Hi Karen,
You are right on with making yourself human while developing within your students a professional respect for your expertise. I know this approach will work well for you.
Gary
Share life experiences -- and show them that you are are a real person too. Take students on field trips, and invite guest speakers into your classroom. Smile, show the students that you care, get to know them without crossing the line!
Sounds like a winner. I will try this in my next session.
Hi Carmen,
You are doing a great job of redirecting a situation that could be difficult for the student into one that has a positive. Anytime we can learn from out mistakes without hurting anyone it is a success.
I would bet the students will think long and hard before they create a color combination that creates pink hair again, unless of course that is what the customer wants.
Gary
sarah, I totally agree in my class we get so excited when we make a mistake (learning experience) NO OOOPSIES !!! if we are mixing color and someone gets green or blue or maybe even pink it is a great success because now we know better !
carmen h
Hi Sarah,
Everyone likes to be praised for what they are doing. A class exercise you might want to try, that my students really enjoy is the following. Divide the class up into groups of approx. 4-5 students. Have two students deliver 1-2 minutes speeches on some topic within your area. I have a rubber tub up in the front of the class and each group can select items from the tub to create a reward for the students. In the tub I have pop cans, construction paper, gold stars, ribbons, felt markers, etc. Each group has to come up with a unique reward for the students. The idea is that there are many different ways of rewarding effort. This lets the students be creative, have some laughs, and see how the most simple things can be a reward if presented right. The students may entitle the awards such as most inspiring, most effective, etc.
I have found that this also helps me to review my ideas of how I can keep my students motivation, especially as we get about 2/3 of the way through the course and they are getting tired. Let me know how this works out for you if you give it a try.
Gary
Praising the students, even for little steps, has always seemed to work for me.
HI Ruth Ann,
You are doing a great job of providing support and motivation to your students. The use of second year students is a good idea. You are providing first year students with models as well as examples of where they will be progressing in the next year.
As for feedback all of us can never get enough. We need to continually give it to our students in such a manner that they value it. If we just ramble on they will soon ignore or dismiss it. Feedback needs to be focused and supportive.
Gary
As Program Director, we are always out to encourage our students, give them "real Life" experiences, and hands on instruction. We have found that by using our second year students to help the first year students that this motivates the second years to do a better job and helps are first years by having something to look forward to. An example of this is having our first clinical students be patients for the second clinical class. The first class students get an opportunity to give feedback to the second class so that they can improve on their patient techniques.
I always try to give verbal and written fedback to my students in the class. Alot of times the verbal is on papers, etc. Verbal in the class wither before or after.
Hi Kimble,
Students seem to always enjoy hearing about personal experiences that have helped individuals to grow in their professional development. These stories from the instructor as well successful graduates can serve to get the students “fired†up about completing their studies and getting out into the workforce.
Gary
i like to meet the needs and bring more motivation to the students by sharing things i have gone through personally and in the career in which we are involved so they can decide to make the best of what they have available to them.
Hi Mike,
Thank you for those kind words about the course. As we educators know working in the career college field we are challenged everyday with the need to keep both our students and ourselves motivated to keep the learning vision before us.
Your list lays out a very forthright sequence of activities that can be of great benefit to helping students achieve their career goals if we(educators) provide the supports needed.
Keep up the good work and if I can be of any future help to you please let me know.
Gary
Hi Therese,
There's nothing better than hearing from those that have walked the footsteps of success is there? Past graduates can talk about the “true†ins and outs of the occupation and employers can talk about what they require. This is as good as it gets.
These efforts really help instructors when they bring the class back into the classroom/lab and make assignments. The students have just heard how it is and now you, the instructor will help them achieve their goal(s). This makes everything real.
Keep up the good work!
Gary
Dr Meers,
Student and instructor motivational techniques, that are supported by the concepts of module 4 are as follows:
1. Class field trips to business locations that match a course major.
2. Guest instructors/speakers from the business community with a motivational message that matches the course objective.
3. Student select "honor" organizations in the student's academic major.
4. Student appreciation social events during each academic term.
5. Academic awards for superior grade point average.
6. Instructor in service instruction that uses current techniques to measure instructor motivational skills.
7. Employing a full time student activities director to arrange all campus wide student events.
8. Full service and staffed career placement department to secure employment at graduation.
Taking your course has provided further insight of additional techniques to address both student and instructor motivation.
Mike Aday
We schedule guest speakers. We have past graduates and empolyers come in and talk about what the real world is like and what the student can expect when they get there. It really gives them a different perspective on things and helps keep them focused on getting through school so they can arrive at their final destination.
Therese
HI Michelle,
Thank you for the list of ways to set up motivation for students. These are very good. The problem that comes up with many instructors is that they don't know how to do some of the things on the list. For example they really don't know what it means to “be funnyâ€. They make think it is to tell a joke, wear wild clothes, etc. When in fact with some in-service they can learn to use humor in the classroom effectively. This same example can be applied to any on the list. Coming from business and industry many instructors have not developed their presentation skills so they aren't sure how to do and be the things on the list. I would suggest that they be mentored by a veteran instructor that the school recognizes as being an excellent teacher. This way the new teacher can receive instruction and support on how to be a better teacher without feeling threatened.
Do you have some examples of how you work with your instructors developing their expertise in the areas you listed?
Thanks
Gary
give real world examples
have energy when teaching
be funny
be real
be interested in each student
Andrew,
The newspaper is a great tool for showing trends and changes in different career fields. The use of successful graduates as guest speakers is really effective as well as employers laying it on the line about who they are looking for when hiring.
The key thing is to transfer student thinking from the classroom to the work world. They need to ask themselves: “How will what I am learning today, effect my future, can I see the application?†The instructor serves to reinforce these questions by illustrations and examples so the students can see the relevancy.
Gary
The newspaper should be a great example of showing how and why job loss occurs and how to combat the phenomenon is almost always a new talent or skill in a field that shows promise.
Lily,
Nothing motivates a person like success. By taking your students out into the “real world†you are saying to them that upon completion of your training this will be you contributing to the success of the photo shoot or wedding. This has to get your students excited, after all this is why they are in school in the first place. The problem is that sometimes they forget their career goal and need to be reminded that only through much effort and hard work will they be able to accomplish their career goal.
From the discussions in the forums I am sure that you are having a great impact on your students and that you are constantly striving to improve your expertise as an instructor. Good luck!
Gary
