Hi Mark,
This is a great professional development accountability plan. This way you can measure just how much progress you have made and when it was made. Great idea. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Gary
Hi Roger,
Great advice for beginning instructors. This is so true. You have to be true to yourself and your personality. You can develop as a professional and increase your skills as a presenter but you need to be honest about who you are and how you are going to interact with students.
Gary
Hi Scott,
I like the way you have laid out your professional development plan. Your have input coming from a number of different sources which will give you a wide range of resources upon which you can expand your teaching expertise.
Gary
Hi Craig,
Thank you for sharing the story of this student that didn't think she could. Her husband's response is a common one that many of us would give as well. I had several classes that were considered to be "weeder" classes so the professor was intent on getting rid of us. When I received a 98 out of a 100 on the first test, I rushed in to his office to make sure he had the right student number (mine) next to the score because he had developed in me and most other students the idea we could not be successful no matter how hard we tried. Thus, the feeling that the score had to be a mistake. It wasn't but I never could capture the feeling of being confident in that class no matter how well I did.
Gary
Immediate feedback from the student will give you information of how effective your techniques are and you can make any changes/adjustment as necessary
Gary/Darlene - I set specific, quantifiable and measurable goals for myself each year - write them down and work to achieve them! I regularly track my progress toward the achievement of my goals - personal and professional!
Mark McMullen
First and foremost you have to be yourself. As a young instructor, and also a member of gen "Y", as many of our students are, you have to remember that we live in an age that is surrounded by people posturing and chest thumping on the internet and other forums constantly. We have become very good at knowing when someone is faking or not being "real" with us. If you get up in front of a class and are not yourself and try to be someting you are not you have failed before you even really started. You will be as transparent as a sheet of glass and all respect is lost.
By talking with more seasoned and experienced instructors (and working with them) I can better develop and enhance my own instructional style. Al;so by taking online courses such as this one could help me refine and enhance my instructional style.
I would sek out a peer or mentor to ask questions and get advise.Its always helpful to run ideas through people you admire and have regard for there knowledge
By listening to students feeedback and by asking them if they have questions.Lack of asking questions is a red flag and I would explain why aking questions is important for them and for me
Become as familiar with the subject matter as possible, allowing for a more comfortable approach/delivery to the students. Have the classroom and materials ready to go prior to the start of class. This increases time for delivery of the material and for any questions without a rushed feeling.
I agree with your comment about adults not knowing how to be successful students. I find in my environment that many of the adults really want to succeed, but have had problems succeeding with their prior attempts at higher education. They come into the class with low self-esteem regarding their classroom abilities. I just had one student who got the highest grade in the class on a quiz. I emailed her to tell her that she did and in class the next time she said her husband said to her are you sure I didn't send the email to her by mistake!
I try to be very sensitive to how I break the news of poor performance and really celebrate improvement, and say that we're going successful together.
Hi Dalene,
I wish you the best in completing your professional improvement plan. I have been teaching many years and I have a current professional development plan because you never can get to where you want to be as a life long learner. I set a specific goal for each year to concentrate on some aspect of my teaching and then work very hard to develop and/or expand my abilities and expertise in this area. Then I set another goal for myself.
Keep setting your goals and striving for improvement and you will continue to enjoy being a teacher for many years to come.
Gary
I'm still working on my instructional style. I would say overall, I take an eclectic approach. I think the things I need to hold in check the most are unrealistic expectations. I loved school. I always did my best and set very high personal goals. I was very self motivated. Not all students are like that. Some need extra encouragement and motivation. Some need extra time and effort to help them grasp things. I find myself asking leading questions to get an idea of where the student is on that spectrum. Just because they are all adults, doesn't mean they know how to be successful students.
I think that I can listen to the feedback from my students, engage in conversation with my Dean of Academics, review my classroom observations and determine areas where I can improve. I am very new at online teaching, and gathering feedback is really my only way of ascertaining ways to improve. I am currently in the process of formulating a professional development plan, and this class will help me to first identify my instructional style, and then determine ways to enhance that style.
Hi Eric,
Great way to personalize your teaching even though you are not with each student in a face to face teaching setting. These strategies will help to keep the students engaged in what is going on in the class and forward focused in how they can be successful.
Gary
Hi Jeremy,
Welcome to teaching and the comfortable feeling you have about being a teacher. You have confidence in your abilities and that really helps you to share your message about the field with your students. The journal idea is a good one because it lets you record what happened when it happened so you can improve and expand the next time you teach the course. Keep up the good work.
Gary
My main style is as a modeler. I represent myself in a professional manner and I offer suggestions on what has worked and what has not worked in my profession. I make myself as approachable as possible and I let my students know in the first class that if I don't know an answer to a question they ask, I will find it out for them.
I would like to implement more group work in my next class to enhance my instructional style and to make it less lecture heavy. I still don't feel that my students know their classmates as well as I would like them to. Now that I have taught one class for the first time I can see what assignments could be done in small groups and still successfully complete the competencies.
I think incorporating other teachers techniques will help me develope my style and include areas I might not have thought of.This can round out my stly and cover more of what I'm trying to get across!
dependes on the students needs and their learning abilities in order to make a better approach to each individual students
