Get Your Students Hired
It is vital that as instructors we have new and interesting ways of delivering course content. Many times, I believe, retention issues can be better served if the classroom is a place where learning is fun.
The problem is that not all classes and the material is fun for all students. The "dry" courses are extremely difficult to make fun. I have found that I can only relate it to their current or career life for it to be fun. Any other suggestions?
Janet, are you able to incorporate current happenings in your field? Connecting newly learned concepts to topics in the news can be very powerful.
I agree, As an Instructor you have to keep the class interested and exciting. How do you do that? By being interested in the subject you are teaching. My course is 2 hours of lecture and 2 hours of lab. The hands on experience gives the students the opportunity to put in practice what they were taught in lecture. Sometimes they can't wait to get to lab to do that. I enjoyed watching my student practice what they have learned in lecture. When they see and feel my excitement about the subject, they get excited too.
4.5 hour classes are brutal. Tell us more about the use of plays to break the monotony.
Loren Kroh
The instructors here teach a class for 4.5 hours. There are breaks in between and to make it interesting they have them act out plays, watch interesting videos and do more classroom activities instead of just lecturing. Students do get bored and sleep in class so to prevent that we have to make it fun for them to learn.
Antoinette Scalese
Student Services
It's 5 hours of the same subject! It's broken up with breaks and lab activities ~ but there are days when the lecture takes up a majority of the time!!
Tracy, is this 5 hours of the same subject or spread over different ones? I thought 90 minute lecture classes were tough.
Loren Kroh
I think that is true. You cannot sit in a classroom for 5 hours everyday and expectr students to be happy with that. Our classes are 5 hours each day and we have to mix it up to keep their interest and keep them in school. There is absolutely a time where classroom work is pridominent. But if we can, we mix it in with hands on lab experiences to make things interesting and still get the point across!
Cheyney, can you share some techniques you use to make the classroom a fun learning environment?
Loren Kroh