Too much excitement
i find it hard sometimes to refocus the group after, I get them excited about a topic. For instance, I am teaching Culinary History. I took over from an instrcutor that left that taught from the book. I use the book as a guide but have thrown dynamic powerpoints at them and have gotten them IN to it. I decided I was going to get specific with them and do "The Last Meal on the Titanic" since the anniversary is coming up. So i do the presentation, now they we are going to do a themed plating of desserts from the time period and TODAY. They asked me to get the culinary side involved to do a full fledged re inactment of the last meal all three classes of people on the ship - Great I did my job I got them all excited about a topic like we are supposed to do....well, as I was continuing on with the topic today I found the excitement still at such a HIGH level I got pulled back into the project and the lecture from the other day...
So question getting TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT and pulling them back - any suggestions? I dedicated about 30 minutes to lecture of the course and just finally gave up and we started planning...help. Kithcens are easy lectures - hard for me to control
I've been in similar situations with my subject matter and the way that I have dealt best with excitement is by stating that once we get through the information that needs to be covered we can further discuss the previous material.
I feel you had an excellant idea to relate the students to a real world example. When you have an exciting group project in any field getting the students reeled in is a challage but compared to no interaction or excitment students do not get the full affect of project. Patty Vander Hoff
Guy,
sounds like a great idea, but yes can be a challenge to pull back. It may be a matter of just explaining to the class that while there is the "fun" of the activity, there is also a certain amount of info that must be covered. They are young adults & hopefully they will work with you.
Dr. Ryan Meers
