Chris OMearaCHEP

I have up to thirty students in an automotive lab. No assistant to help me. I can only do one of the above. Management wants me to do it all. Impossible. I can either watch the students or teach the students. I can't do both at the same time.

Testing needs to be rethought too. Students often understand the information, but can't pass tests. This leads to a return to passive learning. Tests do not care if you understand something or have the information memorized. Until testing methods are changed passive learning will be the norm.

There are many Deaf students in my school. It is important to treat them as you would the other students. An impairment is not an excuse for rude behavior in the classroom.

Students have the world at their fingertips. Unfortunately this is not helping their critical thinking skills. The internet is also a huge distraction.

The module mentioned that teachers often give the correct response too soon after they ask the question. More so with slow learners. I think the reason is so that that slow learner does not get embarrassed due to a long delay when it will become obvious the slow learner does not know the answer.

This chapter described it perfectly. Class materials or equipment, the people around you (students or employees) and the standards you are held to are sources of stress. The happiest people seem to be persons that don't really care about anything.

I do not have any personal space for storage. Everything I have is in classrooms shared by others or a closet shared by others. I have file cabinets designated to me but thaey have a specific purpose and my personal things and course prep materials are not allowed in them. Because of this I maintain a very small amount of course materials.

Doing things right away is a good thing. Why put things off? Especially if you are in a work environement when work is continuously piling up. Deal with things right away so they can't grow or fester into big problems.

I have fellow teachers ask me if if I forgot to teach a subject area because my former students did not seem to know anything about the topic. I might reply something like, "The topic we spent three days on?" Is it because they just learned the information long enought to take a test but never learned it in the first place? Probably. I have students that do not care about the subject at hand and they will not remember the information if they do not care about it.

I know many professional trades people that are extremely intelligent but are not thought of that way because they did not attend university. I am happy that this chapter brought this idea into discussion. I can't quote it directly, but I enjoyed it when it mentioned that it takes intelligence to make a toilet flush.