Barry Westling

Allen, Good points. To build trust and respect, we have to be ready, knowledgeable, and confident in our abilities to transfer our understanding of needed material to students. Barry Westling

Joseph, Students want and need clarity. I believe only prepared instructors can fully provide the kind of clarity and understanding students need. Barry Westling

Shelby, All great comments. We have to value the students time and spark interest in their understanding of course material. This is unlikely to occur without adequate preparation. Barry Westling

Joseph, Wonderful. It's these kind of experiences that are memorable and stay with students, usually inspiring them as they begin to realize they'll soon be in the same or similar workforce. Barry Westling

Shelby, For me, PPT is merely a backdrop for providing necessary information. I think we can make slides more interesting, but the focus has to be on the material, not the medium that is providing it. For instance, did we ever use rainbow-colored overhead transparencies? As for printouts, my preference is to just post the whole lesson on the class portal, and students can access the presentation to whatever degree they feel is helpful to them. Barry Westling

Kathleen, Many health professions require skill, knowledge, and practical application as part of their post graduation credentialing or licensing examination. Your process of aligning close to what the actual tests are comprised makes a lot of sense, and in the end, your students will undoubtedly perform better because of their familiarity. Barry Westling

Jeffery, I'll tell you, with a bit of knowledge about prior knowledge, we have a great opportunity to fine tune our classes to make them a bit more effective, personalized, and overall achieve better student outcomes. Barry Westling

Kathleen, This sounds great. One of my "tools" is to provide a story that involves a past situation or circumstance that was particularly interesting, unusual, or perhaps, humorous. Students like stories, and once I have their attention, then I can go back to where my original lesson or discussion point left off. Barry Westling

Jeffery, Yep -- and variety helps keep interest and engagement. Barry Westling

Kathleen, This sounds terrific. We often forget that there was a time, not that long ago, before there was PPT. And those earlier delivery and presentation methods worked just fine. I still use the flip chart and overhead (when I determine that is the best way for me to teach my lessons. Barry Westling