Taking deep breaths throughout the day helps you focus and reduces stress.

Application of real world experience

Utilizing the instructors real life experience and application

Stress is not an option in life because we will all experience it at one point. But, how we deal with it is our choice. Finding ways to deal with our stress in a positive way will assist us with having a positive outlook on the things we need to do during our daily lives.

I found this term interesting as it is so true when it comes to in-class assignments or group work. In planning, an activity may take 30 minutes on paper but can be sufficiently covered in just 10 or 15.

I believe that one of the main ways to decrease stress is the have control of your environment and situation. No, life is not perfect but, try and find ways to destress during your most stressful moments. Listen to your favorite music while in rush hour, bring a snack to eat between jobs, pick special times to spend with your kids and family when you are off and most important find time for yourself. I think that alot of times as care-takers we forget that we need to first take care of ourselves.

Being organized is very important as an instructor. It would be very inappropriate for the class to respond in an organized manner if the instructor does not approach the class in an organized manner.

I find these three areas to beof greatest signifigance when preparing for and teaching a class. The more experience the better too!

One of my classes I teach has only silent students in it. I find it very difficult to get any interaction going with them and it is hard to know how much of the information they are retaining. Even when called upon most of them will mumble an answer to me, or stall by looking through their notes. The class only consists of 6 students so it is all ready a fairly small group. any suggestions?

I have had students that just do things and disrupt to get your attention. Once they have your personal attention they are fine. However, they cannot always have your undevided attention. On the other end, the student who constantly needs your approval and reinforcement that they are doing everything correct can be just as much trouble.

In the online environment, clerical duties have increased and can be very time consuming depending on class loads. Taking a specific time each day to address these can minimize the demand and stress. Also making students aware of this schedule can also minimize stress on the students as well in regards to waiting for a response. Great information here to learn from.

One of the biggest mistakes I see in most instructors’ time management is lack of time for self. Our ability to deliver quality can be as good or as bad as the quality we deliver to ourselves. Being a great instructor starts with being great to self and being able to set the example for students to imitate and learn from. I need to make more time for myself so I am not overwhelmed when others have demands of me. When I do not enforce that personal time I become overwhelmed and most times ineffective at tasks. This is a great refresher for me.

Many of the instructors at the school where I work employ the portable file folder system that stores and organizes syllabus material, hand outs, workshops and other materials that we can keep in our trunks. This is a great way stay organized on the fly.

In an attempt to be more organized and productive, I find myself scheduling tasks and appointments that bookend against each other, leaving no time to 'decompress' or relax until I get home at 11pm. I've tried to schedule breaks and downtime, but inevitably, I have to use that time to; 1. catch up on the work i did not finish, 2. spend with family, or 3. work more hours. I can't seem to get on top of it. any suggestions?

I find it challengng at times to keep things organized the way i would like because where i teach, we share classrooms and don't have offices or any type of personal space. This means that our teaching tools and papers stay in the classrooms. When you have three instructors sharing the same class, things get changed, moved, and shuffled and it can get very frustrating. I have found the only way to help the situation is constant communication with your teaching team. Making sure everyone knows who's responsibility it is to clean what and when seems to keep things the way we all like them and ease a bit if the frusration from not having very much personal space.

It's often difficult for me to find a balance between these two. I find myself usually doing things right away and if i get stressed out, i put things off and ruber band between the two extremes. I have found that making lists and journals of things to do and prioritizing has made quite the difference and I seem to be building a balance in the last few months.

How do you motivate the unenthused student?

I have found that there are people who work better with noise/loud music, etc and others that need quiet. How do you balance these out in a classroom?

In my class I had a student that just could not keep up with the expectations no matter how I tried to help or encourage and I felt helpless.

The number of steps and the amount of explanation should be no more than is needed to make the hard call with managing student behavior.