Hi Andrew,
These are great things mentioned and done on the first day to get your students excited. Keep up the good work!
Patricia
Hi William,
This is challenging in itself. Continue to do your best to be perky and motivating. Hopefully your enthusiasm will have a positive affect on your students.
Patricia
Hi William,
You need to make your class what it needs to be to bring excitement. Do you have academic freedom at your school? Perhaps, you can revise the PowerPoint presentation. Someone needs to take initiative either you or the academic dean.
Patricia
Hi Joseph,
What current trends have you covered lately?
Patricia
Hi Kimberly,
Many students are excited to know you have experience in the area you're teaching. Personal experience stories are very motivating.
Patricia
Hi Francis,
It serves us well when our doubters finally see the importance of material.
Patricia
The question I posed was about letting peer pressure take its course with a disruptive student.
But to answer this question: I use examples from my career when I was able to capitalize on an opporunity because I had acquired a skill or gained some eperience that wasn't necessarily in the instruction or even in the textbook. By getting the students to appreciate that not only "seeing the turn" is important but anticipating "what might be around the corner" I seem to be able to get some of the initial doubters to see potential usefulness of the material despite it not being obvious at the moment.
I TRY TO INCORPORATE WHAT I HAVE DONE TO TIE IT IN TO WHAT MY STUDENTS ARE DOING, i TRY TO BRING IN EXAMPLES OF MY WORK TO SHOW THAT I DO HAVE EXPERIENCE IN WHAT I'M TEACHING AND TO GIVE THEM DRIVE TO ACCOMPLISH THE SAME...MANY OF MY STUDENTS GET INSPIRED BY THIS.
An open discussion of current trends and how they apply to what their goals are in continuing thier education
If we had better PP presentations it could be exciting, ours act as more of a guideline with very basic info that requires elaboration and low quality videos. It is up to the instructor to bring some life to an otherwise boring lecture.
WOW good one, for the most part it is rather difficult to get them excited. This course normally comes toward the end of their education so all they are focused on is getting it over with. This course is a lot of theory which translates to lectures. I get excited in class and do my best to keep it interesting but most students are unmotivated. The morning classes are the worst a lot of sleep deprivation going on. Fortunately the course creates its own wake-up call. The tests are difficult and if they do not take notes or stay focused a 5/10 score brings them down to earth.
Hi Julia,
You are on point. We spend a lot of our time fighting battles with students who are struggling due to various reasons. We do need to show our excellent students they are appreciated. Perhaps, give your excellent students a call on the weekend just to say thank you for being an outstanding student. The students would be appauld by such action on the instructor's part.
Patricia
Hi Linda,
Great use of interactive techniques to get your students comfortable with each other.
Patricia
Hi Christopher,
It is sad to have high school graduates reading at a 6th grade level. We do have to simplify the course content so that our students understand what's going on, and we do not lose them.
Patricia
Hi Hector,
I am a firm believer respect is something that is earned. You can not demand respect. Whenever students see you as an expert and leader in your field, you have started to earn respect.
Patricia
I just started teaching a College Success course that I totally revamped. The course has had very poor evaluations from students over the past year that it has been a part of the curriculum. Part of the reason for the poor reception is that this is a culinary school and new students would rather be in a cooking lab than in an academic classroom. The other reason is that it is simply a boring class syllabus.
My goal was to jazz the course up and add as many hands-on activities to the class as reasonable. For starters, under the encouragement of my supervisor, I took out seemingly meanlingness assignments and added relevant, team-oriented activites. I added interesting chef instructors and visitors to talk to the class about college success and future careers. I also added a field trip to an incubator kitchen and even invited my chiropractor to talk about stress reduction before finals.
I am also asking for student feedback on a daily basis: was there anything that did not work for them today? what would they do differently? what would they add/change? etc.
First day feedback was excellent and am confident that this class can be interesting, even exciting.
Margaret
I start each course by going through the syllabus, explaining how each assignment relates to the work they will be doing in the field. I discuss the field trips, guest speakers and other activities early. I also show examples of excellent student work that was achieved by students who were very engaged in the course.
Starting the class with a demonstration always gets the students excited about what they will be learning.
I agree with you both. Real life situations help students relate to instructors as "real people" not just figure-heads. Sharing experiences also help stimulate the students' curiousity and provide clarity on some questions they may have about their chosen field.
That's a tough one Patricia because we are encouraged to stick to the curriculum when testing students. We are allowed to add a few tricks we may have learned or even invented and to let the students know that there is more than one way to perform certain tasks. However, ultimately the textbook is our main guide, and supercedes any other rationales.
