Prof. Kristin Stephens-Martinez

I just submitted a grant proposal to NSF CRII . This is a solo grant, which means I wrote the proposal all by myself. I submitted a CRII proposal last year that wasn't accepted. However, I got a lot of good feedback on it. This year's proposal is on a completely different project. However, I was still able to use some of that feedback, which hopefully made this year's proposal stronger. Before too much time has passed, I wanted to reflect on what I did while working on this proposal and how I could do better next time. First, I want to celebrate that I at least got it done and submitted. While it may not feel like a victory, logically, I know that it is a victory. A lot of effort went into writing the proposal, and seeing the effort completed by submitting the proposal is a win in itself. Second, I want to thank everyone that gave me feedback. You are all on a list of names that I plan to notify whether I got the proposal as soon as I find out. In this reflection, I...

A term I made up and have been using for a while is "GPS syndrome." And it turns out that enough people have picked up this term that I feel like I need to post an "official" definition. I most commonly use the metaphor when talking about and with teaching assistants (TAs) that overhelp students. So this blog post is mostly from a google doc I wrote for new TAs for one of their training sessions. Definition " Scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process. The term itself offers the relevant descriptive metaphor: teachers provide successive levels of temporary support that help students reach higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition that they would not be able to achieve without assistance. Like physical scaffolding, the supportive strategies are incrementally removed when they are no longer needed, and the...