don kulp

Discussion Comment

Trena Your curriculum may be different, but our environment is similar - I teach at a post-secondary technical school, in my case electronics. In a for-profit school, there is always the pressure to help keep kids in school, and I'm not one to believe that our students must perform academically the way traditional 4 year students, but it does raise ethical concerns, given the money being spent, the need to repay loans, etc. Hard to discern at times.

don kulp

Discussion Comment

ELL Students

My experience has been that even though an ESL student may have very strong English conversational skills, that does not translate necessarily to English reading skills. Furthermore, it appears to me that learning our technology is inhibited because they don't have the vocabulary base in their native language to relate it to.

don kulp

Discussion Comment

Group Formation Recommendation

When forming groups I always pre-select the groups rather than use randon assignment. I start by determining the size group I want and figuring out what the group size will be. I then select someone who I know will be able to provide direction and motivation, a "leader" if you will, but I do not designate anyone in the group to be the "Team Captain" (those dynamics will play out naturally within the groups). I then assign other members in round robin fashion, attempting to balance the groups in terms of academic strength, interest, etc. I likewise make sure that… >>>

don kulp

Discussion Comment

Gradebook

My experience with electronic gradebooks is that they can be very limiting in how you structure your course grading and difficult to alter. I've had to completely change how I grade one course as a result. I greatly prefer keeping a spreadsheet personally developed for each course.

don kulp

Discussion Comment

Pre-testing

Here is one place I feel the rub - class time. In my program the amount of time per term has been dropped by 20% since I began teaching 22 years ago. Of course, the expected level of content to be mastered has not dropped - if anything its expanded. I already feel pressure to get through the content in the time allotted (before loss of snow days, of course!). At any rate, while in the theoretical realm I agree with things like pretests, its difficult to find the time, to be frank.

don kulp

Discussion Comment

Speed of PowerPoint

After having experimented with PowerPoint for classroom presentations a bunch of years ago, I've relegated their use to only very specific circumstances. I want my students to take good notes AND listen to what I say; with a PowerPoint they tend to try to copy everything on the slide INSTEAD of listening. Also, there is an issue with the having to wait on (or worse yet - regress to a previous slide) occasionally for the slower writing students. By writing my notes, schematics and diagrams on the board myself, I am forced to pace my presentation to note-taking speed. Students… >>>