How do you avoid closed questions?

If adult attention spans are 15-18min, how often should one give breaks during a 2.5 hour long class? and how long should break be?

I find this topic interesting in so many ways. It brings to mind Jungian psychology and aspects of personality preferences, particularly the difference between sensory vs. intuitive types. The difference between sensory vs. intuitive is HUGE because it has everything to do with how we perceive our surrounding world and the impact our surroundings have on us. In school, I simply could not understand how my classmates found note cards beneficial. I felt like they were a huge waste of time, fragmented, & confusing, but for others they worked. Personally, I would cram as much information as possible on one sheet of paper in small print to study. It really was perplexing to me for quite some time. Later, I discovered the differences between personalities, learning style, and perceptions. Do you prefer to see parts of the whole to make sense of the big picture (sensory), or do you prefer to see the big picture before identifying its parts (intuitive)? You might ask, what does this have anything to do with learning? Well, knowing that your students have different preferences will help you extend necessary and varying resources to them. For instance, if giving a PowerPoint lecture make it available in two formats: 1. Slides & 2. Outline form. When giving suggestions for studying or reference materials, give options for either study resources available to the sensory types (i.e. note cards or flash cards) or intuitive type (i.e. outlines/summaries). Any additional thoughts or suggestions?

What other resources are best to use in courses without textbooks? I am concerned about copyright infringements and other issues in trying to gather common material for the students.

While lecturing does it hurt to move around the room, not a lot but kind of a casual stroll around different areas of the room?

Can you be too firm in your expectations on the first day of class?

What do you find to be a good way to redirect students to get them back on task in a lab environment?

I am a new teacher, and I was wondering about the effect of using the students last name to address them in class and what effect it has. I usually address people as mr jones or miss smith can I do that with students or will it cause a problem?

Use a roll of toilet paper, have each student take a few pieces, for each piece they take they have to tell something about them selves....

The most important part of teaching is that you are on time and you use your time to teach the course outline.

I am really enjoying this Module but I have got to say lately I've been faced with students that do not want to do the work and are uninterested in learning. Alot of these excersices discussed I see as wonderful if the student is excited and prepared. How do I motivate a class full of negativity?

I incorporate this by asking the students a question at the beginning of the class. If I want to be different, I will have the students write down 1-3 questions from the notes with the answer and then we pass the questions around. Keeps the students studying and allows me to see where they are in their class.

I ask everyone a question at the beginning of the class to challenge them to keep up on studying. I let everyone know at the beginning of the course that this will occur. I also let them know it is not designed to "pick" on the students, but to challenge them to stay current on studying. if the student does not know the answer then we have the ability to move on or have the student look up the answer in the notes.

Hello, I just recently started my first adjunct position. I was hired rather late in the process -- only received my textbook and syllabus for the course I'm teaching 3 days before classes started. I'm finally at the point where I'm not feeling completely frantic about preparing, but I also feel that I am unable to devote as much time as I would like to preparing in some instances. Fortunately, a detailed syllabus was provided for me, so I have been working off of that. But do you have any pointers on how I can better prepare for classes? Currently, I'm reading the chapter myself, pulling what I think is pertinent information and using the instructor resources to put together a PowerPoint for the lectures. But at the same time, I feel that I'm sometimes doing a disservice to the students because I don't have the time to supplement the material. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I can't help but notice that the great majority of my past professors were skilled at presenting lectures but lacked the essence of what I believe makes a professor/instructor really stand out: ENGAGEMENT. I can count on one hand the top professors that I have had throughout my college career that have mastered this skill. They are the instructors that make you excited about coming to class. They get your wheels turning upstairs, and you leave simply blown away by how much can be taught in one hour! As for the others…resorting to expensive coffee with extra shots of espresso and plenty of doodling scratch paper are mandatory to make it through. Going through the same bland PowerPoint lecture class after class (that could have been printed out and studied outside of the classroom) is mindless. Variety, passion, excellence, drive, enthusiasm, these are just some of the words that come to mind when I think of the very few professors that stood out as master-classes in instruction.

What is the most exciting thing you have done ont he first day of class?

I find role play to be a good tool in the class room what is your experience?

It can be challenging to work with student's with this problem but not impossible once you understand what their problem is you can work one on one with that student to help understand the material that being presented

This particular experience show's the student's that you are comfortable with the material that you are sharing with them

I find putting student's into groups help them to develop critical thinking among themself's