Explore every episode of the podcast Learning Made Easier
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Episode 149: Strategic Half-Assing | 20 Jun 2022 | 00:13:23 | |
We all know a perfectionist who struggles with beliefs like “Only perfect is good enough.” But there is a way to derail those damaging beliefs! Join Adam and Dinur as we talk about the technique of strategic half-assing. Show Notes Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day by Todd Henry Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies System 7 Steps to Remove Toxic Beliefs and Overcome Confirmation Bias | |||
| Episode 148: How to Help Students Focus on Learning, Not Grades | 31 May 2022 | 00:15:45 | |
Often, our students measure learning not by skills gained or new ways of looking at content, but by the grades earned. We have talked about what grades mean in college and that grades should not define students’ identities, but we know they do. So, as teachers, what can we do to help our students focus on learning and growing, rather than on their GPA? Join Dinur and Adam as we discuss this question! Show Notes Edutopia.org, “5 Ways to Help Students Focus on Learning Rather than Grades”
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| Episode 139: How to Be Assertive Without Being Mean | 14 Mar 2022 | 00:21:58 | |
For many people, setting boundaries feels automatically mean. How do we get past feeling like setting a boundary makes us a mean person? In this episode, Dinur and Adam talk about what a boundary is, the feelings people often have about them, how to work through those feelings, and how to set and hold to your boundaries while still being kind. Show Notes
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| Episode 138: How to Stay Safer on Campus | 07 Mar 2022 | 00:20:50 | |
The college lifestyle has been identified as one of the two top criminal victimization lifestyles in the United States (the other one is the criminal lifestyle). If you’re a college student, you’re at risk. Join Adam and Dinur as we discuss some ways to make sure you stay safer on campus. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 137: Four Common Self-Respect Mistakes First-Year Students Make | 01 Mar 2022 | 00:24:28 | |
In this week’s episode, Dinur and Adam talk about the common mistakes first-year students when they don’t have enough self-respect. These mistakes include having too many distractions, not having a support system in place, not getting enough sleep, and not asking for help when it is needed. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 136: Four Financial Mistakes First-Year Students Make | 21 Feb 2022 | 00:22:45 | |
Last episode, we talked about the academic mistakes first-year students tend to make. Join Dinur and Adam as we discuss the financial mistakes first-year students need to be aware of, so they don’t make them! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 135: Four Academic Mistakes First-Year Students Make | 14 Feb 2022 | 00:26:31 | |
Skipping class? Avoiding the professor? Studying only when you think of it? All of these have been identified as common first-year college student mistakes. Join Adam and Dinur as we discuss four common first-year academic mistakes, and how to avoid and correct for them. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 134: Going Back Home After Your First Term or Year | 07 Feb 2022 | 00:47:56 | |
You’ve just experienced your first semester (or first year) in college, and it was eye-opening! Now you’re going home, back to the way things were, while you have a new, changing understanding of the world. But how will home be different? Join Dinur and Adam as we talk about going back home after your first term or year. Show Notes Quora.com, “What Was It Like Going Home for Summer After Your First Year of College?” | |||
| Episode 133: Handling Specific Groups of Difficult People | 31 Jan 2022 | 00:26:57 | |
In the first few episodes of this series, Dinur and Adam talked about how to deal with difficult people. In this final episode of the series, we’re going to do a deeper dive into how to deal with difficult students, classmates, and professors. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 132: Internal Shifts to Help Deal with Difficult People | 24 Jan 2022 | 00:23:07 | |
In addition to what we do in interaction with the difficult person, we also need to take note of how we’re interacting with ourselves. If we’re stressed or angry, that could turn us into a difficult person – and we want to avoid that. Join Adam and Dinur as we talk about some internal work to help us deal with difficult people. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 131: Responding to Difficult People | 17 Jan 2022 | 00:14:05 | |
In our last episode, we talked about how to deal with difficult people before they get really difficult. In this episode, Adam and Dinur talk about ways to respond to difficult people once they’re already doing things that get on your nerves. No show notes this episode | |||
| Episode 130: How to Deal With Difficult People | 10 Jan 2022 | 00:16:49 | |
We’ve all had to deal with that person – the one who irritates us, or seems to be angry all the time, or doesn’t follow through on their part of the group project. But how we deal with them can make a real difference to our stress levels. Join Dinur and Adam as we talk about ways to deal with difficult people! Show Notes https://caps.ku.edu/dealing-with-difficult-people-difficult-situations | |||
| Episode 147: How to Stop Being Afraid of Mistakes | 23 May 2022 | 00:21:51 | |
