Eager Mondays Rotating Header Image

Services for writers, artists, and creative types

Feb 12th, 2010
by Leslie Madsen-Brooks.
No comments yet

Original photo by Dorine Ruter, and used under a Creative Commons license

If you’re a writer or an artist, chances are at some point you’ll have the opportunity to teach a course of some kind, or at least to present at a workshop or conference.  While some of us feel we were born to teach, others are at once excited and anxious about the prospect.  Regardless of whether you’re a born teacher or someone who has had to work incredibly hard to be comfortable in the classroom, whether you’re a seminar veteran or a newcomer, Eager Mondays can help.

The Eager Mondays founders have a collective 30 years of experience in the university classroom, and have spent a similar amount of time leading more informal workshops and giving presentations in a variety of contexts.  And—aside from maybe being in the classroom—we enjoy nothing more than helping people become more thoughtful teachers.

Specifically, we offer assistance with

  • Coordinating and mediating panels at conferences
  • Brainstorming and planning workshops
  • Setting up and promoting webinars or teleseminars
  • Creating presentations
  • Designing courses, assignments, and activities to meet the needs of all students
  • Thinking through, or writing statements of, teaching philosophy
  • . . .and more

We customize our services to fit your specific situation.  Curious?  Want to learn more about how we might help you grow as a teacher, presenter, and leader?  Contact us today:

Andy Jones: Andy -at- EagerMondays.com

Leslie Madsen-Brooks: Leslie -at- EagerMondays.com

We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted in: For Creative Professionals.

Andy Jones

Jan 19th, 2010
by aojones.
No comments yet

Andy Jones
Partner and Founder

andy

Andy has been teaching university classes for 20 years, and has given over 150 presentations on topics in the fields of teaching, productivity, effective writing, creative thinking, social media, and literature. He is a published poet and essayist, a radio talk show host and MC, an editor or advisor to four print journals, a coordinator for faculty support programs at UC Davis, and an expert on effective teaching, presenting, and critical and creative thinking. In 2006 Andy Jones was named the UC Davis “Educator of the Year.”

Andy holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Davis. He has also earned a BA in English from Boston University, and has taken classes at Regent’s College, London, and the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught classes or given talks in Japan and Scotland, in ten US states, and in ten cities in California. For the last five years he has also served on the faculty of the San Francisco Writers Conference.

Posted in: Uncategorized.

About Leslie

Jan 19th, 2010
by Leslie Madsen-Brooks.
No comments yet

Leslie Madsen-Brooks
Partner and Founder

Leslie first stepped into the university classroom in 1999, and she has committed herself since then to becoming more thoughtful about teaching and learning—and helping others to do so. Her areas of interest and expertise encompass American studies and history, museums, public history, historic preservation, women in science and technology, social media, and the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, gender, disability, and socioeconomic class.

In addition to academia, Leslie has experience in informal science learning, exhibition design, journalism, development (fund-raising), educational publishing, and arts marketing.

You can read Leslie’s thoughts on teaching and learning at BlogHer, where she serves as a contributing editor for research, academia, and education. Leslie also blogs at Museum Blogging and her personal blog, The Clutter Museum.

Leslie holds M.A. degrees in Creative Writing and Cultural Studies and a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, all from the University of California, Davis.

Posted in: Uncategorized.

What We Do for Faculty and Universities

Jan 19th, 2010
by Leslie Madsen-Brooks.
No comments yet

To outsiders, college and university faculty may seem to have it easy. We are paid to think and to share that thinking; we spend a lot of time reading books, studies, and journal articles in our fields; and often we have summers “off.” In reality, faculty must balance multiple responsibilities and stakeholders, sometimes attempting to keep the schedule of a business executive, but usually without the help of paid assistants. Teaching well, in particular, takes resolve, practice, and attention paid to the needs of a diverse constituency of students; in short, excelling as a classroom leader is a challenging task that is often insufficiently emphasized or rewarded by Chairs and Deans.

We at Eager Mondays are teaching experts, and we can help you with fresh, innovative and effective responses to the sort of nagging teaching concerns that you may not have time to address without help. Maybe you have shared some of these thoughts with yourself or a colleague:

  • “I’d like to give my students a clearer and more holistic understanding of what they will learn from my classes.”
  • “I’d like to assign my students tasks that are intellectually engaging rather than repetitive, limited, and dull.”
  • “I want my students to show more evidence of having prepared for class.”
  • “I enjoy lecturing (it worked for me as an undergraduate), but I am sure that other approaches could be more engaging, student-centered, and effective.”
  • “I wish my students would participate more in class.”
  • “I’d like students to learn from the collaborative assignments I think up for them, and not just complain about logistics and their underperforming peers.”
  • “I’d like to supplement my teaching with more in-class writing and critical thinking tasks.”
  • “I’d like my students to enjoy meeting my high expectations for them.”
  • “I’d like the process of providing written feedback for my students not to be so tedious, time-consuming, high-stakes, or punitive.”
  • “I’d like to inspire my advanced undergraduates and graduate students and teaching assistants to discover why they want to continue work and studies in our field.”
  • “I’d like to see and measure evidence that my students are learning something from my classes.”

