David Ward

I'm an instructor at a for-profit career college. Frankly, our admissions requirements are minimal. In my classroom, I often find myself teaching groups of students who possess widely differing background experiences and varying levels of academic achievement. If I design my lesson plans to cater to the lowest common denominator, my academic achievers become bored and restless. If I raise the bar a bit higher, however, my academic strugglers become discouraged and give up. What can I do to reach a middle ground while still meeting all the course objectives and allowing every student to feel empowered?

I think one of the most common mistakes new teachers make is trying to become friends with their students. That said, I am curious as to how other instructors feel about using social networking sites (e.g. Facebook) as a way to interact with students.

I'm an instructor at a for-profit technical school. Although the school catalog lists very specific and strict policies regarding inappropriate behavior by students, the administration rarely backs our instructors. On more than one occasion I have requested that a student be removed from my classroom due to repeated disruptive behavior. On each occasion, however, I was basically told that we cannot afford to lose a student. How is an instructor supposed to adequately manage the classroom when administration is much more interested in focusing on the monetary bottom line?