James Jackson

Melissa the best way to gain traction being new to any organization is to master their current set of policies and procedures and be excellent at what you do. Introduce simple suggestions at first to gain some followers and at some point others will ask you how you get such great results. Conform where necessary to be part of the team but continue to interject your ideas within your own classroom and measure your results.

Results tend to speak volumes with respect to your ideas but showing value for the traditions of any institution is also important to ensure others… >>>

Dixie, great post and a common are of conversation for many instructors. There are never any winners when you get into a confrontation with a student. You as the instructor tend to look like you are not caring and just there to take advantage of your title of instructor while students can shut down completely for the remainder of your time with them. Best practice is to remember that students rarely lash out with no reason and as professionals our focus is to get to the root cause of any issues and confrontational situations. Control the moment and do not… >>>

Daniel, policing the classroom is one of the harder parts of being an instructor. The good thing I see is you have your own experiences you can call upon which will allow you to control with some level of compassion and that from my perspective gives you a great advantage. Few students actually enjoy the process involved with learning but they do it because it is necessary to learn and achieve their goal of graduating and getting into a career. We as instructors are in a similar situation when we are asked to be outside our comfort zones with all… >>>