As faculty members ourselves, the founders of Eager Mondays know what you expect and require when asking for help: enjoyable conversations, valuable consultations, and thoughtful and even innovative solutions to problems. With our focus on creativity, and on inspiring students to participate in their own learning and discovery process, we can help you recognize and take advantage of new strategies and opportunities in the areas of teaching, professional development, and academic networking.

We at Eager Mondays have the experience, strategies, case studies, and research into teaching that can help you feel more confident as a teacher, administrator, and colleague. We love talking about teaching, learning, and professional development for college faculty, and we look forward to discussing with you ways you can create professional experiences that will excite you about every aspect of your life and work as a college instructor!

Your first steps might be to sign up for our monthly newsletter for faculty:

You might also drop Andy Jones a line at andy -at- eagermondays.com to schedule a chat, a consultation, or a visit. We hope that we can help you prepare for your teaching and professional challenges!

Posted in: Colleges and Universities, Uncategorized.

What We Do for Your Coaching Practice

Jan 19th, 2010
by Leslie Madsen-Brooks.
No comments yet

So. . .  You’re a life or business coach, and you’re planning a course, webinar, workshop, or retreat.

Or maybe you’re feeling your one-on-one coaching sessions are missing something, and that your clients aren’t developing or performing at a level that satisfies you or them.  You’re not connecting with them.

We can help.  We’ve worked one-on-one with hundreds of teachers and in workshops with thousands more.  We’ll help you figure out why you’re stuck and what steps you can take to become a more thoughtful and effective teacher.

On your way to developing an engaging, meaningful learning experience for your clients, we’ll help you find a teaching philosophy, hone a teaching persona, and plan for evaluation of your clients and your course.

We can also introduce you to a great number of activities, “tricks,” and assignments that will help your clients make discoveries about their own goals and strengths. With our help, both you and your clients will look forward to your sessions together, thus making those clients eager to hire you again in the future.

Want to know what else we can help you?  Contact Leslie at leslie -at- EagerMondays -dot- com.

You can also sign up for our free newsletter for coaches:

Posted in: Uncategorized.

What We Do for Nonprofits

Jan 19th, 2010
by Leslie Madsen-Brooks.
No comments yet

Chances are your staff and volunteer corps is packed with creative, curious, interesting people with a strong idealist streak.  They’re dedicated to your cause—after all, they’re likely not in the nonprofit world for the big salaries—and they’re able to innovate and grow programs with few resources beyond ingenuity and enthusiasm.

Despite this positive energy, nonprofits still have a high rate of turnover, particularly in their entry-level and front-line positions.  Burn-out is a major factor, as is the reality that as young employees age and acquire spouses, homes, pets, children, and perhaps a desire to travel or further their education, they seek better-paying opportunities.

Most nonprofits can’t offer generous raises to reward and retain the employees they’ve just spent (typical) one to three years training.  Yet bright, intellectually curious employees with youthful energy and outside-the-box thinking are the ones you want to nurture, as they can help your organization grow in unexpected ways.  You don’t want them to leave, but such departures have come to seem inevitable.

So–what do you do?  Call Eager Mondays.

We work with your employees to discover their knowledge, strengths, and desires—and what inspires them.  We talk with you and with them about what kinds of alternative methods of recognition might be appreciated as employees increase their seniority and competence.

We find the intersection of your organizational hopes and their professional dreams, and work with you to make it a reality.  The result?  Increased engagement.  Greater innovation.  Growth all around.

Of course, it’s a lot more complicated than we can describe here.  So drop us a line to discuss your vision and your needs: leslie – at- EagerMondays -dot- com.

You can also sign up for our free newsletter for nonprofits:

(Do you work for a museum?  We have a newsletter just for you.)

Posted in: Uncategorized.

What We Do for Your Business

Jan 19th, 2010
by Leslie Madsen-Brooks.
No comments yet

You know what word we can’t stand?  Trainers.  Or training.

