keep the student interested
You have to let them know you care that they are here. and that you will try to help them in any way you possably can to make being here a success.
Always let the students know why the classes they are enrolled in are important. It is important to share with them how the class came into play for you (the instructor) sometime throughout your career. This helps them stay intersted, vested and focused in each and every class.
Today is seems to be all about entertainment. Look at the younger students, They cant go more that a few minutes without texting or listening to an ipod. I believe in edutainment. To keep students involved and interested you must keep their minds active. I do this by changing constantly. From the pitch of my voice to ny position in the classroom. Always keep the students wondering what's coming next that way they stay focused.
Yes Tom, I have seen this also. Students like to be entertained. They want to have fun, and they want to be spoon fed.I want them to have fun while learning. It's been proven that having fun while learning, they learn faster and retain much more. The challenge is to keep them interested, entertained enough to challenge them. They need to want to know what's the outcome of what we are learning. Many times I've had students appoarch me and say "why can't you just tell me? that's your job, you're the teacher".
I agree that instructors should emphasize the importance of the class to the student. Apart from the instructors own postive experience it is important to highlight the long term benefits such as the range of career opportunities that will be available to them.
Caroline--
Discussions regarding career options are important. Many students see only one or two opportunities when there may be many. Great job!
Susan
I find that if you always try to tie in the work that day to the reasons why they came to school, it will help with keeping the students interested.
Thomas,
I have experienced the texting in class and it is quite annoying. Generally, I ask that the texting is put to a stop, but I plan on implementing a new method of having the texters present material in class in order to "entertain" them. There is a fine line between entertainment and education and it is up to the student to practice a certain level of control in the classroom. Not only is it disruptive to the learning process, but it is disruptive to me during lectures.
