Recharging Your Batteries
I teach for a career college and have very little ability to personalize instruction materials (the slides, etc. were put together by someone else). I do my best to personalize my lectures but it is difficult to go over the same material without being able to personalize it. Consequently, I find it difficult to "recharge my batteries." This feeling is exacerbated by the fact that the courses are six weeks long, so I go through the same lectures regularly. I realize that my situation may be unique, but has anyone experienced this or have any tips for me to get my ire up once again?
I would hope that you have the opportunity to teach a different class once in a while. The repetition of the same class for months on end would make me very bored. I don't think I could handle that.
Hi Matt,
Something that I have done is to try and develop new and/or additional examples of the points that are made in the standard PP. This helps me to get excited about the upcoming sections of the course even though I have taught them many times before I get to be on the lookout for examples I can share so I am able to take the course outside of the classroom and then bring the examples back in. Just a little way of keeping my ire up.
Gary
Same here, Matt. I teach at a career college too, and our terms are 5 weeks, so a massive amount of information is thrown at students at a very rapid rate. The courses come canned as you said. Not sure about you, but I tend to do the same classes over and over for months at a time, and they do get very tedious. Try putting in something to keep the course 'fresh', perhaps presenting the class something in the news that's happening this week about your topic. Then at least that part is always changing, plus you get to keep up with current events, and keep the students focused on a 'real world' application of the topic too!
Marcia
