Idealy providing students friedly envirement allows the students engage with the class materials and discussion.For me being involve and care for your students progress the way to go is very rewarding.
To be clear about the information you are trying to communicate. Many times I am teaching students skills they have never tried to do, so I need to think of different ways to explain to them how do these skills. These different ways need to be clear and reinforced.
As an instructor, I need to give my lectures a clear structure. Sometime, I get nervous and rush through the material. I need to stay calm and keep the structure I have set up in my lecture.
as an instructor the communication skill that i would personally wish to improve on is being able to fully absorb written material! I have always needed to "do it" to completley understand it , I beleve that if i could better understand what i am reading it would be faster for me to understand new projects or ways of doing old projects!
As an instructor, primarily a lecturer of somewhat dry or challenging material, being taught early in the morning or after lunch, I find it important to hold the students' attention. I see real benefit in the course material relating to the craft of teaching, in terms of changing positions to change sight lines and refresh the student's attentions. In fact, I found myself thinking about and putting into practice some of the techniques in class today.
My biggest challenge has always been making eye contact- it's not something that comes naturally to me, and I have to really work at it. Any suggestions in this area would be most welcome.
I enjoy projecting enthusiasm in my course content! Eye contact combined with a commanding vocal presence is imperative.
One communication skill I could improve on is creating a sense of order in my verbal presentation of information. Giving a number to key points will keep the students alert and ready for the next instructional sequence.
I think the most important thing to focus on is the level of communication. By that I mean speaking to the proper audience by using terminology they will be able to understand. Many instructors think that by using large words, students will think they are intelligent, but the truth is by using vocabulary that is too advanced, you lose the students and they are unable to learn.
I believe sometimes we take for granted what we know and some people tend to talk to students either as equals (expecting them to automatically understand what is being communicated) or talk down to them. The tone is important. We have to teach students basics, if they knew the information they would not be sitting in our class. However, by the same token, talking down to them makes us sound condescending and alienates them.
So, I believe being a good communicator is finding the proper channel so the students are able to get the best learning.
Sabrina, thank you for your advice. I will do that, I understand exactly what you are saying, so I will make an effort to adjust the step accordingly. For the benefit of the student, but sometimes, it hard to just limit the amount of points, the subject dictate the point that we need to mention and when the student ask many question, it is hard to limit your points.
You wants to keep it going for this type of healthy exchange of discussion especially if I know the student is enjoying the subject. I am enjoying my self talking about the subject if the student is actively participating to the discussion. Got the message and I intent to used it to my class, thank you.
The delivering of a clear message.
To do this it has been wonderful to learn about all the steps recomended by this course.
In my experience what I do need to be more careful with is:" No to overwhelme the students with information, learn to better slow down.
Also to limit the number of points for that precise presentation.
I do have the same problem as you do, but now I am learning to speak clearly and slowly. We just to learn to adjust from it. The good thing we asknowledge what mistake we took, and we recognized as problem.
Then I would seek help from educated English teacher or even to a friend that you trust. In my case I ask my collegues for help. Luckily I have a group of supportive co-workers.
I believed more and more I am becoming effective communicator. Often times, even in my e-mail, I hit the send bottom, before I realized to edit them or spell check By the time I read my sent e-mail is a lot of typo, I wondering when I speak, may be I speak to fast without thinking what I am saying or trying to say.
I know what my main problem is...I talk too fast!
I communicate with my student with severals way, first voclly, actual physicall demonstration, and written text. So i would say Verval Learning, Vizual Learning and Reading or text learning procedure.
Well I find that some student is good of hearing or listening, but some are good in vuzual learning, and some is good of reading or text learning.
For myself, I need to improve on my Verval teaching skills, that the reason why I am taking more English Language lesson, alwasy ask question to my coulegues. English is my second Language and I am a lot more to learn.
In my environment, written communication skills clearly outweigh the others. Whether async or sync, much of the online environment is based on discussion boards, text in chats as a response, written assessments, and written feedback in elearning grade books. The faculty must be able to clearly and concisely articulate the message to the learner. From the student perspective, it is also important that the faculty support the writing skills of the online learner. The learner is also responsible for articulating his/her mastery of the content, participating in the discussion environment, and embracing and sharing feedback.
As an instructor, I would like to enhance my incorporation of visual tools to support the verbal and text based content sharing. As the net generation continues to grow in the work and education environments, the need for more visuals is necessary.
Dr. Jeannette K. Jones
beeing able to recognize each students learning status and capabilities.
Being clear and precise when lecturing will help retention of information. We need to be careful and avoid "over-delivering" of information which may be interesting, but not relevant to the topic on hand. Students need to understand what the relevance of the topic is in the big picture of the class or curriculum.
Using a blend of all the teaching skills I find to be very effective. I am able to reach each student through their learning style. Mixing it up keeps the students engaged with the lesson at hand. I have the objectives for the lesson on the board and refer to it often. Asking questions to reinforce the lesson is very useful and stimulates the students.
Learning to be a better listner.
Hi to all! I have done the same thing as an instructor as "I want to make my point." However, I too have worked hard at genuinely listening and showing interest in the person who is speaking to me; it shows professionalism and courtesy, plus that person most likely has a great idea or comment.
Jay
ED106 Facilitator
Hi Darrin!I very much appreciate your comments. I think you have hit on two crucial points for effective instructional delivery - first, the importance of varying your forms of presentation to engage students with different learning styles; utilizing the resources you mentioned helps to keep the presentation fresh and stimulating - second, using personal anecdotes, stories and examples brings the subject alive and more relevant to the adult learner because they can connect, personally, to what you are saying. I have often also asked students for real world, examples from their situations; this too engages the other learners.
Thanks again for your participation,
Jay
ED106
Great point, Joseph!
At times, when I'm especially excited about a topic, I will jump in before the speaker is finished, which I know is rude and unproductive. I will try to finish others' sentences in the hopes that they will deem me "smart." I know this is typically not the case, however. I have made a very concerted effort to give more eye contact and truly "listen" to what others are saying.
Hi Franz,
I too find that stopping to take a sip of water is useful, especially if one's throat is parched and one's heart is beating. It provides a natural pause for both speaker and listener.
A dry throat may be the result of bing nervous, so soothing the throat can conversely (hopefully) cure the nervousness.
