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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Learning Objectives

Make sure sudents know the objectives for the course

Preparing yourself for the classroom

Be prepared to cater to all the learning styles of students

informing atudents

Keeping students aware of their progress, gives them encouragement.

troubleshooting

when I explain something new and I see scrunched up faces, I ask if maybe one of the students would like to explain it in a different way, to get the class involved.

educating students

That is our job, and the more knowledge we have to share the better we can teach out students to be successful. The more thay trust us to get the job done.

BEING ORGANIZED

Being prepared for class helps the students see that you care, and are ready to get down to business,on time. I feel it helps them know that I care and am organized.

Evaluation

Should instructors be evaluated base on their skills or how the classroom work in lab.

student progress

given at the end of every week to make sure student know where they stand.

pretest

how often would you give pretest?

delivery

by making sure the cours content is delivered ,you better prepare the students for assessements

being a role model

being who you are and what do you represent for the student is very important to the eyes of a student,sometimes a word can make a lifetime differences

power piont

it si important not to just read from seach slide, not rush through the presentation no more than fivepionts per slide

be prepare

i always come an hour early

Remembering why we're here..

It is always important to keep in mind why we are in the classroom to begin with! Being on time and prepared is part of it, but for me it is important to connect with each student every day. Some will need more personal interaction than others. Some will seek you out frequently during the class - others the instructor needs to make a point of checking in with during class. I always make a pint of knowing where the student lives what kind of commute they have and if they work etc etc.

Orginzation and Reflection

In any type of work environment, and in my opinion, especially teaching, being organized is very important. Organization ensures that the class remains on-task and does not have to stop for any unexpected delay. Before I started teaching at the college level, I taught high school, where organization is key. I found it very important to have the entire 9 weeks planned out and all assignments ready. I was able to take this organization and apply it to 10-week terms at the college level. When producing the syllabus for any one class, it is important to know what information is to be covered and in what amount of time. I find when starting a new term, I reflect back on the last term to see what worked and what did not. I may have to re-organize the assignments and the time length in which to give the students to work on them. By having everything organized in a binder broken down by weeks, I am able to view the material and go from there. In order to help my organization of class materials (handouts, readings, PowerPoint presentations), I find that taking a 10-15 minute reflection after each class helps. I keep a notepad at my desk where I write down what worked and what did not; what I want to add to the course next term and what I want to take out; and even write notes and comments on responses from the students to that days lesson. By reflection on the class, it helps me to stay organized and be prepared for future classes.

Interesting Field Trips

It is important to arrange field trips that will encourage students by showing them examples of the type of jobs they will be doing when they graduate and allow them to speak with persons in those jobs. Sometimes the field trips are just a fun day away from school and aren't really eduational for the students. This doesn't benefit anyone. Georgeann

pertinant field trips

I was fortunate enough to be teaching anatomy and positioning during the period of time when the body works exhibit came into town. It was magical to see the student eyes light up as they viewed actual bodies. It was one thing to have a fake skeleton in the classroom and quite another to see the real thing. I believe it helped for a deeper understanding and I know the students loved the trip. They are already asking me when they can go again.

Attentive Studetns: General Education in a Career World

I'll be honest, I frequently have trouble holding the attention of my students. I not only have a Plan-B, but C & D, for most days because my students are geared up for hands on application / skill - based learning. I try to have activities, visuals to support lectures, and group work; however, (and the students often let me know) they are culinary students first (which I think is honest and okay). The students want to be up and about with a knife or rolling-pin in their hands, creating something. They do not come to my class with the skills to focus on task that don't connect to their hands. I would like nothing more than to keep all of my students engaged all of the time, but honestly engagement is not the one way street that module 3 implies - Instructor to Student. Students also have a responsibility to come to class prepared, which means more then just brining the texts, a notebook, and pen. They also need to bring a positive I-want-to-learn attitude. I do my best to connect my course with their career interests, and I feel I keep the pace moving and changing to engage all learning styles and preferences. I guess what I'm getting at is that module 3 is too basic. I'm looking for more depth: how can general education instructors keep student interest their courses?

Field Trips

I love our one field trip as we all meet at the Ranch 99 supermarket in preparation for Asian cookery the following week. We then hand out a scavenger hunt map and they are to go find these food related items so that they become more familar with these ingredients. Afterwards we all go have dim sum and see if they can analyze and recognize some of the key ingredients which was on their scavenger map. It's a lot of fun and there is a lot of interaction with the instructor. Glenn

I would like to know how you can put some of these practices to work

I am just wondering how some of these tips in this forum could be put into practice. One practice that was talked about was making students stay after class if they were late to class, late in turning in assignments, etc. Are you working with elementary students, high school students, or adult students? At the school where I work at, NONE of the adult students would EVER put up with this practice by teachers and would also run to administration if we were even to enforce it. It seems that the students that we are working with " feel entitled" and always remind instructors of "how much they are paying for this education." They also think that we have an obligation to teach them everything so that they do not have to do any reading on their own and that if they do not "get it" it is our fault. It is not just one teacher who fells this way, but many of the ones that I have talked with feel this way as well. Furthermore, I have noticed a vast difference between students at a career college and those students that I used to work with at a university/state college. SO..what practices can we use with adult students in this case? Thank you in advance for your help.