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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

group discussions

I try to engage all the students into group discussions, I find that it is helpful to everyone, especially the shy ones it make them feel more comfortable in their own skin to be able to adress a class.

Learning styles

Teaching a class should incorporate all learning styles, auditory, written, visual, and kinestheic. I don't think anyone is completly one type of learning style. Having different activities for the class such as, reading outloud, participation in class debates, and group demos, gives everyone a chance to learn and even come out of there shell a bit.

Combined Tests

I like to give tests that compile all of the different elements found in tests. For example, one section is multiple choice, one is true or false, etc. I find it easier to see which types of tests are less difficult for which students. Victoria

learning styles

Teaching the students to communicate effectively with others and peers is so important and vital these days. We have entered an new age of information technology, where being on a machine to communicate is overtaking our verbal skills. I feel working is groups is helpful ,but I would like to see more individual work in presenting and delivering content. Individual particpation in communication should play a stonger role in the curriculm.

testing assessments

I grade using practical assessments, before the class I give the students an outline of what the grading procedure consists of. So when they begin the practical assignment or test. They know exactly what I am looking for. When the practical is finished, they return the outline and I grade it, and return it the next day. The student can then read and see what they need to improve on.If they are weak in a certain area, they know what to work on.

How do we control cheating while keeping the cohort group?

I have international students that flock together in a group. They share notes and are caught talking during a test. When questioned about this talking, the reply is that the question makes no sense because of the language barrier and that the question is being explained in the native tongue. I have gone so far as to seperate the group, which was recieved in a negative manner and reported to the office for being prejudice against the group of students. I have taken students aside and explained that clarification of test questions is my responsibility and that talking during a test is not authorized. Then I catch them texting each other. It has gotten to the extreme that I have all phones turned off and put away under the penalty of failing the test if it rings or comes out. We do not take a break during a test. No eating, drinking, or use of tobacco. The word is getting out that I am a tough TESTMASTER. Cheating has declined and test scores dropped for a short time. Is there more that I can do to curb cheating without becoming a tyrant?

READY, SET,......OH NO!

SOMETIMES ALL THE PLANNING IN THE WORLD WON'T PREPARE YOU FOR SOME OF LIFES CURVE BALLS. HAVING THE ABILITY TO THINK ON ONE'S FEET CAN DETERMINE THE SUCCESS OR FAILURE OF ANY LESSON PLAN. IN OUR EVER CHANGING AND DYNAMIC WORLD, WE MUST HAVE THE ABILITIES TO ADAPT FOR MOST ANY SITUATION. SUCH AS; CULTURAL DIFFERENCES, PHYSICAL CHALLENGES, AND EVEN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS THAT OUR STUDENTS MAY BRING WITH THEM.

Short Attention Span Theatre

A few years ago, Comedy Central had a show called "Short Attention Span Theatre" which should have been a clue to me about what was coming ... That 15-18 minute attention span this module speaks of has shrunk, I'm afraid, to something closer to 8-10 minutes. My students have the added distraction of having large windows in the classrooms I customarily teach in, thus I have to compete with traffic, other students, passers-by ... So I have to be extra-entertaining to keep them focused. I use group projects a lot to combat that short attention span problem ... Anyone have any other tactics I can use? Would love to have a few more options ... Thanks, John

Time Well Spent

In a 10-week cycle at our school, we will have, usually, 19 two-hour class meetings. Each cycle there are two holidays; one will fall on a Monday (or Wednesday, as in Thanksgiving eve)and the other will fall on a Thursday (or Tuesday, to allow for a long weekend. Thus the 19 meetings. I say all that to say this: It seems to me a small investment of your class time to spend one full class period covering syllabus, textbook and class requirements, and getting to know each other. Some of my colleagues try to limit the getting-to-know-you portion of the class meeting to one hour, then start introducing course content the second hour. I find it's time well spent learning as much as we can about each other right away; that way, when we start on course content, we're all generally comfortable with where we are all going together, and how we're going to get there. It also helps those second-day adds or dirst-day-absents keep from falling too far behind the first day. John

Delivery Options

I teach computer based applications and use all the styles discussed. Therefore my students get hands on experience with the specific application I am teaching.

Ahh, the syllabus ...

When I was a student, I figured teachers just had a syllabus and that was that -- one size fits all. Not so! With each new cycle of students, I find things I can do to my syllabus to make it more useful to both me and my students. It's also a chance for me to look at what worked, what didn't and what I can do better. Unfortunately, we don't always have time to do that; but when it's there, use it. Don;t wait until you change textbooks to rework that syllabus. Just my thoughts ... John

The Friend vs. Pal dynamic

Early on in my teaching career (clear back a year and a half ago! LOL), I think I tried too hard to be "one of them" and not be the teacher, per se. Funny, too, that I am not your typical just-graduated-from-college 20-something, but rather I am a mid-50' veteran of the newspaper wars. So I think my efforts to be "cool" can be attributed to the age factor. Now, I am finding it much easier to be their fiend in a teach-appropriate way without crossing that line of being their "pal" but it took me a few cycles of students and a couple of bad experiences with students who were a bit too clingy (needy) to see where that appropriate line is to be drawn. I find these days if you take even a few minutes just to get to know them, to learn about their problems and their hopes and such, that's really all they are looking for from you, the teacher. They need to know that their partner in their educational adventure is on board and there for them, not that they are there because they got tirted of going to work every day and teaching is just easier (there actually are fools out therte who believe that!) ... I love teaching, and it is my relationships with my students that make my job so rewarding. Just my thoughts ... John Bryan

Lecture Diversity

Teaching the same information in many different ways to determine the best or most effective way to educated the special needs student.

Subject Matter

WHAT IF....The topic happens to be a topic that you are less informed on and the students even seem to be more informed than yourself?

Teaching students who have English as a second language

I am a instructor in a technical school. Many times students are enrolled who are very limited in reading and speaking English. I cannot hold the class back for them, but where is the line drawn between their needs and the rest of the class?

The Wright Material at the Wright Time

I have found that in Classes today with multiple cultures you realy need to be prepared for anything. Some times going one step ahead of the regular class preperation. You have to prepare or should I say be prepared at all times. If your not then you have just lost some of your class due to waiting on the additional materials you need to help them and this may just cause that one student to drop out of your class.

Getting to friendly with students

I Have seen this happen too often in the past. The student becomes pals with an Instructor then when the student doesn't perform and starts to fail, the Instructor is the one the student will blame for their misfortune. As a professional our standards must be set higher than the student level. Dress,Language and Conduct lead to better role models,managers,and motivators.

Grading Tests as soon as they are over.

I give multiple choice tests as well as practical tests. I will give the multiple choice test first and then grade them together as a group so we can discuss the correct and wrong answers as they come up. I want to correct the porblem as soon as it occurs rather than sending them home thinking their wrong answer was right.

Inundating the students from the get-go?

I teach a six-to-eight week technical certification course. During the first class, in addition to many of the items on the To Do list, I often lecture on the first chapter in our text. This is not a necessity, as there is plenty of time to get through the material - I do it to give the students a feel for the "theoretical" portion of the course. Do you think this is too much for the first class?

Soft Skills

I believe soft skills are very important and are often over looked by instructors. I teach my students as if each day is a job. I inform them at the beginning of the course why I expect them to be on time, prepared and have a good attitude. They are required to clock in and out at the beginning and end of class as well as for lunch. If they are more than ten minutes late, they have to makeup an hour. They can bring up their whole grade by the evaluation of their team work. The students will complain, of course, at the beginning; but I have had many students thank me for teaching them a good work ethic in addition to the course objectives.