Adult students often will not communicate their concerns directly with the instructor. Instead, they may communicate directly with the dean or other administrator first. How do we encourage direct communication with challenging adult students?

Adults students present their own challenges, of course. How do we deal with the adult student who does not want to communicate their concerns directly with the instructor?

Are most angry students male? I have had more interactions with angry females than angry males. In either scenario the angry students most often are testing authority, or have issues with female authority figures. In these case do "we" think it is beneficial to have a third party who is the possibly opposite gender if mediation is necessary? maybe?

Instructors really need to use stress coping mechanisms to appropriately handle stress. Medical literature points the need of using coping mechanisms to properly cope with stress (Myers, Fleming, Lancman, Perrine,& Lancman, 2013). Reference Myers L, Fleming M, Lancman M, Perrine K, Lancman M. (2013). Stress coping strategies in patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures and how they relate to trauma symptoms, alexithymia, anger and mood. Seizure. 2013 May 17. pii: S1059-1311(13)00131-3. doi: 10.1016/j.seizure.2013.04.018. [Epub ahead of print]

Stress is very real and needs to be identified and responded to (Hochberg, Berman, Kalet, Zabar, Gillespie, & Pachter, 2013). It is very critical for instructors to assess their stress levels in order to cope appropriately. Reference Hochberg, M. S., Berman, R. S., Kalet, A. L., Zabar, S. R, Gillespie, C., & Pachter, H. L. (2013). The stress of residency: recognizing the signs of depression and suicide in you and your fellow residents. Am J Surg. ;205(2):141-6. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2012.08.003. Epub 2012 Dec 13.

Development and assessment of creating exams in the medical education world is critical. Sometimes assessments lead to needing to change curriculum (Niedermier, Way, Kasick, & Kuperschmidt, (2010). Reference Niedermier, J., Way, D., Kasick, D., & Kuperschmidt, R. (2010). Effect of curriculum change on exam performance in a 4-week psychiatry clerkship. Academic Psychiatry. 34(3):216-9. doi: 10.1176/appi.ap.34.3.216.

In the medical world, time management is key. Consultant medical microbiologists (CMMs) need to manage their time by focussing on the highest priority tasks first (Riordan, Cartwright, Cunningham, Logan, & Wright, 2007). Reference Riordan, T., Cartwright, K., Cunningham, R., Logan, M., & Wright, P. (2007). A survey of time management and particular tasks undertaken by consultant microbiologists in the UK. J Clin Pathology.

Most of the time we have adult learners and young kids in class it is difficult to keep the attention of all any ideas?

I feel students need a strong instructor, they want to be told what to do and be lead. they are not leader's, they want to follow. they want to know how far they can push you, and if you stand your ground, they know when to back off, and do what they are told.

I find young people complaint all the time, this take to long this is to hard, a don't have time for this. and its the week end. when you get a reward for coming in lasts, their is no reason the be first.

I like to put the problem student in the front row and call on them more often.

getting each student to understand each class will help them in the jobs they do today and the work they will do tomorrow

You write, “If you are giving your students options, make sure you spell out these options as clearly as possible.” I want students to learn to be enterprising and self-reliant, so I will purposely leave some assignments open to interpretation. Also, regarding late work, you mention to students, “You will be reminded of these due dates throughout the course.” I don’t do that because I want them to learn to follow the syllabus themselves. Do you see any value in my approaches?

I currently have my own business Learn 2 Laugh Inc. www.learn2laugh.com I am a corporate trainer and I speak at conferences, businesses and schools teaching employees the value of using laughter as a way to reduce stress. My presentation was so successful the former CEC President personally sent me an email because he heard about my speaking engagement at an ACICS conference. I want to share with you all a new concept called laughter yoga. If you are ever stressed try laughing or watching you favorites comedy shows. There is scientifiec research that proves laughter is a way to reduce stress. I have tried this with my students and with faculty and the results are positive. I am focusing my dissertation on this also. Please research this and comment if you think laughter can reduce stess. Use the key word laughter yoga. I would love to hear your comments if you think this works. Here is a CNN link to start. http://youtu.be/ZKNB0OTrXKw

I order for students to embrace the classroom and technical college experience, the student should see in their instructor an example to aspire.

Student may desire a lot attention and try negative ways to disrupt the classroom environment.

It is important for the instructor to clam responsibility and ownership of the classroom environment. Students who are outspoken may try to take over the class, the instructor must know how to redirect.

I have found that meditation is tremendously helpful to me. For me it is almost a way of looking at everything in a calm, objective manner and gaining insights on how to move forward.

I find that one of the biggest problems for me is that I don't use my personal time off as would truly be beneficial for me. This is something that I am working on at the moment to use this time to go on a small vacation, just to be able to recreate and unwind.

I really like the idea of putting the answers to the side of the exam in order to make for fast, easy grading. I also like the idea of underlining and highlighting the important words in an essay exam. I have also found that answer sheets for the students to use during quizzes and exams to be extremely helpful in reducing the amount of paper that I look at when it's time to grade.