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Tuesday Tips
Meet Dr. Ann McCoy!
The creative mind behind our weekly Tuesday Tips!
With a career in education spanning more than four decades, Ann brings a wealth of
experience as a classroom teacher, mathematics educator, faculty member, and academic
leader. Since joining UCM in 2006, she has served in a variety of roles, including
Chair of the School of Teaching and Learning, Associate Dean, Dean of the College
of Education, and currently Interim Vice Provost of Academic Programs & Graduate Studies.
Each week, Ann draws on her years of teaching and leadership experience to share a
practical Tuesday Tip designed to support UCM faculty. Whether it’s a simple teaching
strategy, a fresh way to engage students, or a reminder that small changes can make
a big difference, her goal is to offer ideas that are easy to use and meaningful for
both faculty and students.
We hope you’ll make Tuesday Tips part of your week and find a few ideas along the
way that inspire your teaching!
September 22, 2026
Good morning!
Unbelievably, we will soon be at the midpoint of the fall semester. Mid-semester is a great time to gather feedback from your students to use to guide your planning for the remainder of the semester.The evaluation data we collect at the end of the semester has the potential to change the next class for future students BUT a mid-semester feedback opportunity will provide benefits to the same students who provide the feedback.
UCM’s The Teaching Toolkit includes a section titled “Invite Feedback Before the Course Ends”.This section provides a plan for gathering mid-semester feedback.
- Choose three or four questions tied to decisions you can make. Research has indicated a few open-ended questions provide the best information. Here are some example questions:
- How clear are the assignment instructions and grading criteria?
- Which course resources are most helpful for your learning?
- What actions are you taking to support your own learning in this course?
- What is the biggest obstacle preventing you from performing your best in this class?
- What should the instructor continue doing, stop doing, or start doing to support your learning?
- Collect responses anonymously. A Google form or an exit ticket are two ways (among many) you could collect responses.
- Once you have received responses, sort the comments into patterns.
- Determine the types of changes the comment patterns suggest and make a plan.
- Small, easy, non-controversial changes that may be made immediately.
- More substantive changes that will shift by the end of the semester.
- Considerations for future semesters.
- Suggestions that can’t/won’t be implemented because they conflict with a core pedagogical goal or philosophy.
- Close the loop by reporting back to students what changes you will make, what must stay the same, and why you made these decisions.
Asking for feedback can feel intimidating. However, showing your students their learning experience and their opinions are important increases engagement and community.
Here are some additional examples of mid-semester feedback options.
Have a great rest of the week!
September 15, 2026
Good morning and happy week 4!
The phrase “Quiet people have the loudest minds” is attributed to physicist Stephen Hawking. As faculty, one challenge we may face is supporting our more quiet, introverted students in sharing their thinking in face-to-face classes. Introverts process information internally and prefer to think before they speak, but often college classrooms encourage fast-paced, verbal participation.
The UCM Teaching Toolkit includes a section on supporting participation without forcing performance and is based on the idea that participation should reflect engagement with learning, not only comfort speaking quickly in front of others. We can accomplish this by giving students time to think before asking them to share. After posing a question, you may choose to give everyone one minute to write, have students respond to a poll, or have students compare ideas with a partner before asking for a whole-class response. And, while silence can feel awkward, extending wait time before calling for a response helps to support quiet students with the processing time they need. This article from the Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning has some additional ideas for encouraging quiet students to participate in class.
Most of the information we’ve shared the past two weeks has been more directly applicable to face-to-face classes. Here is an article from Northeastern Center for Advancing Teaching and :Learning Through Research about the importance of community in online courses.
Have you registered for Dr. Flower Darby’s presentations on October 21? If not, here is the link to do so! Dr. Darby will be sharing ideas for engaging students in both face-to-face and online courses. We hope to see you there!
Have a great week!
September 8, 2026
Good morning!
Last week, we shared a bit about the importance of building community in the university classroom. Today we would like to focus on one aspect of community - peer-to-peer connection.
Peer-to-peer connection and interaction in the classroom helps to transform passive listeners into active participation in the learning process. The benefits of peer-to-peer collaboration include:
- Deeper comprehension of subject matter: Explaining concepts to a classmate reinforces knowledge and reveals gaps in understanding.
- Exposure to cognitive diversity: Collaboration introduces new perspectives on course material.
- Increased confidence: Collaboration builds the feeling of safety needed to speak up or take an academic risk.
- Enhanced communication skills: Small group discussions help students articulate ideas clearly and listen critically.
Our UCM The Teaching Toolkit shares some ways to foster peer-to-peer connection. First, have students work in recurring pairs or trios for brief learning tasks such as comparing a solution, identifying a reading takeaway, testing an explanation, or naming one question before returning to the whole group. You may choose to ask students to share a study strategy, a confusing concept, a project idea, or a question they expect on the exam with a partner.
You may also want to consider forming study groups for the first few weeks of the semester to help students feel supported on assignments and projects. The informal relationships you facilitate initially may lead to self-organized study groups and friendships as the semester progresses.
Finally, this University of Wisconsin La Crosse website includes some additional ideas for enhancing peer interaction in your classroom.
Have a great week!
September 1, 2026
Good morning and happy September!
The term community is used in many contexts but can generally be described as a supportive group in which members have common interests or goals, and feel a sense of belonging. Community building in university classrooms is essential to active student engagement - regardless of course modality. Research has shown developing community in the classroom also leads to greater active participation in dialogue and reflection, and an increase in students taking ownership and responsibility for their learning (Baker, 2010; Berry, 2019; Brown, 2001; Bush et al. 2010; Cowan, 2012; Lohr & Haley, 2018; Sadera et al., 2009). Columbia University’s website provides additional information about the idea of community in the university classroom.
Our UCM The Teaching Toolkit (located on Brightspace and on the DLII website) has a section on Building Community with many easily implemented ideas for you to use. Be sure to take a look! In addition, Faculty Focus, a division of Magna Publications, lists the 15 ideas below for the first five minutes of class to help build community. Intrigued? Here is the article to learn more!
- Play some music
- Greet students as they walk in
- Move the tables and chairs into something other than rows
- Start with epiphanies
- Use entry tickets
- One quote: Five minutes of reflection and discussion
- Quickly create and share something
- Remember those current events
- Bring something important
- Journaling
- Say hi to a neighbor
- Celebrate a success
- Taking the temperature
- Mindfulness activities
- The classic overview
Have a great week!
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