About This Project
Overview
The Little Orange Book captures reflections, tips and commentaries on teaching and learning from the members of the University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Its many vignettes span a wide range of topics and teaching interests, from establishing a safe learning space to classroom silences, from curriculum development to modeling the best teachers, and from giving thanks to those teachers who came before us to leaving our own legacies. The Little Orange Book is the perfect text for first-time college instructors who are just getting started on their instructional careers, as well as longtime faculty who have many experiences in the college-level classroom.
Creation Process
This book is written exclusively by members of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers. This program of recognition for teaching excellence started in 2012, and there are now a total of twenty-nine faculty members, and two emeritus members, from across the UT System and beyond. To the editors’ knowledge, this is the only system-wide academy of teaching excellence in the entire nation.
This book was edited by Art Brownlow, Beth Brunk-Chavez and Weston Rose. Support from the University of Texas System was provided by Weston Rose. The Little Orange Book was published first in April 2015 in a print version that still is available for purchase. In March 2019 an interactive, multi-touch version of the book was published on the Apple Bookstore for Apple devices. This version of The Little Orange Book published by Mavs Open Press will allow users of other devices to access the book in a digital format. The book features commentaries, which are included as pop-ups in the web version and in the last pages of the PDF download.
Welcome
Dr. Catherine Ross, PhD – President of the UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers
Welcome to the latest digital edition of The Little Orange Book: Short Lessons in Excellent Teaching, composed by the fellows at the University of Texas System Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Teaching can be a rewarding and very influential profession, but sometimes the pleasures and the responsibilities of this job can be overshadowed by your worries about whether or not you're being as effective as you can be. The Academy Fellows understand that, and so we wrote these essays to give you our best advice and practical suggestions, no matter what your students’ age level is or what disciplinary specialty you work in. We hope you will find that these essays will inspire or encourage or maybe challenge you as you work to inspire, encourage and challenge your own students. Best of luck!
