Jim JenningsCHEP

Students should always feel welcome the first day of class, and this comes from the way the instructor presents himself and UTI as a whole each class. The student should also feel appreciated, and this can be done simply by telling them thank you for being here at UTI. I always like to thank each and every student for being in my class.

It is always important to know and understand your students learning needs. It is very important that you monitor their learnings by keeping open discussions with the students to verify that they recieved and understand the information. Too many times the student does not want to respond, or even ask a question when they do not understand because they do not want to "stand out"

It seems we concentrate a lot on how to deliver the material to the students, they recieve the informaion fine, but a couple of courses later all that knowledge has faded away. We need to focus on what we can to to help the students retain the knowledge thay have learned. Have them practice what they learned, refresh information in other courses, or link info from course to course.

Retention once they have arrived at school needs to start before they get there. The student needs to be told exactly they will be getting into, there is enough positve and great training to "sell" them on, with no need to glorify things that are not true or exact. Once they get here, the dissapointment of not having what was told to them they would have, is a big hit on their anxiety through disapointment.

The best way to understand what a student needs or what they are thinking, is to put yourself in their place. How would you handle working eight hours, going to school for 7 hours and getting enough sleep to survive...and do it again each day. Before criticising someone, understand where they are coming from. Ask questions, be attentive, try to assist, not hinder.

If you give your class what you would expect from an instructor, or put yourself in your class, in most cases the students will be given what they expect too.