Elizabeth,
A sense of humor is essential as an instructor. A shared laugh goes a long way in setting the tone for a class discussion or lecture session.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agreed with you 100%. We as teachers or instructors must treat our students with sense of humor and be able to read their mind. I usually in middle of lectures, if I feel students getting tires, I 'll tell students some jokes relating to our subjects. Everyone laugh and having a good time, then I go back to our subjects. When our students having fun. They'll remember almost everything to try to teach them.
I think keeping and maintaiing a sense of humor in an important part of student retention
You can be serious but still teach with a sense of humor and some gusto and it makes students feel at ease and offers them an opportumnity to learn in a fun enviornemnt
Jill,
Students like change of pace and variety in their instructional delivery. By offering both you are helping to keep them engaged and focused on what is being taught.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Michael,
Life examples are what increase both the motivation and interest of students. These stories help to increase the value of the course to the students as they start to see both relevance and application of what is being taught.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I like to have different activities for all my lesson plans, to keep them interested and wanting to learn more.
Making the class exciting by maybe give students life examples, or tell them some jokes related to the subjects you're teaching, give them some rewards, and let they know all of their questions is a good questions. Just let them engage & enjoy with subjects you're teaching. Let they know how smart they are when they have a great questions.
Nieva,
This is such a good ongoing reminder of why they need to keep working hard in the course for the duration. It is easy to bet bogged down with daily life and outside pressures to the point that they forget why they are enrolled and how this course will help them be successful. Their own words are those reminders.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
At the start of the course, I ask students what made them choose the program of study. The students' answers express and explain what made them enroll.
I have the students write what they had shared. I keep their essay--
When students loss sight of the reasons why they enrolled due to human factors and want to drop, I give them back their essay and have them re-read it..
I probe on what changes has occurred that makes them want to give up.
I let them rewrite their essay with new insights and understanding of the challenges in life.
At the end of the course, I give them back them their essays and tell them to re-read it and reflect on when they have challenges in life.
As an instructor, I like to challenge my students with the unknown on how the material will be taught. This keeps the students alert and wanting to return for the next class.
For example: A certain topic to be dicussed, I may asked the students to write a poem. I may pair them up for a talk show discussing the material that was read the night before and etc.
William,
This is a great way to expand the relationship between what the students are learning and their personal lives. You are showing them that they not only have a skill set but they also are able to share their skills with others when needed. This is the human factor in their career development.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I Try to stress the importance of there role in helping out there friends and family by being a trouble shooter /electrician. If you really want to be a electrician than you want to know the people that you help serve. This is a rewarding aspect to the career field that they want to ubderstand better. They in turn want more than to earn a good living but want to be the kind of person that wants a carrer of helping people. I'm trying to teach my students now about hvac controls and that they will be able to make a difference once trained. The biggest questions asked are when can we do these repairs and my reply is once you understands that with quality come quantity, take your time and master the required skills first. Your friends and nieghbors will always know your there for help. This helps to instill there confidence and lets them know that rome was not built in a day.
Terry,
Thank you for these excellent comments. You are so right in terms of how to interact with and provide support to students. We need to keep this information in our minds as we provide instruction and mentoring.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
When I first started teaching, I would announce to the class that if anyone is having trouble understanding the subject material or doing poorly on quizzes, they should come and see me. Hardly any students came to my office.
I discovered the reasons they didn't come to the office were as varied as the students themselves. I found I have to reach out to each student individually. You have to look for their "motivator". Some cultures prefer not to ask questions...even if they don't understand. Others really have a difficult concept with the term "success" and how to achieve it. This is why "canned" teaching does not work. Teachers understand this, administrators, politicians, and most of the general public, do not.
Elaine,
I call this connecting the dots. The more dots that are connected the more value the students associate with the course. You are doing a great job of expanding their understanding of learning opportunities and knowledge applications.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I find that it is very important to give examples of how the topic at hand is relevant to their careers. Teaching electronic music (synthesizers) doesn't alway seem relevant in the eyes of students who want to be audio engineers, but I show them examples of how they can use synthesizers to fix their mixes, for example. Once they see the relevance they often take it a step further and dive deeper into the subject of the class.
Elizabeth,
So true. The classroom or lab should be a zone where learning takes place and the problems of real life are kept out to the maximum extent possible. For many of my students school is the one place they can relax a little and focus on themselves before they have to go back to the challenge of survival.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
if an instuctor is having a bad day they need to leave it at the door and focus on their class
Pamela,
I support your setting of high standards. We are educating students to be successful in their chosen career areas. We need to set our standards at the same level as business does. To do less is to turn out under trained individuals and that reflects badly on our programs and schools.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Set high standards and don't be punitive. If the students make a mistake, encourage them to repeat the assignment until they get it right.
