Akuoma,
I like using small groups to work through case studies and do presentations. The interaction among the group members as well as their contributions help to keep the class moving forward.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Joanne,
As I am there as well with my evening classes I appreciate your comments about how to keep your students engaged. In my evening classes (4-10 pm) I change the flow of the class frequently as well as the delivery so my students don't get to nod off and mentally leave the class.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Stephen,
By keeping your awareness up you will be able to quickly see how the students respond to certain types of lectures and activities. This will help you in your instructional planning. The same will hold true in the lab setting as you will see important certain types of demonstrations are and when they should be given.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Group discussion when properly managed so students stay on the topic can be an effective tool to keep students engaged. Breaking the students into small groups with each group presenting their findings to the entire class can help keep students engaged.
Teaching in the evening from 6-10pm can be a challenge, considering ALL of us have already worked a 8-10 hour day! Mixing up learning activities, interjecting Words of the Day Breaks, and even mixing physical Stretch & Bend with Verbal Volleyball helps keep us going through the long haul!
Finding the balance and being a new instructor is a huge challenge. The classes I will be instucting offer both lecture and lab work.
Andrea,
You planning strategy is a good one because you are sharing content and then having your students make application of the information. This results in enhanced retention of the material as well as expanded skill sets for the students. This is a win win for everyone.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Teaching in a clinical environment for 8 hours is challenging for students and the instructor. I find that taking time to do demonstrations first for the students and then allowing them to perform the skill helps keep them interested and eases their anxiety level. Helping them establish a routine and then adding new skills for them each time also helps.
Glenda,
Peer practice is a very effective teaching tool. I know your students appreciate the opportunity to share with their classmates.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree. Students learn a lot from each other. practicing the acquired knowledge gives them opportunity to try & fail & learn. I can't do 1 on 1 but peer practice is valuable.
Joseph,
I thought 4 until 10 was tough. Can't imagine going until 11. I have always taught in this time frame so I am used to the students that enroll, primarily adults that are seeking career upgrades or changing careers so they are dedicated to being successful and how to keep the class flowing. Thanks for sharing your experiences on how you are working with your evening students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Tasheema,
Excellent ideas. I teach adult learners in the evening. Many of these students have worked a fulltime job or will be going to a fulltime job after class. It is imperative to keep them engaged. I try to incorporate different styles and ideas to keep them motivated.
Yes the longer classes I teach at night sometimes are 5 hours long ending at 11pm, and are definitely more challenging.
I deal with it by mixing up the delivery methods and by engaging the students with an over-arching longer term project that they need to demonstrate progress on before the end of each nightly session.
This way they have a project to work on in between my lectures and demos which are usually about the skills they will need to use in the project.
Again, I find that keeping students engaged can be easy at times but whehn they start to loose sight of why they chose this profession to begin with it gets a little more difficult. I try and bring as much real world experience into the classroom as possible. I use stories from my day and stories from my teammates at work. We utilize our clinical sites and take the students on field trips and set up clinical time for each student to go out and experience the work environment one on one with another sonographer. This typtically keeps them engaged in their learning process.
Saudia,
This is a good strategy because it gives students the opportunity to apply the material that has been covered in the chapter.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Kathleen,
These examples are important to include because they help to make the content come alive for the students. They get to see the relevancy of the material in relation to how it is applied out in the field. This increases the ROI of the course for the students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
If you are lecturing on more than one chapter I think another strategy would be to take an activity break after each chapter. This will get them engaged and better help them to retain what was just discussed.
I like to always include real-world applications of the material. That way the students are constantly being reminded why they are learning the info to begin with. I also like to make even lectures as interactive as possible so that the students are not just listening to the material, but interacting with it for better retention.
Wendy,
I am a big fan of using guest speakers. They help to reinforce the value of the content and help to motivate students because they are modeling what the students are striving to become.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Peggy,
Yes, it will. It is a part of the learning process that helps to keep students engaged.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
