Category: Uncategorized
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The Sound That Still Means “Everything’s Going to Be Okay”
We had a corrugated metal roof when I was growing up at Little River, and it leaked every single time it rained — the lead-headed nails would pop loose in the heat and we’d patch the holes with tar from a bucket we kept just for that purpose. But on a hot summer night, with…
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Where I Really Learned Right From Wrong: The Sunday Dinner Table
After church on Sundays, there was always a meal — fried chicken, skillet potatoes, green beans and tomatoes and okra from the garden, a pot of dumplings, a peach or apple cobbler. My wife’s grandmother, Nobie Bookout, would call Sunday mornings and ask if we wanted to come up, knowing full well she’d close the…
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What My Aunt Sis Taught Me, Sitting on Her Porch Until Midnight
My aunt Sis — Syvella Bailey to everyone else — left Evening Shade, Arkansas as a young woman and spent forty years packing oranges in Haines City, Florida. She never finished high school. She never had much money. But she had something better: she knew how to listen. When I was stationed at MacDill Air…
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Why I Still Mow My Own Yard, Even Though I Don’t Have To
When I was a boy at Little River, my grandmother put me in charge of mowing our yard and my aunt and uncle’s yard each week — our way of paying back for the house we lived in rent-free and the water we pulled from their well 200 feet away. One summer, my Uncle Allen…
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“College Is for People Who Have Money”-The Conversation That Almost Ended Before it Started
I came home one spring afternoon during my senior year of high school and told my mother I wanted to go to college. She listened. Then she said, “Son, college is for people who have money. Look at this house we live in — the roof leaks, no insulation, no air conditioning, and any high…
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AI in Action
Faculty Strategies for Teaching Online Graduate Courses AI in Action: Faculty Strategies for Teaching Online Graduate Courses AI in Action is a practical, research-informed guide designed to help faculty thoughtfully integrate artificial intelligence into online and graduate-level teaching. Rather than treating AI as a threat to academic integrity or a shortcut for learning, this book…
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Rave Review Legacy of Change This book offers a refreshing perspective on leadership and institutional transformation. Legacy of Change challenges readers to think beyond traditional approaches and consider how thoughtful innovation can shape the future of organizations. The writing is clear, engaging, and accessible, making complex ideas easy to understand. It is a worthwhile read…
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The Online Professor
“The Online Professor”on Facebook! “The Online Professor now on Facebook, is your go-to resource for innovative strategies, tools, and insights to elevate online teaching and learning. We share practical tips, emerging technologies, and thought leadership to help educators create engaging, impactful virtual classrooms. Join the conversation and transform the way you teach online!” Join me…
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Accountability in Higher Education: Navigating Current Issues and Trends

I wanted to share this book, published by one of our faculty members at Arkansas State University, Ed Leadership Department, Dr. Topeks Small Singleton. I was invited to write one of the chapters in this new book. The chapter 7 title is Funding Trends in Higher Education that Have a Significant Impact on Accountability For…
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Legacy of Change
The Online Professor I Mow my Own Yard is a chapter in Legacy of Change I prefer to mow my own yard as this is where i can be creative in my solving problems!