Mistakes are one of the cornerstones of how learning happens, but many educators and students are afraid of them. Join Dinur and Adam as we discuss why mistakes are beneficial and how to use them to your advantage. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 129: How to Say No | 25 Oct 2021 | 00:19:50 | |
Last time, we talked about how to be assertive with professors and classmates. In this episode, join Adam and Dinur as they talk about ways to approach being assertive, as well as how to handle it when the other person is angry, accusatory, or resistant – and finally, how to say no in ways that will (hopefully) keep the lines of communication open. | |||
| Episode 128: How to Be Assertive | 18 Oct 2021 | 00:10:53 | |
Being assertive is a necessary skill in today’s world, but too many times, we aren’t taught it. In fact, being assertive is discouraged in many cultures because it’s seen as rude or aggressive. But assertiveness is something students need to learn, if they’re going to manage and control their educational experience. It’s what helps you draw boundaries, state what you need, and manage demands made on you and your time – skills you’ll need not just in school but also after graduation. Join Dinur and Adam as we talk about this important skill set! Show Notes
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| Episode 127: Manage Your Time With Parkinson’s Law | 11 Oct 2021 | 00:19:09 | |
Parkinson’s Law says: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. According to Parkinson’s Law, if you allow yourself an hour, it’ll take an hour – and if you allow yourself three hours, it’ll take you three, even if it’s exactly the same task, job, or assignment. Join Dinur and Adam as we talk about how to put Parkinson’s Law to work for you! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 126: Derail Bad Habits by “Playing the Tape” | 04 Oct 2021 | 00:14:15 | |
We’ve all been there. We have work to do, but the video game or the TV show is calling us, and we’d much rather play than work. How do we resist that kind of temptation? One possible way is the technique called “playing the tape.” Join Dinur and Adam as we discuss how to use this technique to derail bad habits and stay on track! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 125: Dealing With Anxiety | 27 Sep 2021 | 00:11:53 | |
Here’s the thing about anxiety: it’s a feeling that tells us “you’re going to die.” It’s an old emotional response to actual danger, and it used to keep us safe. But nowadays, anxiety is usually about things that aren’t actually dangerous. How do we deal with that? Join Adam and Dinur as we talk about how to handle anxiety. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 124: How to Make Study Time Work For You | 20 Sep 2021 | 00:11:16 | |
Have you ever finished a study session and felt like “I didn’t get anything done” or “I don’t remember what I did”? Do you feel like you need to make your study time more effective, but you don’t know how? You’re not the only one! Join Adam and Dinur as we talk about various strategies for making study time work for you! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 123: How to Stop Procrastinating | 13 Sep 2021 | 00:13:07 | |
Procrastination is the bane of many students’ existence. You think you’re on top of things, and suddenly the due date is right on top of you! Worse yet, it makes you feel like you were lazy or stupid or just irresponsible – other people stay on top of their commitments, right? So why can’t you? How do you stop procrastinating? Join Dinur and Adam while we talk about the research on procrastination, and some strategies to cope with it! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 122: Getting Students Participating in Online Discussions | 06 Sep 2021 | 00:25:46 | |
When you’re teaching a class online, discussion boards are a common tool. But what do you do when students don’t participate? In this episode, Dinur and Adam talk about the different reasons students don’t participate and some solutions for those problems, and also provide some tips to students! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 121: Should You Use Public Transportation? | 30 Aug 2021 | 00:09:28 | |
What are the advantages of using public transportation when you’re a student? Join Dinur and Adam as we discuss this issue. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 120: Should You Change Your Major? | 23 Aug 2021 | 00:13:46 | |
You entered college expecting to major in something (be it engineering, criminal justice, art history, or literally anything else). But a few courses in, and the material just isn’t clicking for you or isn’t as interesting as you had hoped. When should you change your major? Join Adam and Dinur as we discuss this question! Show Notes
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| Episode 146: Patchwriting – What It Is, and How to Avoid It | 16 May 2022 | 00:13:04 | |
Patchwriting is a form of plagiarism that most students aren’t aware is plagiarism – substituting in words into the sentence structure of a source. It’s like Academic MadLibs. In this episode, Adam and Dinur compare paraphrasing to patchwriting, explain why patchwriting is a form of plagiarism, and go over how to paraphrase instead of patchwrite. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 119: Twice Exceptional | 16 Aug 2021 | 00:23:08 | |
Twice-exceptional, in a broad sense, means a student who is both gifted in at least one area, and disabled as well. Join Adam and Dinur as we talk about what it means to be twice-exceptional when you’re in college. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 118: How to Thank Your Professors | 09 Aug 2021 | 00:14:35 | |
