I am fairly new to teaching and have a tendency to let my students slide on late assignments because they work full time jobs. They work some weekends and all different kinds of shifts so I try to schedule assignments for when I think they would have the most time to do them. But they have other classes also, not just mine. Would anyone have any advice for how to be more strict as far as assignment deadlines without being the stern instructor nobody likes?

I completed one of the other MaxKnowledge courses which discussed technology in the classroom -- better get used to it, use it, embrace it, because it's no going away. So instead of saying "I don't know; I'll look it up at the break and get back to you," which is what I've done in the past, I said, "I don't know -- let's look it up." On my surveys, I got blasted, "Why are we paying all this money for a teacher who tells us to look things up for ourselves?" So clearly this was not the right implementation of the idea behind the course. What is the right implementation? I don't know. Maybe it depends on the type of career college. It clearly backfired on me due to the way I implemented the idea. I'm not sure how often the MK courses are updated, but it should be a continuous process based on feedback from those who have taken the course. The discussion forums are great, but what about course feedback?

I teach in a culinary school. The course I teach is typically seen as irrelevant to cooking and to their careers. The course is extremely relevant, but they don't yet have the real-world experience to know this. Sadly, most of them are convinced they'll never need this info. I have had really good results with inviting former students come in and speak to the class, but I can't always count on getting a guest speaker. Any ideas on how to have the effect of a guest speaker without a guest speaker?

I have found that those people that want to be the center of attention do well as mentors. They are eager to help and willing to take on additional tasks for the extra attention it gives them. First make sure they are doing well in the class themselves so that they are qualified to help their fellow classmates.

It is just as important to allow students to fail in a safe environment as is it to help them succeed. They need to learn that it is okay to make mistakes. It isn't the error that counts, but the effort made to correct that error.

I usually make an announcement to the whole class and then pull the individual out a few days later to talk to them.

I have only one student in my course and for the most part he turns in all his assignment by the due dates. So, when I cancel class for a funeral and the assignment was submit late via internet. Should I still mark his grade?

I remember my first time teaching. You do worry and mess up. I had to create a seating chart because I messed up the students names horribly and made a mess of my attendance. Which was very frustrating for them and me.

We have a strict policy on cheaters. Plus it really makes you upset as an instructor because you give so much information and review thatto cheat is only cheating themselves.

I play music in the classrooom to regulate their nerves. Sometimes it will be playing and they do not even notice because they start focusing better. I found information regarding "white noise learning" onn the internet.

I think that it's important that all instructors lead by example.

In my syllabus the students sign a document stating that they have read and understood how their grade can be deducted for reasons laid out in the policy and procedures. I feel this creates value.

I usually have a student activity right after each lecture and it seems to help my students engage in one another.

I don't allow my students to turn in late work unless they have an excused absent. I think that some students tend to take advantage if you allow them to.

I believe many students and teachers alike can develop a successful stress management strategy by first raising their awareness on this issue.

Remembering student names does not come naturally to me. I found early on that if I don't make an extra effort here, it won't happen. Oh, I'll pick up a few names, mostly of those who answer questions or do excellent work. But I won't pick up the names of the quieter students, which is really bad because they may need more attention and it's going to feel really awkward several weeks into the course if I go to help them and can't remember their name! So I usually make a copy of the roster and focus after the first session for just a few minutes, putting faces to names in my head. It won't "take" for all of them right away, but after a couple of weeks I've usually got it down (and I think a couple of weeks in a ten-week course is reasonable). Also, when I do forget a name, I try to put a "happy face" on it, being humorous but not (of course) insulting a funny-sounding name or anything like that. I usually just try to laugh at myself a bit and let the students know it's okay to laugh at me too. It's not like we're going to hide the fact that it's hard to remember a lot of names -- they know that can be tough. But they appreciate the effort, even if it's not 100% successful. They can see that I'm remembering other students' names even if I happened to forget theirs, and usually if something like that happens it sets it in memory anyway so I won't forget that student's name again.

I teach programming, and the large number of in-class exercises I use produces a frequent case of students standing in line to get help from the instructor. One approach I use to address this is having students who have already figured out the answer help the ones who have not. This engages both the good student and the struggling one. There is a down side here in that the good students will sometimes simply give a solution to the struggling student rather than helping them to learn it. I deal with this in two ways: Making this a "class feature" and engaging everyone in the excitement of learning these skills from the beginning of the course, and by rotating through struggling students in subsequent exercise sessions so that I can verify that everyone is learning.

As a technology instructor I get a lot of "center stage students" who are excited about the industry. I like the "observer" strategy, but I am concerned that the student might be insulted by this kind of singling-out. One thing that has helped me from time to time is having a brief 'current events' discussion at the beginning of class. Not only does this give late students a chance to arrive in time to receive the entire lecture (no dodging my lessons!), it also gives me a chance to work the excitement down a notch so we can focus on some detail work. The only drawback of this approach is that it can sometimes be difficult to stop a discussion that runs too long, but experience has yielded a number of tricks here, such as bringing up the discussion again after class is over, giving them a chance to stay after and discuss it some more of they wish.

The first quiz asked what the instructor needs to manage a class effectively. One option was "have a plan and stick to it". But the correct answer was "have a variety of learning activities to offer". I agree that this promotes effective class management, but I would respectfully suggest that having a plan promotes effective class management *better* than varied learning activities. Let me put it this way: Having the students do one or two boring assignments in an otherwise engaging course is far less damaging to classroom management than not having a plan. Though I do agree that the "stick to it" part is not critical, and if that was their point then I agree. It's good to have some flexibility in your plan so that you can adapt based on student input and other discoveries in the classroom. My two bits anyway.

Most of the math courses I teach have more than adequate test generators which I use to create my quizzes, chapter reviews and the chapter tests. I can even make the review assignment multiple choice and the exam a "show the work" test. The program follows one of the concepts explained in this module - leaving a space to the right of the problem to provide your answer, which makes grading the exam a lot easier. One aspect of this test generator I started using this year was to make multiple versions of the same review/quiz/exam. They're the same type of question, but using different numbers. I have four versions I have created - one for each term. Once the new year rolls around, I have all the answer keys for the year, and don't have to worry if someone repeats the course, since the tests won't be the same.