Suzanne,
I am excited about your excitement for expanding your instructional expertise. Keep seeking new methods and strategies as you gain experience in the classroom and lab. You are off to a good start.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Keith,
Thank you for the kind words about the course content. I wish you much continued success in teaching and impacting the lives of your students.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
For me, this is my first time working with students, so taking the course really gave me some good ideas about teaching and learning styles. Courses such as this will expand my instructional abilities by helping me to approach my interactions with students in a more organized manner. I do most of my instruction by demonstration in the dental clinic, but this course made me see the other ways in which I can more effectively teach the students in our clinic setting. I look forward to learning more about how to be a better instructor.
Watching and listening to other instructors of any subject is an important way for me to expand my instructional abilities. I also think that observation of students in other lecture venues can give me an insight to multi learning styles. The more I am excited about my material, the more I wish to learn.
You have provided me a lot of tools that are new to me:
1. I am going to be fully prepared with handouts, PowerPoint, etc. before the start of class.
2. I now understand how important the use of varied teaching modalities such as clinical studies and group activities will keep the students interested.
3. Specifically for my instructional abilities, I will continue to seek out good advice as you have provided me.
Thank you,
Keith
Martha,
Professional organizations like NCTE are valuable for professional growth. Keep up the search for instructional growth and you will enjoy your teaching more and more.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Jodi,
You have a comprehensive approach to your professional development plan. You will and have seen expansion of your expertise each time you teach and this shows how your plan is working. Keep looking for additional ways to be a more effective and efficient instructor and you will enjoy a most rewarding career as an educator.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I have just joined the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the resources there will help me continue to grow. I also would like to join an organization on adult learning.
Martha Moore
More demonstrations and visual examples of artistic styles. The downside of demos is that it eats into the students "work time" so I try to keep them as brief yet informative as possible.
Generally speaking, I expand my abilities in the classroom each time I teach - gaining more experience and obtaining feedback from interacting with the students.
Specifically, however, being new to teaching, I research a variety of teaching strategies and ask questions of my colleagues when need be. I am taking these courses in order to expand my personal knowledge and bring what I then learn into the classroom as well. I use what works from prior terms and modify those methods that didn't "go over" so well.
When given my student survey results, I read the comments as well as review the general score - they are my measure of success, so I value what they say.
I am still learning and I expect I will be so long as I am teaching.
Cynthia,
It is exciting to hear about your professional growth. The more experience you gain the more you will be able to pick out critical content for your students. This will help you to more accurately target their learning needs and then provide support to them.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
As a new instructor I am learning that I need to assess my strengths and weaknesses in delivering different course materials ... specifically what brings the material "alive" and deemed useful to the students and makes them want to know more versus what "didn't fly" and they could care less about the material that was presented. In any case, the material needs to be made relevant to their future career and how this information lays the foundation for getting to their goal.
J J,
Right you are. These organizations can help you stay current with your field as as well as instructional strategies.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I think as a new instructor I need to start looking more into more professional organizations to keep current on recent developments and technologies, so I can not only to be able to instruct on the latest equipment, but to keep myself abeast of what is happening in the field so I can keep my students informed on changes so when they graduate they can at least say they are aware of them
I mean there will always be something different that us as teachers can use to expand our abilities. I usually read and research different learning style and talk to my co-workers to find different avenues to approuch and expand my abilities.
Gilbert,
Good way to continue to expand your knowledge and expertise as an educator. Your professional development will enhance the learning of your students every time you teach a course.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
First, understand the inability of the student and restructure the approach in presentation of the topic, particularly with emphasis on powerpoint and animation, if applicable. Also, I will inquire from the more advanced students as to how they may see another appropriate methodology geared towards assisting their classmate. With these suggestions and ofcourse constantly researching for alternatives, ideas do flow to allow for instructional versatility.
Kennedy,
Can you expand on this. I'm not exactly clear on what you are sharing with us in these comments. Thanks for your input.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Exposure to different teaching styles
To observe learning styles of students
