Being organized prepares you to have a smooth running day. However, the day could change at any moment and head in an alternative direction that you weren't prepared for. It's better to prepare yourself to adapt to changes at any time.

I find that by letting the students get frequent updates, as far as where they stand in class, is a great motivational tool for both the students and myself.

The biggest problem I face is having students with a weak educational background.

The use of you tube is great for classroom topics.

My personality really shines with my students during lecture. It has alot to do with my confidence.

It is important to know your weakness it help you on teaching and managing your class.

PowerPoint in the dark. My old projector just doesn't have enough candlepower to be seen. If I turn off the classroom lights and partially close the curtains we can see the projector, now they can't see to take notes. Some of my students got the idea of using head mount LED flashlights. Great for note taking but not so good when they looked up at me. Just like being in the spotlight! The fix? Goose neck LED lights that plug into the USB port on front of the computers we have. Works just fine. Regards, Terry

I had to laugh when I read the section on x-tra credit. I recently made a rooky mistake with x-tra credit. I thought I was being "smart" by giving students the opportunity to re-take a test. My goal was to give the students interested in learning a second chance of success. This was the first quiz and scores ranged from 10%-35% or 90%-100%. I'll spare you all the details, but I am curious if you have any advice on how I can fix the problem at the end of the term?

I struggle with assigning homework tough enough to challenge the strong students and easy enough that the struggling students don't feel overwhelmed. How do you suggest I handle the students that aren't willing to put any effort into the homework? Should I consider their "lack of effort" as the students "ability" to complete an assignment?

Environment is very important to me and my students often "poke fun" at me when I move tables around and give everyone the personal space and classroom environment I find most benefical for learning. I recently introduced the class to "white noise" during an exam and the majority of students requested the "white noise" for all tests and individual study time. Most of my students don't have the luxury of studying in the comfort of a home office. If they don't have multiple roommates, many have kids playing in the next room or find themselves trying to study at work, on the bus or in a crowed student lounge. The library only has one set of headphones students can check out. I am a new instructor and have frequently found myself puzzled at the priorities of career colleges. On one hand I understand the desire to keep spending to a minimum. On the other hand, rentention rates would increase if we could successfully help students identify specific ways they can be more effective studying in their home environment. None of my students would have given the "white noise" a chance if I didn't expose them to it in the classroom. Currently, most of them have downloaded "white noise" from itunes and use it frequently to tune out distractions. Do you have any other ideas that I might be able to introduce in the classroom?

I have always made copies of everything for my students and have recently decided this is a waste of my time, paper and money. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can minimize the various technological excuses used by students? Most of my students are new to the school and won't get a laptop until the last week of my class. Is it reasonable to expect all students (regardless of their laptop situation) be responsible for online assignments, announcements and class content?

My experience with electronic gradebooks is that they can be very limiting in how you structure your course grading and difficult to alter. I've had to completely change how I grade one course as a result. I greatly prefer keeping a spreadsheet personally developed for each course.

Here is one place I feel the rub - class time. In my program the amount of time per term has been dropped by 20% since I began teaching 22 years ago. Of course, the expected level of content to be mastered has not dropped - if anything its expanded. I already feel pressure to get through the content in the time allotted (before loss of snow days, of course!). At any rate, while in the theoretical realm I agree with things like pretests, its difficult to find the time, to be frank.

After having experimented with PowerPoint for classroom presentations a bunch of years ago, I've relegated their use to only very specific circumstances. I want my students to take good notes AND listen to what I say; with a PowerPoint they tend to try to copy everything on the slide INSTEAD of listening. Also, there is an issue with the having to wait on (or worse yet - regress to a previous slide) occasionally for the slower writing students. By writing my notes, schematics and diagrams on the board myself, I am forced to pace my presentation to note-taking speed. Students also have some time to process concepts before moving on as well. I teach in a technical program (Electronics), so this may be a bit more important. Furthermore, I enjoy having the flexibility to go a different direction to address a specific question or area of interest - something not well facilitated by PPT. I enjoy working with PPT, but find I personally stay "in the flow" much better going "old school", and as a result, I feel I'm more effective in the classroom. Just my 2 cents.

I think there are many good ways to handle late homework. I always listen to the students reasons and give them the benefit of the doubt. Although points are taken off. If it becomes a habbit with the student, then I give them no credit.

To mix things up and to get an idea of how the class is learning the new material, I will have them play a game which each team gets to ask each other team one question. They use the book to find questions and enjoy challenging one another

When using white boards, I try to use a variety of colors; make some funny drawings realated to material to lighten the stress. Mixing sentenses with drawing seems to keep good attention. how about you

If you know your personality then you know your strengths and weaknesses. You can use this to better connect to your students need and how you can help them by changing your teaching style to meet there needs to learn

I consider myself a fairly seasoned instructor, and was glad to see the bit about "Making Mistakes", over the years I've made a few in front of class and it is always better to admit it correct yourself (usually with a chuckle) and move on. If you try and BS your way through you always lose respect with the student.

I have found that using pictures, bubble graphs and color have made a big difference in class.