Hi Isaac,
I teach starting at 4 in the afternoon and go until 10 at night. All of my students fit into the group you described in your forum comments. They are tired and hungry when they start. I have found the most effective interventions to sleeping and disinterest are activities. I do mini-lectures (10-15 minutes) then activities. The activities can be group work, problem solving, role playing, interviewing, etc. Then more lecture, more activities. I keep the entire session moving in terms of activities which in turn keeps the students moving to different work or discussion sites. Also, I give the students breaks when I see they need them. I don't have scheduled breaks because the students start to watch the clock about 15 minutes before a scheduled break, so as a result their learning curve is flat for about 30 minutes, the fifteen before and fifteen during the break.
Gary
I have to say that I very impressed with many of my students abilities to balance school, children and work. The majority of the students that I have had came to school with an a clear objective; career change, professional development,etc.. I have found that keeping the content relevant to the student is the best way to keep them engaged. I find out what their ultimate career goals are and try to put the days topics into a relevant context for their future needs.
I've worked as a night instructor and day, the night students definetly seem to be the worker bees that take things more seriously and want as much as they can get from there education....
I have found that these students are harder to motivate becasue they are tired and want to go home and go to sleep (cant blame them). How do you engage them?
Hi Christopher,
I teach all my classes in the evenings as well. Starting at 4 and ending at 10. You are right the students come in after a hard day of work and want to get right at it. Some though really require some challenging activities to get them fired up because they are worn out from the day's work. Either way it is fun to teach students that are there because they really want the education they are receiving.
Gary