You’ve had a class that was just absolutely fantastic, and you’d like your professor to know it. What are the best ways of showing that appreciation? Believe it or not, there are good and bad ways – join Dinur and Adam as we discuss them! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 117: There’s No Such Thing as “Lazy” | 02 Aug 2021 | 00:25:11 | |
The word “lazy” is a pretty nasty word. It’s negative and abusive. So why do we use it so much? Join Dinur and Adam as we discuss what “lazy” actually means, what we think it means, and what to do about it. Show Notes
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| Episode 116: FOMO – the Fear of Missing Out | 19 Jul 2021 | 00:15:51 | |
How do you decide what to keep and do, and what to ignore and discard, as a college student? The heart of this question is FOMO, or the fear of missing out. Join Adam and Dinur as we discuss what FOMO is and how to combat it when you’re in college! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 115: Handling Stress and Staying Focused in a Pandemic | 12 Jul 2021 | 00:34:28 | |
The COVID-19 pandemic has created stressful and overwhelming challenges, which can cause strong emotions in adults and children. But learning to cope with stress in a healthy way will make you, the people you care about, and those around you become more resilient. Join Dinur and Adam as we go over guidelines from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control, on dealing with stress during COVID-19. Show Notes
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| Episode 114: How to Manage Work AND School | 05 Jul 2021 | 00:15:55 | |
You’re working part time or full time, taking classes, and potentially taking care of family. How will you manage your stress so your grades stay good and that you don’t burn out at work? Join Adam and Dinur as we discuss this issue! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 113: College Presentations and Social Anxiety | 28 Jun 2021 | 00:16:40 | |
The dreaded word “presentation” strikes fear into the hearts of many students, especially when they have social anxiety. But there are ways to handle it and give a great presentation! Join Adam and Dinur as we talk about some ways to address presentation anxiety. Show Notes
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| Episode 112: How to Handle Finals Week | 21 Jun 2021 | 00:14:53 | |
Finals week is an extremely stressful time for both professors and students, because of the sense of being overwhelmed. How can we make finals week a little less awful for teachers and students? Join Dinur and Adam as we discuss this issue! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 111: How to Handle Mistakes | 14 Jun 2021 | 00:13:02 | |
Some mistakes are just embarrassing, and some have possible effects on your grade, your degree, or worse. How do you approach your professor when you’ve made a mistake? Listen to Dinur and Adam talk about different kinds of mistakes and how to handle them! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 110: Keeping in Touch | 07 Jun 2021 | 00:32:59 | |
Keeping in touch is hard enough when we’re all on campus. But how do you maintain solid relationships with classmates, peers, and professors in the middle of a pandemic? Join Dinur and Adam as we talk about how to handle this problem! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 145: The Blame Game | 09 May 2022 | 00:22:30 | |
It’s way too easy to blame others and ourselves when things go wrong. But there are more healthy ways to handle problems! In this episode, Dinur and Adam talk about what blame is, why we do it, how it interferes with learning and growing, and what to do instead. Show Notes
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| Episode 109: How to Handle Final Exams | 31 May 2021 | 00:15:10 | |
Many students panic over finals – and it’s not surprising. Finals can make or break your class grade in many classes, and some students get themselves into a total panic about them. But it’s important to know that you can handle finals. Join Adam and Dinur for some final-exam prep strategies! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 108: How to Narrow Your Scope | 24 May 2021 | 00:10:38 | |
Many students come up with great topics and arguments for their essays and research papers. The topics are timely, they’re important, they’re interesting. The problem is, these topics are also big enough that they will not fit in a ten-page paper! How do you handle this? Join Adam and Dinur for some help. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 107: How to Study Effectively on Zoom | 17 May 2021 | 00:18:39 | |
Now that learning is all online, how do you keep your focus on a lecture instead of surfing Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or other sites while in class? How do you study effectively when you’re in Zoom? Join Dinur and Adam as we talk about some ways to do just that! Show Notes Getting the Most out of Zoom for Students, Florida State University
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| Episode 106: Knowing When Too Much is Too Much | 10 May 2021 | 00:14:56 | |
When is too much, too much? When does a student know what is the right number of classes and clubs to take? Now that learning is all online, should students take advantage of this and take more courses or clubs now that they don’t have to do it in-person and commute to get to class? Join Dinur and Adam as we talk about this issue! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 105: How Sleep Affects Learning | 03 May 2021 | 00:14:55 | |
