Hello: I have been teaching for a few years now. I try to have a little lecture and some role playing along with some short video or other resources to help support the concept. This allows students to stay active and to play a role in their own learning. Empowering the students goes a long way in the classroom. To much lecture they loose interest to much role paly the will get away from the concept being presented. To much video they will not comprehend the concept--they also look at it as if the instructor is letting someone else do their job. It takes some time in the classroom to find this balance. But it is a learning process for everyone. This is where getting to know your class will help. Each set of students are differnet I have found what I can do in one class does not always transfer to another class.

What are some strategies for bring students up-to-speed when general background knowledge is lacking?

Do you see a difference when using remote controls for change slides, etc.?

How do you feel about the use of the Myers-Briggs personality assessment? Can or would you use this to evaluate and "open" students?

Documentation of everything is very important as students will always question you regarding grades, attendance and practical exams. have a great rubric so that students can truly evaluate themselves. We sometimes have students complete a rubric on themselves. They are usually more critical on themselves than we are as instructors.

In culinary arts we see that most students are tactile learners. By offering extra practice hours we can help those students that struggle to become more confident in their skills and assist them in developing skills beneficial to them in the industry. It's not always the book smart student that makes the best cook, but one that is eager to learn and practices his/her craft.

When I started 3 years ago, I had a hard time coming up with ways of delivering the lesson at hand for my students. I would stick to the syllabus and teach all that was required for the day, but then hit a wall when I would start to talk about other things pertaining to the subject at hand; making them lose interest. I decided to go to my mentor and ask him for advice, one thing thing that he told me was to consider these three things before teaching a class: 1)What they should know 2)What they will know and 3)What they will know I found that when considering those three points, it made it easier for me to decide exactly how much information I would deliver, so that I don't lose my students interest. Thoughts on any of this??? -Gabriel

I have found that many students benefit from "learning how to take tests." How to treat first impressions, how to search for what the question is realloy asking for, being aware of key the "comanment" words and how to find answers to other questions in questions.

I prefer to use the white board for both my course outline, class time line and class objectives. By writing them out, I review them in my mind and provide the student with a way of organizing the material that works.

I always try and grade students work and hand it back to them immediately. I find that they know the class will be better engaged and understand errors they have made. Is it ever acceptable to not return grades immediately?

I have found that there are many ways to get students involved in classroom learning. The areas I focus on are using all of the different learning styles. What methods do you find best to achieve active student learning?

I use power points only as a guiding tool for my lecture or demonstration. I relate to my students by giving them real world situations that I've experienced throughout my career. I teach them that they will have choices for their career in hospitality and that not all avenues are for everyone.

In the culinary profession it is very important that instructors have years of experience in their field of expertise. How valuable are instructors with little to know industry experience? What do they offer to their students if they can't share real world experience? How do non experienced instructors teach the reality of the industry if they haven't done it themselves?

Formal assessment assess students work based on performance and usually issues a grade. Sharon

Basic Knowledge is factual knowledge leading into conceptional and procedural knowledge

I have found it helpful to have all of my instructors make lesson plans. This has given them a guideline to follow and has helped the classes flow more smoothly. Sharon

If you use a paper grade book or have to calculate the grading on some assignments before entering them in the grade book, I recommend using Microsoft Excel. With basic knowledge and an understanding of calculating sums, totals, and percentages; I believe you will find Excel to be a real time saver. In most cases, you just need to enter the grades and Excel does all the calculating for you. Even though I use an electronic grade book, I still use Excel to compile data from other electronic scoring systems, in which I have to calculate a grade that I would manually enter into my grade book. Keep in mind that a lot of online testing and lab applications allow you to port the results into programs like Excel via a .CSV file.

An important part of releating to students involves learning their names. What other areas in the classroom can we relate to our students?

One of the biggest assets an instructor can have is flexibility. At least once a week a form of technology that I want to use in the classroom is unavailable, broken or for whatever reason I'm not able to access it. I always have to be sure to have a back up plan to the technology that I want to integrate into my classroom.

Because I teach general education courses it is very important for me to ensure the students understand what they will be taking away from my course, and why it's important for them to learn the material provided. Many don't see the value of general education courses so it's my job to show them.