Each classroom is made up of separate and interesting personalities. the fole of the facilitator is to meld these into a unit which is receptive to instruction.

Dealing with divesified students can be challenging but its never boring. I try to be active and teach to all. I try to employ different medias to get my Objective across and consistently do formative asscessments. I like the idea of Minute papers. It keeps the sleepy head distracted cell phone users on their toes and appeals to those that are in the groove.

You only have one chance t get the attention of your students. I believe that the course must be interesting and motivating from the very first.

Sometimes I will set aside an hour or so to play a video game. I understand not everyone is a gamer, but to me it's a great way to relieve stress after a day. Facebook has many games on it - often ones you can do in simple sessions sometimes even with friends. Nice way to unwind - doing something that exercises your mind - but doesn't TASK it as much as teaching. Listening to music or soundscapes helps too. Youtube is full of long compilations of "Waves on the Beach" or "Rainforest Thunderstorm" type of videos that are great for meditation or just relaxing.

I was brought on about a year ago to work in a new department at our career school. Because it was new at this location, there weren't many instructors and virtually no precedent when it came to creating a course beyond the learning objectives. This means not only teaching twice a week, but also developing a completely new course every five weeks. This, combined with a long commute and lackadaisical and uncooperative students has caused significant stress. Though I'm sure that this has been discussed over and over - I did find the pacing to be much better for both learning - and teaching - back during the days of the ten-week terms. However, working through the stress is itself a reward. Always could be worse right?

As primarily a computer art instructor I find grading can sometimes be much more difficult when I'm grading things that aren't quite as cut-and-dry as right or wrong. Art being as subjective as it is, is harder to grade than an exam on terms or topics. The working method I've come up with to make sure there are no questions asked when it comes to WHY a student received a grade is to make and include a detailed grading rubric and include it with each assignment. I can't necessarily grade your art style - but I can grade whether or not you applied the proper technique (oftentimes program-specific) in the creation of the art. Therefore the method becomes what is being graded, rather than the final product. Don't get me wrong, I DO grade the overall gestalt of a piece of art - but it's usually the technique that carries more weight in individual assignments - as there are right ways and wrong ways to use the software, but who can say what is good and bad when it comes to art?

After reading through the module I came to a realisation - that this Obstacle really affects how I tend to view certain students and colleagues. I tend to be a person who wants the reply right now, and always works on completing a task as soon as possible. The opposite of procrastination. However this can and has jaded my opinion on some others who tend to take time in the responses, having mistakenly believed they were procrastinating, but in truth were only pacing themselves. Perhaps a hold-over from OCD? Is there any others who feel the same and how did you overcome it. The scheduled tasks list seems to be a good idea - but when cursed with immediacy (or perhaps impatience!) it can be difficult.

I really like the idea of having multiple class activities to pull from. I can see how this would be so helpful because class dynamics change a lot from term to term. Sometimes I have over 30 students and sometimes I have 8. There are some activities that are really difficult to do with 30 students and vice versa. Not only is the number of students important, but the personalities as well. I really liked the airplane activity and I am wondering what other class activities instructors in the forum have done that have proven successful in helping the students interact and learn, and in helping the instructor to get a sense of class dynamics?

I believe people too often overlook stress in their lives, they chock it up to "nature of the beast". I'm guilty of it too. This is when we need to be honest with ourselves, to acknowledge the stress, and then to identify the root causes. Sometimes it's easier to tolerate the stress, to just deal with it, but that is short-sighted. It would be to our greater good, and to the betterment of our students, if we make legitimate efforts to reduce the stress in our lives.

I have given my students a syllabus on the first day of class with their homework assignments due dates and all the test and quizzes for the entire course. I also review the syllabus the first night so there is not issue with understanding the course and when there due dates are. This has eliminated any issue with late assignment from the very first day of class.

Some healthy ways that I have found to handle stress are exercising, stretching, or going for a short walk/run. All of these were outlined in this course, but they actually do work. It gives you time away from whatever is stressing you and frees your mind to think about more peaceful, relaxing things.

We all feel stressed at some point in our lives. How we deal with everyday stresses is extremely important. A good and healthy way to deal with stress is to exercise. This helps to work off any frustration that may be caused by the factors stressing you, and helps you to feel better inside and out. If you do not have time to exercise, you can take a 5-10 minute break away from whatever is causing your stress. During this brief break, take a few deep breathes, think of a happier place and time, then return to your duties.

I recently changed my quiz and exam format to an online testing system. While it was a bit tedious and time consuming to create the quizzes and exams, it has saved me a lot of time that I would have had to spend manually grading the quizzes and exams. I also have it set up to where the computer grades the quizzes and exams, the student can see their grade immediately, as well as review questions that were answered incorrectly, and the grade is automatically sent to the grade book. This has saved me time not only in grading the quizzes and exams, but also in entering the grades into the grade book and reviewing the quizzes/test with the students.

I have found through my 32 years of instruction experience that you must establish boundaries for the students. You must set high standards in order to challenge the students but also be flexible in the grading requirements.

I find that having students draw diagrams of what they learned to be a successful formative assessment tool. I use this tool for feedback to me to either slow down or speed up my curriculum. It's interesting to have the students demonstrate their work on the board in front of their peers and encourages mastery and constructive criticism alike. Above all it's active and fun at the same time.

I have found that if you let the student vent brfore class and/or on a break, it will go a long way in defusing the situation. I try to be understanding and offer my help

I have had success by using these students as tutors for students who are behind.

It is vitally important to keep your students informed about the course and to keep them motivated towards the end goal of graduation and employment within the field.

I believe that my procrastination mainly occurs when I try to hard for perfection. I put so much time into preparing the perfect plan or to do list, but in reality I am putting off what needs to be done.

being stress free is not easy as it seems