That’s because training assumes everyone has the exact same issues that can be solved by using “tools” or applying “solutions” from a standard bag of tricks.  It’s a cookie-cutter approach.

Chances are your employees, too, hear the word “training” want to run for the hills. Think about it: Sexual harassment training.  Ethics training, computer training, software training.  And it tends to take place for hours on end, in stuffy, fluorescent-lit rooms or, worse, in “self-paced” online modules that actually require employees to remain on each page of the “course” for a set number of minutes.

Ridiculous.

And yet your employees do need to learn how to do their jobs better.  If they don’t have opportunities to learn, you’re going to see burnout—which means lackluster performance, a plateau—or even a decline—in productivity, and a lack of innovation.  Worse, burnt out employees may start to “poison the well” of your workplace with gossip or conspiracy theories.

Enter Eager Mondays.

We help employees become better learners.  We emphasize curiosity, creativity, competence, and confidence.

Our methods of professional development are, at least in the world of “trainers,” unconventional.  That’s because we draw on decades of experience in the university classroom, where we’ve both won awards for teaching engaging, interactive courses where we listen to students instead of just talking at them.

So here’s what Eager Mondays does: We talk with you about where you want your business to be, or your hopes for your employees.  We talk with your employees.  We discover their knowledge, strengths, and desires—and what inspires them.

Then we find the intersection of your hopes and their dreams, and work with you to make it a reality.  The result?  Increased engagement.  Greater innovation.  Growth all around.

Or maybe you’re the one who wants to learn.  Whether you’re a solopreneur, employed by someone else, or an executive in a large firm, we can craft a professional development plan for you, entirely confidentially.

Whether we’re helping you or your staff, we also help you develop fair and effective methods of evaluating performance and preparing for further growth.

Let’s talk. Drop Andy a line at andy -at- EagerMondays -dot- com.

If you want to learn more, sign up for our free newsletter for business owners and managers:

Posted in: Business.

Work for a museum?

Jan 14th, 2010
by Leslie Madsen-Brooks.
No comments yet

We have a newsletter for you! Simply use the form below to receive our free monthly newsletter.

Posted in: Uncategorized.

Subscribe to our free newsletters

Aug 5th, 2009
by Leslie Madsen-Brooks.
5 comments

Eager Mondays offers newsletters targeted at professionals in specific fields. To sign up for a newsletter, please fill out the relevant form below. (And yes, you may subscribe to as many as you wish, though you may find some overlap in subject matter.)

We never share your e-mail address or information with anyone, and just in case you don’t find our newsletters as relevant as you had hoped, each e-mail arrives with a convenient link that allows you to unsubscribe with a single click.

General Interest

To sign up for the general-interest Eager Mondays newsletter about professional development, please fill out this form:

Professional Development for Business

Own a business?  Have employees?  Looking to develop your own potential as a leader? This newsletter is for you.  Fill out this form:

More Thoughtful Teaching for Coaches

Are you a life or business coach looking to improve your delivery of workshops, seminars, webinars, retreats, or even one-on-one sessions?  Sign up here:

More Thoughtful Teaching for Faculty and higher ed administration

If you’re looking to grow as a teacher and to help your students become better learners, this is the list for you:

Professional Development for Nonprofits

Want to better develop, retain, and reward your best staff members in an industry where turnover is high?  We can help.  Sign up for this newsletter:

Professional Development in Museums

We love museums, and think about them maybe more than is healthy.  To sign up for a newsletter packed with insights for museum professionals, please fill out this form:

Posted in: Newsletters.

We are not trainers

Aug 4th, 2009
by Leslie Madsen-Brooks.
No comments yet

If there’s one word that drives me crazy, it’s “trainer.”  When other professional development companies say they have “experienced trainers” or “certified trainers,” all I can think about is dog training, specifically obedience school and clicker training.

kmntraining

Do your “training” sessions make your employees want to plot your untimely death?  (We can fix that.)

Training does not leave room for thoughtfulness, for individuality, for learning styles–but teaching does.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: Training shows employees how to use database software to enter data into the fields of an existing database. Teaching shows people how to design a database to best meet the needs of an organization as it grows, and helps them think more strategically about ways to use and display all of that captured information. Teaching assumes employees are intelligent and creative; training assumes employees all need to develop the same, very well-defined skill set with a narrow range of applications.

At Eager Mondays, we don’t train people; we teach them, and in so doing, help them become better, more thoughtful learners who can rise to whatever challenges confront them.

Need to detox from a bad training experience? Feel free to share your training horror stories in the comments and let us know how teaching would have been a better approach.

Posted in: Thinking aloud.

← Earlier Posts