Sleepless in St. Paul.....
I teach courses in the evening -- and not only are my students facing long days, with early mornings for daycare, transportation to and from work, and then finally at the end of the day to come and sit in class for 3-4 hours makes for many sleepless nights.
I try to break up the classes into 25-35 mins of instruction and then break for discussion/application to help students find something in their daily life to "make it real".
Some students look so sleep deprived that all I get sometimes are blank stares.
Anyone else have similar experiences? If so, any ideas (besides frequent breaks, get up and stretching)??
-DD
Hi David,
The strategies you are using are good ones. Keep them up. My addition to your current efforts would be to introduce some games into the class. These games can be used to review the material, create competition in class and help students to learn how to work together. The games provide activity, movement, energy and excitement. All the things that are needed to push through the sleep deprivation barrier.
Gary
Hi David:
I also teach at night and have a similar experience. One thing that I make sure I do is some sort of activity right at the beginning of class that jolts the students awake and also helps them transition from their "work mode" to their "learning mode." It also helps me because I work full-time elsewhere also. In my experience, it helps to have that transition where students can switch gears and be ready to learn.
I also do 30-40 minute instructional intervals and have had success with that.
Good Luck!
PL
Some ideas that I have done during my long night classes are to have hands-on activities towards the middle end of class to keep them going strong until the end. Some activities I have done are the memory game or hang-man with the terms for the units or scrabble.
I hope this helps.
Faith
Hi Faith,
Thanks for sharing these ideas with us. Those of us that teach night classes are always looking for ideas to keep the students engaged at the later part of the class.
Gary
I run into the same thing--not easy in winter in Minnesota for me either! What I do is run the first period for about 50-60 minutes, then give them a 20 minute break for dinner and maybe 2 more 10 minute breaks later. (If we're dong well perhaps 1 and with class agreement push through provided everybody keeps on the assignments.) That one long lift they have to look forward to fairly early seems to provide a lot of momentum. But I agree it takes dedication to go to school after woring all day. Early in the quarter I always tell them that too.
We have found that converting those long evening classes into 'hybrid' classes is effective. By 'hybrid' I mean that we hold a class for 2 hours instead of 4 and then have online activities through a LMS that the student participates in during the rest of the week. This seems to work in my business classes where we incorporate internet research with discussion boards. It also works when we have a robust online 'lab' environment, such as 'My Accounting Lab'.
I face the same situation: teaching a night class from 6-10pm.
I like to keep the students awake and interested by using a variety of classroom activities.
I may do 20-30 minutes of lecturing, then get the students up and moving by doing a hands-on type activity or group activity, followed by a 15 minute break.
I have found that "mixing things up", using a variety of teaching methods helps the students stay interested and involved with the educational process.
I teach a night class as well.
I do many of the things mentioned.
My class is held in a computer lab, and I "require" them to physically get up and move during breaks. Otherwise, they tend to sit and check email/facebook/etc.
Hi Ron,
Thank you for sharing this strategy with us. This approach has many applications that will be of benefit to all online instructors.
Gary
Hi Jay,
I use a similar approach with my night classes with much success. We just have to bring variety and activities to the class or our students are going to mentally check out on us. Great strategy.
Gary
I teach in the evening curriculum and face the same challenge of keeping students active and awake. I fire questions at them suddenly and out of the blue. This is a change from my early teaching where I spent most of classtime lecturing and informing students as best I could.
Their participation, involvement has improved. When they evaluate my efforts at midterm I receive great feedback. Students expect to be challenged, questioned and asked to explain the material in my class.
Hi Rick,
This is a classic example of adapting your instructional style to get the results you want from your students. You now have an involved and dynamic class of engaged students. This is what being a good instructor is all about.
Gary
