Gregory Schiffli

The accommodations listed in module #4 can be beneficial to instructors with or without students with learning disabilities. They actually are terrific ways we can be helpful to all students in terms of facilitating higher learning. There were several great hints on keep the students focused on key themes.

I very much agree with Module 3 that it is very important in career colleges that we start with the big picture. It is then that we add concrete applications and repetition to increase student comprehension. I find that most career college students ask "why is this important to me" more often and for good reason. We need to welcome those questions, utilize application of concepts and motivate retention of the newknowledge or skill.

I found two pieces of Module 2 to be great reminders to me in regards to classroom monitoring: 1] If you see distracting student activity - it is best to move to that general area of the classroom as an indication that you recoginize it and your presence will often cause it to cease, and 2] Remembering to not let an individual consume excessive amounts of time in your classroon to the point of frustrating other students and causing them to disengage. These are excellent points.

I think the lesson made a great point about episodic memory being the strongest for students. This reinforces the need to bring life experiences into relevance with the class and at the same time answers the question "why is this important?". This will then lead to greater motivation and retention - our goal all along.