Welcome to the Intentional Teaching newsletter! I'm Derek Bruff, educator and author. The name of this newsletter is a reminder that we should be intentional in how we teach, but also in how we develop as teachers over time. I hope this newsletter will be a valuable part of your professional development as an educator.
Reimagining Grading
Reimagining Grading with Sharona Krinsky and Robert BosleyThis past December, I had the honor of being a guest on the Grading Podcast ("reimagining grading as a tool for student success") hosted by Sharona Krinsky and Robert Bosley. We had such a great conversation that I thought I would return the favor and invite Sharona and Boz on my podcast. Sharona Krinsky is the executive director of the Center for Grading Reform, a non-profit that hosts an annual conference on grading, among other things. She’s also a math instructor at California State Los Angeles. Robert Bosley, better known as Boz, is director of programming for K12 at the Center for Grading Reform and an instructional coach in the Los Angeles Unified School District. In our conversation, Sharona and Boz share why they named their podcast the Grading Podcast and not the Alternative Grading Podcast. They also share the state of the grading reform movement here in 2026 (including their work on the Grading Conference) and talk about the barriers that teachers face when trying to adopt alternative grading practices. And they have advice for centers for teaching and learning on supporting grading reform on their campuses. You can listen to my conversation with Sharon Krinsky and Robert Bosley here, or search "Intentional Teaching" in your podcast app. |
Intentional Teaching with Derek Bruff
Welcome to the Intentional Teaching newsletter! I'm Derek Bruff, educator and author. The name of this newsletter is a reminder that we should be intentional in how we teach, but also in how we develop as teachers over time. I hope this newsletter will be a valuable part of your professional development as an educator.
How to Grade: Alternative Models for the College Classroom I have more book news to share! Y'all know I'm a co-author on The Norton Guide to AI-Aware Teaching coming out this summer. I had such a great experience writing that book with Annette Vee and Marc Watkins that when Emily Donahoe reached out to see if might be interested in collaborating with her on a new book about grading, I said most definitely. The book's working title is How to Grade: Alternative Models for the College Classroom,...
Resisting AI's Cognitive Offload with Leon Furze A few weeks ago, I interviewed author and consultant Leon Furze for Intentional Teaching. You may know Leon from his work on the AI Assessment Scale or his series of articles on teaching AI ethics. I've been citing his work for a while now, and I was eager to talk to him about several of his recent blog posts, especially this one and this one on ways we can support student use (and non-use) of AI to resist cognitive offloading. During our...
The Berkeley Law Red-Light AI Policy For months now, I've been looking for examples of program-level responses to generative AI at colleges and universities. Almost all the work I've seen adapting to the challenges and opportunities that AI poses to teaching in higher ed has been at the level of the individual course. That's a great place to practice AI-aware teaching, of course, but at some point, our students will need more coherent approaches to AI across the courses they take. Last week...