Personal Experiences
Personal Experiences can help with retention and give students hope when they feel hopeless.Mny may feel that because an instructor is working and or accomplished that they cannot sympathize.But students can find reason to keep working hard and finish school.
Adrienne,
Thank you for sharing this success story with us. Students like to hear stories from their instructors about their field. These stories help to make the course content come alive and have application for them.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I also use my personal stories of successes and failures to help my students understand what it takes to succeed. I had a student who was going to drop my class because his team, according to him, "did not like him." I shared a story about a similar team experience. He stayed in the class and thanked me when is was over. He learned about himself and course material - It was a rewarding moment for me.
"suitable for the subject" is exactly correct in that personal experiences which do not entertain the subject of discussion will be of no aid whatsoever in ones' attempt to convey knowledge of that respective subject.The experiences of nonrelating enlightenment serves no useful purpose in the successful teaching process.
Johnny that is so true that it makes us as instructors seem more human when we talk about our expriences. My students laugh at me when I tell them about the first time I was fired for having an ugly attitude. They do not believe I had an attitude and was rude in my younger years, I told them it takes one time to get fired for an attitude to quickly change it or not work again in that field. I chose to tell both the good and bad (mistakes) in my career to my students and what I did to correct it. This is a story I tell when we are dicussing soft skills and professionalism.
I also think it makes you seem more "human" . You are not out there with all this knowledge so perfect and all.
This is true because i find that sometimes students need to see the instructor as a person also. Watch your boundries and make sure it is suited for that subject.
I've found that when relating an experience I've had involving a class topic, it shows the students the importance of the subject matter.
