When going through other education classes I have heard even shorter time spans for attention. I do find that given the self interest to a particular topic, I can attend to it more or less than the 15-18 minutes. I like the idea of changing things up frequently. Even if you have a 50-minute lecture to give, there is no reason why you cannot break it up wit a question/answer time, or a relevant demonstration. Sometimes just a stretch-break can help to wake students up and get them re-engaged in the learning. What are some ways you have used in your classes to help break up long periods of instruction?

I always like to start my classes with an opening activity that gets the students involved. Often I will use a short writing assignment (a paragraph or less), and have the students stand and share in the class. I find this opens discussions and helps to gage student attitude for the session. This also helps students who are shy to overcome their fears of presentation. What are some of the things you do as opening activities in your classes that you have found to work well, or maybe something you would never try again?

In one of the Harvard Business video clips the professor mentioned trying to reach the head (intellectual learning), the heart (passion), and the gut (action) when instructing to students. As a student of brain research to some degree, I find this to be true. The more we can reach the students, especially emotionally, the more they are likely to engage and remember what is presented. What are some ways you can think of to engage learners at either the head, the heart, or the gut; or all three for that matter?

Our college is career focused. Although we have detailed curriculum materials it is very important that the materials remain up to date. This is one of the great advantages, as I see it, to our part of the educational industry. Staying abreast of currrent trends in industry and education helps and instructor to pass that knowledge on to his or her students. What are some ways you use to keep up to date in your subject areas?

I appreciated the breakdown of the five C's of instructors being: Credible Candid Compassionate Committed Clear To my mind, they are all important, but we could each probably believe one is the most important. If I had to pick one, I would probably go with "Credible." Once an instructor loses credibility with the students, it is a very difficult thing to gain back. What would you pick as the most important and why?

I have found that by moving around the room, and constantly keeping eye contact with my class. keeps them interested in the course material I am presenting during lecture. teaching at a technical school the students can't wait to get into lab and start working on thier lab tasks. So making lecture more interesting, get's the students more involved with lecture.

Does anyone know the most effective way of asking true and false questions with out having them considered "trick questions"?

Let students role play,by changing places being Service Manager,and Customer. Will give them experience from both sides of the fence....

Our tests we give to students at our campus are already written and we cannot modify them, so as far as testing goes, we really can't do much other than evaluations during lab, or asking questions to make sure they retain the information or tasks covered.

This topics was interesting. Great topics on how we as instructors can use thetools to motivate adult students was a topic i took great intrest in especially since out population consist of adult learners.Every aspect from developing the communication skills to helping students understand material helps the adult learner to have better communication skills, helping the student write and speak better.

We have a little bit of a problem with helping some students with their disabilities within my organization. The reason being as that we are not allowed to ask them of their disability, but only to accomodate them with what ever their letter that they are supposed to present to the instructor at the begining of class. Most of our accomodations are for "test reads only". With that being said, sometimes it is hard for an instructor to know what extra help to give when we are technically not allowed to ask the student, but we can only observe how they may be performing.

Once per rotation, I try to have a class competition where I split the calss randomly and ask questions to each team. This allows complete class participation on each question and is a fun activity.

I always attempt to have the students make their groups based on the concept of helping one another. I will actually make mention to them that sometimes all the best students in the class in one group may not necessarily be the best outcome for their education. I will explain to them that helping others within your lab study groups at times can actually better help you retain your education as well as the obvious of helping the others with theirs.

we cannot become a role model and progress if we do not have students in the classroom.in fact it takes 2 to tango.. we have much to learn from them as they have from us, and a good understanding of human nature becomes a necessity if we have to be successful..

Motivation and support as well as more time and attention is essential for the students who has learning disabilities.

Absolute right thing he told in video.Every body focus on star student,actually try to convert B players into A player

Monitoring is very very essntial to keep them engaged and force them to participate in discussion.

I always move around in between student and keep eye contact with maximum nuber of student is possible.this is the best way to kep them concetrated

I am nervous about my ability to learn names. Is there any tricks of the trade I should know about?

Should a student be given a syllabus in their native language? with a multicultural society many students English is their second language. They are citizens and should be given equal opportunities. Let me know what you think. Paulette