Many students put off sleep to do other things that seem more important. And we’ve all had that late-night cramming session at least once! But what actually happens to your ability to learn and retain information when you’re not getting enough sleep compared to when you actually do get your full eight hours of shut-eye? Join Adam and Dinur as we help you count your sheep! Show Notes https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sleep-deprivation-effects-on-memory https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/alcohol-and-sleep https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3768102/ https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-deprivation/lack-of-sleep-and-cognitive-impairment | |||
| Episode 104: Writing as Construction – The Final Draft | 26 Apr 2021 | 01:10:23 | |
Your final draft needs to be three things: clear, concise, and complete. If you’re missing any of these, your draft isn’t final yet. But what does it mean to be clear, concise, and complete? Join Adam and Dinur as we talk about how to go from your first to your final draft. Show Notes http://faculty.washington.edu/heagerty/Courses/b572/public/StrunkWhite.pdf https://undergraduateswrite.com
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| Episode 103: Writing as Construction – The First Draft | 19 Apr 2021 | 00:20:30 | |
You’ve identified the shared ideas in your sources by finding examples and creating categories. You’ve written literature review paragraphs to tie together those shared ideas and how they’ll help your audience. And now what? Now it’s time to write your first draft and edit it, so it makes sense. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 102: Writing as Construction – Managing Sources and Their Shared Ideas | 12 Apr 2021 | 00:13:41 | |
You’ve developed your topic, your signposts, your argument and your audience. You’ve found your sources. But now what? Now it’s time to organize those sources, dig into why you’re using them, and come up with their shared ideas so you can write a paper. Join Adam and Dinur as we talk about how to do that with an annotated bibliography and a literature review! Show Notes | |||
| Episode 101: Writing as Construction – Building a Paper from the Ground Up | 05 Apr 2021 | 00:20:20 | |
Many students are told to write papers. Often, the directions are limited to formatting: double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, a certain number of pages or words. But in college, you often don’t get much more than that for directions. Your professor might choose a topic, or tell you which topics you can choose from, or you might be left on your own to pick out a topic. Also, the hows of writing a paper go far beyond formatting. What are you writing about? Who are you writing to? Why does it matter? In this episode, Dinur and Adam go over the basics of how to build a paper from the ground up. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 100: Challenges First-Generation Students Face | 29 Mar 2021 | 00:21:50 | |
College presents special issues for first-generation students. Unlike their peers, they don’t have people in their family who know how college works, and they are often unaware of the many resources available to them on campus. Join Adam and Dinur as we talk about the four main hurdles first-gen students face. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 144: How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive | 25 Apr 2022 | 00:26:54 | |
We’ve all probably heard the term “inclusive teaching.” But what does it mean, for ourselves and our students? Join Dinur and Adam as we talk about the different aspects of inclusive teaching, and how to bring it into the classroom. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 99: How to Deal With Devastating Events | 21 Mar 2021 | 00:15:06 | |
We’ve talked about curveballs in the classroom. But what about when life’s throwing you a curveball like a death in the family, a divorce or breakup, or illness, accident, or injury? Join Adam and Dinur as we discuss what to do when you’re going to college and you’re hit with a devastating event. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 98: College, a Vocation, or a Gap Year? | 15 Mar 2021 | 00:15:04 | |
College isn’t something for everyone, and it’s not something for everyone right out of high school, and that’s okay. For many students, more school after high school seems irrelevant and even unappealing. Why go to school when you really want to be an electrician, a mechanic, a plumber, or some other hands-on profession? In this episode, Dinur and Adam talk about alternatives to going right into college from high school, including what to do during a gap year. Show Notes
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| Episode 97: How to Interact with Stressed-Out Students | 08 Mar 2021 | 00:23:48 | |
It’s frustrating when a student resists doing work, gets disruptive in a classroom, or doesn’t handle change very well. Most of us probably assume the student is doing these things deliberately, and we try to address it using the usual behavioral standards: consequences for bad behavior, and rewards for good – the old carrot-and-stick measures. But for many students, these measures not only don’t work, but they make the problem worse. Join Adam and Dinur as we discuss how to connect with these struggling students. Show Notes | |||
| Episode 96: How to Write a Good Résumé | 01 Mar 2021 | 00:20:38 | |
One of the skills students need to develop is the ability to write a résumé, and learn how to sell themselves to potential employers. In this episode, Dinur and Adam go over some basic ideas to include in a résumé and ways of framing yourself – either based on experience, or based on the skills you have developed. Show Notes | |||