into a great handout for students, especially for those students who are afraid to take academic risks. In a related article, I write some suggestions to help students, anxious about retaking failed exams, to succeed.

In her monthly column, “Understanding Today’s Students,” Julianne Scibetta offers insight into society’s expectations of women, and how higher education impacts and sometimes conflicts with women’s expectations for themselves. This article is a must-read for anyone who works with female students! In addition, Julianne shares with us more challenging brain teasers—I am stumped again this month, but how about you? Why not give them a try, just for fun?

We do hope you enjoy our publication this month!

All the best,

Mona

Questions or comments? Contact the author at mpelkey@learningassistance.com.

More about the author

Printable Version

Back to top