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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.

instructor mistakes

I make mistakes everyday...that's how I learn and hopefully become a better person and instructor. I laugh at myself a lot.

people who act out.

they need the most attention...listen and love them through it...all will grow and flourish.

angry and upset students

instructor needs to be warm and fuzzy and funny, and be able to laugh at herself while being a very compassionate listener.

desire for students to stay focused and involved

develop creative and hands on projects for students to relieve stress.

im a buddy too much

I just realized that I'm a buddy, or at least I have buddy tendencies. It has worked for me in my 6 years of teaching to some degree, but I need to shift into a guide style in the future. I have done so by being more prepared and staying on subject. I have a bad habit of going off subject to the point where some students get confused. My style is ever-changing and this module really helped me.

Chatty Kathys of the classroom

I find in most of my classes there is one student who I refer to as the Chatty Kathy. Not only is it a problem for me but also I find the other students get very annoyed. I would like to learn how to stop the student from talking so much without stopping his/her constructive questions and comments.I have found when I ask them in private to cut down on talking and give other students the opportunity to answer my questions, they do not speak the rest of the class but then the next class the excessive talking is back. How can I manage this type of student without losing their wanted participation?

Establishing credability

when beginning a class I not only explain to students about what prior roles I had but explain the function of those roles

Student Cheating

Constantly changing tests can reduce cheating

dealing with distracted students

I always find some level of success by assigning points for class participation and making it known throughout class

New Instructor

Should new instructors be give through orientation.

Cheating

Should Cheating students be given Essay and Practicle Exams?

Guest Speakers is a Plus or Negative

Having a guest speaker doesn't mean the are a for the field....in discussing

Topic of Day Activities

Various topic activities will give student feedback of prior activities learned.

Best practice standards to facilitate retention and attendance

I understand that a multi-dynamic, active learning approach invites students to engage in classroom material. Further, sincere concern and direct contact with student improves their attendance. My question to the forum is: "How can I best motivate and facilitate success in adult students who can not attend class regularly due to work,family, and financial obligations?"

Stress Management

How is being transparent with your stress effective?

Remember you are an instructor at all times

You need to remember this especially when you are feisty all the times and you don't want to be like that with your students in order to maintain that professional behavior.

Ice Breaker Activity....

I really liked the Ice Breaker Activity; paper plane idea was great. I think I’m going to start doing this at the beginning of the semester/quarter (possible the first class) with hopes that the class will define themselves as a group versus individuals.

Blaming the student and groups

Reading this section bothered me. There was a part where it was suggested to put these students who don't care or are unprepared into groups so they can see the value of group participation in their work and the other students cant move forward until he or she does his part. Last month I took a CEE course (ED105 or ED106) saying groups should be graded on both group and individual participation. So the way I see it is if the last is true, assigning an I don't care learner to a group will not only allow the IDC learner to glide but mess up the grades of those who do. I can see this method working to an extent if the conditions are right. Being new to the instructor community I am trying to keep my mind open however in the field I instruct the entire course is based on individual effort and those who do not care or perform eliminate themselves from the course. Any suggestions for this would be greatly appreciated

Late work. case by case or across the board standards.

Im very new to the professional instructor world (4 months) I am having a hard time deciding what would be a better option on the case of late assignments. Case by case can be time consuming and frustrating. However case by case seems to be more fair with situations such as family emergencies, medical reasons etc but a firm late policy for all regardless is fair because these situations arise in the real world and depending on the boss or company, late assignments will be dealt with case by case or a total no go. My questions is this. Is there a fair way to combine the two with learner instructor communication or should that firm line be drawn into the sand?

Showing success to students

The career school that I teach at operates on a wheel principle. Every three months we get a new group of starts. We go from basic electricity to advanced wiring for HVAC/R. Most students come through with little or no prior experience wiring anything. After a few weeks of hard-work and the learning of a lot of foreign information, I reveal to the new students that their lab partner that they have been paired up with was a new start three months ago just like them. I find it really helps to build a community learning environment, and also is a huge motivator to make students strive for excellence. Not saying that I don't come across that hard to reach student. And I do. Sometimes this helps them as well.