While alot of this unit's content was familiar, it was supported by good research and was a great reminder of some important steps for getting students to remember content. The suggestion to reinforce content through review (what's been covered) and preview (anticipate what's to come) was familiar and, I thought, apt. In public speaking, we say "preview, view, review" for your audience - that look back and look forward allows students to download previous content, reboot their attention spans and prepare for new material. I particularly appreciated the concrete tidbits of research - eg, 2-4 topics in 30 minutes - that offer practical "on the ground" reminders for improving student success.

I find board games to be an excellent source of active learning in the classroom.

It gets hard when you have one or two students that are having trouble and are slowing the class down. I try to give them special assignments to help them learn the material.

Personally I enjoy using powerpoints, dry erase board, hand-outs, and any materials for the subject that the studen t could put their hands on. I also employ pics and videos to try and hit all learning styles. My classes have been very responsive.

I find that if I tell my students how much I have learned from teaching a course it will inspire them and also make them realize that they, too, will not know everything and that is okay. I also tell my students that I do not know everything and if you ask me a question I do not know we will figure out together or I will ask them to do some research on their own. They can then share with me only or also with the class!

I enjoy being able to make answering a question fun in my class. I call this technique phone a friend, pass the ball, or a life line. It seems to make the students more involved. For example, I may ask Sarah a question and she may know a portion of the answer and not the full complete answer. At that point I say, " Would you like to phone a friend?" , "pass the ball?" or get a life line?". This technique has been the most promising for my students and I to have harmony as a unit.I enjoyed this lesson because it also helped me to start restructuring the way I may ask certain questions. Excellent!

I recently instructed a student that cannot hear but requires sign langauge help in the classroom. Our school has given two instructors to assist during class with delivering sign langauage and the student is wonderful and succeeded in the class very well. This shows that students with disabilities can be successful.

I believe beginning this general education classroom requires advance preparation, objectives and topics written onto the white board, and possibly handouts for student note taking. I instruct by presenting the basics, then walking around the classroom as students work on computer assignments from myitlab.com. I encourage students to work with one another (on skill-based projects,, not exams) and raise their hand when they need to stop me for assistance. This information in this modular is a perfect reminder that I need to continue teaching as I have been, oh, with a smile, too! :)

It's overall easy to motivate students who want to learn and have a passion for the field they have chosen. What tools do you use to motivate those who are uncertain about the career path they've chosen? We have many students who feel culinary is an easy profession and cooking has to be fun so they enroll. Their passion and desire to work hard are not there. The food ntwork portrays cooking as fun, glamorous,easy and you can amke a lot of money. All these are far from the truth for most culinarians. What can we do for these students?

I have ready many of your posts and agree with most of the comments. I have found that some adult learners do not want to share their disability with me unless pressed. For example, I had a student who was easily upset and hated exams. I offered to tutor her, but she was very hard to reach and extremely defensive. Finally, during one of the exams she was in an absolute panic mode, and I asked to see her outside. I told her I knew she was very private about her personal life, and I wouldn't want to intrude, but was it possible she had a learning disability? She immediately told me she didn't do well on exams and was dislexic. I gave her extra time on her exam, and it changed her entire attitude about me and the class. We added her disability to CampusVue to aid other instructors. I think students tell us about their disabilities when they want us to know and on their own timetable.

One strategy that I have found positive is to visit the class that will be advancing into my classroom. This visit is usually made near the end of the course during a time where the class is between assignments and lab activities thus avoiding any impact to their progress, but allows time to become familiar with the class members. I hold the visit to five minutes or so, and keep it up beat to hopefully reduce any apprehension about the "next" instructor.

General education assessments should include the identification of students' ability to do critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication. I teach Sociology, which is a gen ed class & the exams include the assessment of the basic academic skills of reading, writing, and computation.

I provide my students with a studyguide prior to the exam so that they can study efficiently. Some instructor may think that there is no reason to test students even you are giving them the information for the exam, prior to the exam. I am still assessing their knowledge of the material. I may tell them for example, how sociologists define gender socialization. However on the exam, the question is a case study that they must label as such. They also have essay questions that they must complete in written format. This also assesses their understanding of the course content by explaining it through written format and applying to their life with the use of a persoanl example. It works well, and I am confident that they have a good understanding of the material.

I teach Socioloy, which is very discussion based. Students enjoy sharing their opinions. However there are students who do not like to participate for fear that they will be judged or labeled when they express your thoughts or opinion. After some information, fact or statistic is presented, I use a polling question as a discussion spring board. Once those who are more comfortable participate, I ask for a show of hands on who would choose A B C or D as their answer. I then ask one of the quiet students to tell me why they chose that as their answer. Even if they only say a few words, they were engaged for a moment. It also showed them that I care to hear their thoughts or opinion. It may encourage further participation in future classes.

I teach in a culinary school, I supervise and discuss with my students as they are working and at the end of the day we discuss the successes and failures of the day. We discuss why it was a success and how to improve the failures.

I think its easy to hit the different learning styles in the course I teach which is Sociology. I agree with the statement that learning styles affects how a person learns, acts in group settings,participates in classroom discussions, solves problems. Therefore, I utilize powerpoint, refer to case studies in the book, show a videos that relate to various topics within the chapter, and use group activities & exercises. Its how we perceive, gather and process information. Everyone has different ways of learning. Knowing what your students learning styles are will make learning easier therefore making it more enjoyable for them to learn, which makes the instructors job less stressful.

When meeting the class for the first time I find it very difficult sometimes to remember their names especially if I have a large class so I will keep saying their name when i am needing an answer or if the have a question I have them repeat their name and by day 2 I can remember who is who

I feel that the instructor should always be in the classroom at least 15 minutes prior to student arrival to make a positive impression to the student. It shows that you are eagerto teach and ready to take on the day

I arrive an hour before class so I can get some coffee, sit down and go over what I will be doing with my class. I try to think of a good (clean) joke to get them to wake up. I go over attendance and grades before class starts. I tell my students that "If your not 15 minutes early your late" Vince Lombardi

As mentioned about students leaving their personal belongings in a seperate area. Can this be affective with cell phones? Has it been proven that students can learn better without the interruptions of a cell phone or feeling that every minute they need to check a text message. How can we tkae this current generation of student and make them feel comfortable without their cell phones for a class session?